‘Spineless, gutless’: Arundhati Roy slams Indian Government for not condemning U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran

Acclaimed writer Arudhati Roy said she is ashamed of “how gutless and spineless our government has been”, in reference to India’s response to the U.S.-Israel attack on Iran. Speaking at a book-related event in Delhi, Ms. Roy said Iran is standing up to them while India cowers.

“Long ago, we were a poor country of very poor people. But we had pride and dignity. Today we are a rich country with very poor, unemployed people who are fed on a diet of hatred, poison and falsehoods instead of real food. We have lost pride, dignity and courage, except in our movies,” she said.

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“What sort of people are we whose elected government cannot stand up and condemn the U.S. when it kidnaps and assassinates Heads of State of other countries,” she asked.

“What does it mean for our Prime Minister to have travelled to Israel and embraced Benjamin Netanyahu just days before he attacked Iran? For our government to sign a grovelling trade deal with the U.S. that literally sells our farmers and textile industry down the river, only days before the U.S. Supreme Court declared Mr. Trump’s tariffs illegal; for us to now be given ‘permission’ to buy oil from Russia. What else do we need permission for? To go to the bathroom? To take a day off work? To visit our mothers?” the author further asked.

Ms. Roy said every day U.S. politicians, including Donald Trump, “mock and demean us publicly, and our Prime Minister laughs his famous, vacuous laugh and hugs on”.

“At the height of the genocide in Gaza, the government of India sent thousands of poor Indian workers to Israel to replace expelled Palestinian workers. Today, while Israelis take shelter in bunkers, it is being reported that those Indian workers are not allowed into those shelters,” she said.

“In our twisted, toxic movies, our celluloid heroes strut on, winning phantom war after war, dumb and over-muscled, fueling our insatiable bloodlust with their gratuitous violence and their shit for brains,” Ms. Roy said.

“Some of you will remember how we used to joke about that florid, overblown Chinese communist term, 'Running Dog of Imperialism’. But right now, I’d say, it describes us well.”

Stating that the attack by the U.S. and Israel on Iran was unprovoked and illegal, Ms. Roy said the attack has rendered three beautiful cities of Tehran, Isfahan and Beirut to flames. “It is a continuation of the U.S.-Israeli genocide in Gaza. It’s the same old genocidaires using the same old playbook. Murdering women and children. Bombing hospitals. Carpet bombing cities. And then playing the victim.”

She said Iran is not Gaza. “The theatre of this new war could expand to consume the whole world. We are on the brink of nuclear calamity and economic collapse. The same country that bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki could be readying itself to bomb one of the most ancient civilisations in the world. Any regimes that need changing, including the U.S., Israel and ours, need to be changed by the people, not by some bloated, lying, cheating, greedy, resource-grabbing, bomb-dropping imperial power and its allies who are trying to bully the whole world into submission,” she said.

Ms. Roy’s memoir Mother Mary Comes To Mewas published in 2025.