This is not for those who adore Ms. Arundhati Roy.

As they say, if there’s an issue, Arundhati Roy has an incorrect theory about it. This time it is the Maoists and Naxals. I don’t even have to detail what her opinion on the matter is.

Regardless, watch this episode of Devil’s Advocate with Arundhati Roy (or read the transcript here). I cannot help but immensely respect Karan Thapar after watching it.

Did you see the man’s unfaltering concentration in the face of Ms. Roy’s repeatedly falling pallu ?

On a serious note, there are the usual metaphors (followed by a smug and self-satisfied ah-ha expression .. that only Ms. Roy feels), the usual tirade against free markets, the usual lack of solutions that make sense, the usual stuff.

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For those interested, read this superb piece by Vir Sanghvi (via Sauvik) on the same issue. This is the part where he takes on the likes of Ms. Roy :

Seven, it does not follow however that just because we understand where we’ve gone wrong, we are obliged to support a Marxist or Maoist view of the world where all free enterprise is terrible, where all elections are a joke and where political power only comes out of the barrel of a gun.

It is entirely possible to sympathise with the victims but to disagree profoundly with the people who claim to represent them.

Do read the entire piece.