by ARUNDHATI ROY
(right to left) Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis at the end of the US/India summit. PHOTO/NDTV
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis are in New Delhi today for talks aimed at deepening military and trade ties between India and the United States. India is the largest weapons importer in the world. The trip comes just a week after the Indian government conducted raids across the country targeting prominent human rights activists, lawyers, poets and critics of the Narendra Modi government. At least five people were arrested. Critics say the arrests are part of a broader attempt by Modi’s government to silence dissidents ahead of next year’s general election. We speak with the prize-winning author and activist Arundhati Roy. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her first novel, “The God of Small Things.” Her most recent book is a novel titled “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.”
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis are in New Delhi today for talks aimed at deepening military and trade ties between India and the United States. India is the largest weapons importer in the world. Pompeo spoke earlier today in Delhi.
SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO: Our two nations are united by shared values of democracy, respect for individual rights, and a shared commitment to freedom.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Pompeo and Mattis’s trip comes just a week after the Indian government conducted raids across the country targeting prominent human rights activists, lawyers, poets and critics of the Narendra Modi government. At least five people were arrested. The Indian government has accused them of inciting violence and having suspected links to Maoist rebels.
AMY GOODMAN: Critics say the arrests are part of a broader attempt by Modi’s government to silence dissidents ahead of next year’s general election. We go right now to New Delhi, India, where we’re joined by the prize-winning author and activist Arundhati Roy to talk about U.S.-Indian ties, last week’s raids and today’s historic judgment by the Indian Supreme Court legalizing gay sex. The court today overturned a 157-year-old colonial-era law known as Section 377. Arundhati Roy won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her first novel, The God of Small Things. Her most recent novel is titled The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.
Arundhati, welcome back to Democracy Now! Why don’t you start off by talking about top U.S. officials–
ARUNDHATI ROY: Thanks, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: —coming to firm up military ties with India, just as you and a number of critics have held a news conference after the Modi government raided critics’ homes? Explain what’s taking place in India today.
ARUNDHATI ROY: Well, I guess it’s not a contradiction, you know, because India is becoming a militarized state, and the militarization is not necessarily just aimed at countries outside, like Pakistan; it’s aimed at controlling a population, a very diverse population. And the Modi administration, Modi himself as well as many of his ministers, belong to an organization of which I have spoken many times, called the RSS, who want India to become what is known as a Hindu nation, which would involve a sort of clampdown on an array of different voices, on minorities, on people who think differently. In a way, India is a country of minorities, when you look at caste and ethnicity and religion. So, yeah, I mean, weapons import would be important to control the home population as well as the outside.
And while Pompeo and Mattis are here, maybe you would like us to keep them for you here, since they claim to be these great evangelical Christians. You know, I mean, we are marking the 10th anniversary of the massacre of Christians in Kandhamal by Hindu vigilante groups. In fact, before he became the prime minister, Modi was banned from coming to the U.S., and technically, the reason was not the attack on Muslims, but the attack on Christians, which goes on unabated. So, maybe they’d like to talk about that, too, while they’re here.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, I want to just point out the scale of the increase of U.S. arms sales to India in the last years. Arms imports from the U.S. to India rose no less than 557 percent between 2008-2012 and 2013-2017. The U.S. is now the number two weapons supplier to India after Russia.
Democracy Now for more