President of the minor MeRA25 party and former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis angered Indian netizens after telling Indian's Prime Minister to keep his "hands off" pro-separatist author Arundhati Roy following Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena's decision to grant prosecution sanctions against her in the 2010 provocative speeches case.
Varoufakis claimed Roy was "India’s, and perhaps the world’s, finest author" and urged Indian authorities to refrain from prosecuting her.
“Mr Modi, hands off Arundhati Roy, India's, and perhaps the world's, finest author,” he wrote in his post.
Mr Modi, hands off Arundhati Roy, India's, and perhaps the world's, finest author. https://t.co/iyLbU2kKyz
— Yanis Varoufakis (@yanisvaroufakis) October 10, 2023
The recent development arose after Delhi LG Saxena approved the prosecution against Roy and former Kashmiri professor Sheikh Showkat Hussain in the case related to provocative speeches made in 2010, OP India reported.
The case was filed following a complaint by Kashmiri social activist Sushil Pandit, who alleged that several individuals, including Roy and Hussain, delivered inflammatory speeches at a conference titled "Azadi – The Only Way."
Organised by the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) on October 21, 2010, at LTG Auditorium, Copernicus Marg, Delhi.
Although two other accused individuals, Sayed Ali Shah Geelani and Syed Abdul Rahman Geelani, have passed away during the case's pendency, the legal proceedings against Roy and Hussain have continued.
The case falls under Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967. However, the LG did not grant sanctions for prosecution against the deceased accused under this specific section due to the Supreme Court's directive to keep all pending trials under Sedition at abeyance.
Varoufakis shared The Guardian article reporting on the legal action against Roy, emphasising her significance as an author and urging the Indian government to refrain from punitive measures.
MeRA25, the party Varoufakis established in 2018, is deeply unpopular and failed to gain a single seat in the Greek Parliament in this year's election or a seat in the 2019 European Parliament election.
The former finance minister was attacked in central Athens in March, suffering a broken nose, cuts and bruises.
The assault, which his party DiEM25 described as a “brazen fascist attack,” took place while Varoufakis was dining in the central Exarchia district with party members from all over Europe.
“A small group of thugs stormed the place shouting aggressively, falsely accusing him of signing off on Greece’s bailouts with the troika [the country’s bailout creditors],” DiEM25 said in a statement. “Varoufakis stood up to talk to them, but they immediately responded with violence, savagely beating him while filming the scene.”
As part of the left-wing Syriza-led Greek government, Varoufakis battled the so-called troika and Europe-imposed austerity. While the Greek administration eventually capitulated and signed a bailout agreement, Varoufakis quit government and founded a cross-border far-left political movement, MeRA25.
The Exarchia neighborhood has a reputation for being a bastion of self-styled anarchists. Varoufakis was publicly harassed in 2015 while dining in the same district at the height of the financial crisis.
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