Arundhati Roy: Statement on Media and Mobs

Statement on Media and Mobs by Arundhati Roy: Monday, November 01, 2010

New Delhi, October 31: A mob of about a hundred people arrived at my house at 11 this morning (Sunday October 31st 2010.) They broke through the gate and vandalized property. They shouted slogans against me for my views on Kashmir, and threatened to teach me a lesson.

The OB Vans of NDTV, Times Now and News 24 were already in place ostensibly to cover the event live. TV reports say that the mob consisted largely of members of the BJP’s Mahila Morcha (Women’s wing).

After they left, the police advised us to let them know if in future we saw any OB vans hanging around the neighborhood because they said that was an indication that a mob was on its way. In June this year, after a false report in the papers by Press Trust of India (PTI) two men on motorcycles tried to stone the windows of my home. They too were accompanied by TV cameramen.

What is the nature of the agreement between these sections of the media and mobs and criminals in search of spectacle? Does the media which positions itself at the ‘scene’ in advance have a guarantee that the attacks and demonstrations will be non-violent? What happens if there is criminal trespass (as there was today) or even something worse? Does the media then become accessory to the crime?

This question is important, given that some TV channels and newspapers are in the process of brazenly inciting mob anger against me.

In the race for sensationalism the line between reporting news and manufacturing news is becoming blurred. So what if a few people have to be sacrificed at the altar of TRP ratings?

The Government has indicated that it does not intend to go ahead with the charges of sedition against me and the other speakers at a recent seminar on Azadi for Kashmir. So the task of punishing me for my views seems to have been taken on by right wing storm troopers.

The Bajrang Dal and the RSS have openly announced that they are going to “fix” me with all the means at their disposal including filing cases against me all over the country. The whole country has seen what they are capable of doing, the extent to which they are capable of going.

So, while the Government is showing a degree of maturity, are sections of the media and the infrastructure of democracy being rented out to those who believe in mob justice?

I can understand that the BJP's Mahila Morcha is using me to distract attention from the senior RSS activist Indresh Kumar who has recently been named in the CBI charge-sheet for the bomb blast in Ajmer Sharif in which several people were killed and many injured.

But why are sections of the mainstream media doing the same?

Is a writer with unpopular views more dangerous than a suspect in a bomb blast? Or is it a question of ideological alignment?

Arundhati Roy

October 31st 2010

Hundreds of Foxconn workers arrested in India

Foxconn is a company that manufactures batteries for Nokia and if the name rings a bell there’s a reason. The company recently came to international attention because of a spate of suicides in its Chinese factories. That debacle found the company making various hallow promises and “pushing workers to sign a non-suicide “pledge.”” Sorted.

Foxconn employs around 2,500 people in India, specifically in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, and their record there is no happier than that in China. In last month's report “changing industrial relations in India’s mobile phone industry,”Good Electronics revealed a catalogue of anti-worker problems.

On page 28 of the pdf we see that Foxconn is paying less than the minimum wage, hiring workers as apprentices then sacking them when they finish their training period, and, as Supply Management point out workers are being kept in the dark about their rights.

Far more damning is the strategic anti-union approach of the company. For example Foxconn sends agents out to hire workers from far off regions, many of which it houses in its ‘hostels’ rather than hire local labour which it deems to be at risk of militancy. Where local labour is hired they are given the hardest most dangerous jobs in order to keep the level of local workers down.

Workers are consistently bullied, unable to refuse overtime or claim their statutory leave.

In summary that well known Trotskyite news source Good Electronics states that "The overall policy of Foxconn shows a preference for temporary workers, to deny right to association and to avoid collective bargaining agreements. Management practices of the company are in line with the strategy of the group of Nokia’s suppliers, creating a vulnerable workforce without the capacity to bargain for their rights."

In the face of these problems the left locally have been working together to put pressure on the government and the employers to ensure workers rights are met. An initial strike on September 23rd of factory workers resulted in a thousand arrests and the sacking of 23 workers at the plant.

This escalation resulted in an 18 day occupation, from September 27th, of over one thousand of Foxconn’s workforce demanding their colleagues’ reinstatement, an increase in wages and union recognition for Foxconn India Thozilalar Sangam (FITS). On Sunday the police raided the factory in the middle of the night and "locked up 320 Foxconn India workers along with CITU state secretary A. Soundarajan and its Kanchipuram district secretary E. Muthukumar in Vellore prison”

The most up to date news reports seem to indicate that they are still being held in prison. You can sign a petition to support them here.

The problem with the games

It seems that every major international sporting event has to have an accompanying hoo ha about chalets without toilets, stadiums without tracks or sites that are essentially just a pile of sand. Of course the London Olympic Games will be different, but all the other events - they're always beset by problems.

However, the real tragedies of these events aren't the escalating costs but the trampling of rights and social justice that takes place. While much has been made of India's inability to put together a decent athlete's village for the Common Wealth Games, much less has been made of the social cost to the surrounding population.

Whether it is the extreme security measures or the fact that all local businesses have been instructed to shut down for the opening and closing of the games. It's not as if they could sell anything to the athlete's or attendees anyway, but to forbid them to ply their normal trade to local residents is a real problem.

There's more though. The consistent use of child labour for example. The safety standards that mean more than a hundred workers have been killed during the construction of the sites. Or students evicted to make way for the games. Time and again it is the power of the state against its people, not on behalf of them.

The cost of the games was over a hundred times the original estimate coming in at over ten billion quid of the Indian government's money when it has so many living in terrible conditions of poverty. Has this money gone to alleviate that poverty perhaps? Well no - it's gone into the pockets of the rich. Less lofty folk have simply found their businesses shut, their homes evicted or worst of all their lives lost.

I know the British Press have only been concerned about how luxurious their own accommodation will be but frankly, there are wider issues. Time and again these vanity events are used to build the prestige of the host government at the expense of their people. It's only two years to go before we get our turn, it may well not be as extreme as in India, but all the same problems will be there.