Making a Point

In India, it’s never wise to challenge the court – the Supreme Court, in this case – unless, of course, if you are a heavyweight politician. But the person concerned here was Arundhati Roy, the quintessential rebel, who had a track record of raising her voice at anything she thought improper or indecent.

So when the Supreme Court came up last year with its ruling on the Narmada dam project, Arundhati was furious, and registered her protest by criticizing the ruling. She invited the wrath of the judiciary and was served a showcause notice in due time for contempt of court. In her now famous affidavit-in-reply, she wrote: If the Court uses the Contempt of Court law and allows citizens to abuse the process to intimidate and harass the writers, it will have the chilling effect of interfering with the writer’s imagination and the creative act itself…. it will induce a sort of enforced, fearful censorship. It will be bad for law, worse for literature and sad for the world of art and beauty.

Such heavyweight writers like Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth stood by her in defence of her position, and played their bit in their respective capacities so the Supreme Court could restrain itself from awarding any punishment to the author. In vain, of course. On March 6, the court sent her to jail, though just for a day. But in doing so, it had to activate a law made by the British, which the latter did not use during the last fifty years.

Arundhati was also fined Rs 2000 or three months of jail for criticizing the court. Of course, she opted to pay the fine. The punishment came with judges hoping that the good sense would prevail on the author, and she would be devoting her time to writing works of literature.

Since it was contempt of court on behalf of Ms. Roy, a formal excuse or suchlike thing would have exonerated her of the “offence”. Bur again it was Arundhati Roy, and needless to say that she is made of different mettle. She preferred imprisonment to apology, and on her way to jail, she told the press that she got her fear of the court’s intervention vindicated by this punishment.

Next day when she came out of the jail, she told that she would continue to criticize the court. “ I have made my point. I stand by what I said. The citizens must stand up for their rights.”

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