Our Own fragile-looking, but resolute Arundhati Roy on the Bomb, Standing in the midst of a cluster of nuclear weapons of all nations( my Comments)
Reported in NYTimes: Title: Trying To wreck India's Romance with the Bomb
She went on: "If protesting against having a nuclear bomb implanted in my brain is anti-Hindu and antinational, then I secede. I hereby declare myself an independent, mobile republic. I am a citizen of
the earth. I own no territory. I have no flag."
She criticized the United States for bringing nuclear terror into the world, but then said that India's decision in May to test nuclear weapons forfeited its claim to higher ground: "We're the ones who
have abandoned what was arguably a moral position: We have the technology, we can make the bombs if we want to, but we won't. We don't believe in them."
The audience had been politely silent, some of them awaiting their chance to respond. Sandeep Sudhakaran, 19, was the first to stand up. "If Pakistan has a bomb, then we should have a bomb," he declared heatedly. "The only way New Delhi can assure itself of not being destroyed is to have a bomb."
Applause for the student was at least equal to that given the writer.
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