THE BOOKER prize-winning novelist and human rights campaigner Arundhati Roy is facing the threat of arrest after claiming the disputed territory of Kashmir is not an integral part of India.
India’s home ministry is reported to have told police in Delhi that a case of sedition may be registered against Roy and the Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani for remarks they made at the weekend.
Under the Indian penal code, those convicted of sedition face punishments ranging from a fine to life imprisonment. Roy – who won the Booker in 1997 for The God of Small Things– is a controversial figure in India for her championing of politically sensitive causes. In a statement, the 48-year-old author, who is currently in Srinagar, Kashmir, refused to back-track. "I said what millions of people here say every day. I said what I, as well as other commentators, have written and said for years. Anybody who cares to read the transcripts of my speeches will see that they were fundamentally a call for justice." – ( Guardianservice)