Emotionally Speaking

This is a multimedia report of the public meeting organised by the Democratic Students’ Union [DSU] in the JNU campus at Kamal Complex [KC] Open Air Theatre [OAT] 7 August 2009, 9:30 pm. The topic was ‘State Repression and Peoples’ Resistance: Experiences from Lalgarh’. It was also an occasion for the release of DSU’s fact finding report on Lalgarh. The other two speakers were Prof. Amit Bhattacharya from Jadhavpur university and Madan Kashyap, the poet. I reached the meeting at about 10 pm only and Mr. Madan was already halfway through his speech. Mr. Madan spoke in Hindi while the other two speakers spoke in English. This post has the audio of Arundhati’s speech, audio of Prof. Bhattacharya’s speech and partial audio of Shri Madan Kashyap’s speech and some DSU banners and pics.  Please note that I have nowhere posted my comments, comments and opinion and I am reproducing it honestly just like a  ‘citizen journalist cum messenger.’ About 500 girls and boys turned up to listen to the three speakers. That’s the open air theatre behind the shopping complex of JNU [KC, OAT].

Arundhati Roy: Full Audio of her speech [hear and/or download from the link]

Click on the audio [about 30 minutes] below to hear her or just read it. The audio is not top-notch and I suggest that you hear it with full volume. If there is any problem with it you can click here to hear it on the source page where it is hosted [you can also download the audio from there]. The transcription of first three minutes of her speech follows the audio [no time for full transcription].
[audio http://ia311009.us.archive.org/3/items/ArundhatiRoyInJnuOnLalgarhIssuseAndStateTerrorism7August2009/ArundhatiRoySpeechInJnu7August2009_vbr.mp3]

The transcript of first three minutes of her speech

Very nice to see so many here….[voice not clear].  Actually I have read the report and I do want to congratulate the students who wrote it because it really does come across as a very human document and a document with which it’s pretty hard to argue because it does really make a lot of space for peoples’ voices as opposed to some preachings from some previously indoctrinated position. I really want to congratulate; very nicely written work… [*audience clap*]. It’ s very comforting to know that people from this university do go out and do listen; I think one of the troubles we are having these days is that people have just stopped listening. Everybody is full of information, full of .. , so sure of themselves and even when we appear to be listening we are not really listening! So I think that this document somehow has a lot of …. and I appreciate that. The last line of this report says that ‘Lalgarh should become a model of resistance in the rest of the country’ and… I want to talk about that actually because you  have heard quite a lot of detail exactly what are the ins and outs, what the texture of the movement and I just think that it’s pretty clear that the distinctions that are being made in the corporate press and the corporate civil society trying to separate  Adivasis and the Maoists and the governments and talk about people being sandwiched in the middle is a very apolitical position which eventually in some cases in a naive and well-intentioned way and in some cases in a pretty mala fide and not at all well-intentioned way but I do …..[voice not clear] support the status quo and then people talk of peace and what that kind of peace ends up meaning is ‘can you peacefully allow the corporates  to take over the land!?’ So Peace is a very contentious word!

I just want to defocus a little bit and talk about the larger scenario that is unfolding in this country. To say that we are in a very dangerous position because over a period of …. certain things have been put in place and it’s very difficult for people to understand it systemically unless they are very political people. But basically what has happened is What we think of democracy has been  emptied out and each of its institutions hollowed out and we have something of a plastic bag above our head…. Hear the audio for the rest of her speech.

Two very interesting points in her speech were (a) When P. Chidambaram was inaugurated the Finance Minister, he had explicitly expressed a desire to see 80 per cent of Indians living in cities! (b) The Dantewada SP had suggested Arundhati that his surefire solution for Naxalism is that all Tribal families should be given a TV!

On the photo below: Arundhati on extreme right, Madan Kashyap in the middle, Prof. Amit Bhattacharya of Jadavpur University second from right while the young girl on extreme left is the firebrand DSU activist, a JNU student,  who anchored the public meeting.

Audio of Speeches of Madan Kashyap and Prof. Amit Bhattacharya [Hear/download]

Click on the audio [about 73 minutes] below to listen to them. Mr. Madan’s speech [Hindi] is only partial followed by Professor Amit’s speech. Prof. Amit made many digs at the functioning CPI(M), West Bengal and openly criticised historian Irfan Habib, Sumit Sarkar and others. Click here for the original source from where you can download this audio.
[audio http://ia311325.us.archive.org/3/items/MadanKashyapAndAmitBhattacharyaOnLalgarhIssueStateAndTerrorismJnu/VOC001_vbr.mp3]

Some photos of DSU banners at the venue of the said public meeting in JNU.

Naxalbari, ek hi raasta, says the ultra-left DSU