“I have lots of hope from Bihar being a land of struggle and movement. In the past, we have witnessed a series of sustained agitation including left movement as well as JP’s agitation here. This state has to play a decisive role in resisting the ‘autocratic rule of the fascist forces’, Arundhati Roy said here on Friday.

The author and social activist is in Patna to participate in the 11th party congress of the CPI-ML.

Talking to The Statesman in an exclusive interview, the Booker prize winner said: “There is an urgent need for all the like-minded political parties to be united to defeat the fascist forces.”

“If we don’t do it now, then we are doomed for good which would be disastrous,” said The God Of Small Things (1997) fame author, adding, the joint fight has to be strategic and tactical.

Arundhati’s another famous novel, “The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness”, is also one of best sellers.

Bihar has shown a positive move by aligning with major secular democratic forces combined with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, the Congress and all the left parties. She also hoped that the situation is likely to be better in states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

She has not recollected her memory about her last visit to Bihar. “Yes, I have visited Bihar long back, but I am not recalling the exact year or month. Bihar is perhaps one of the few states where I have least visited. I will be more than happy to visit more of Bihar in days to come”.

Talking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Gautam Adani, she said, “Desh ko chaar log chalate hein. Do bechte hein, do khareedte hain. Charo log Gujarat se hein” (Four people run the country, two of them sell it, while two others buy it. (Incidentally), all the four of them are from Gujarat).

She further said that 21 rich people in the country are controlling the wealth of 30 crore population. Quoting the recent Oxfam report, she said that 5 per cent rich are controlling 60 per cent of the country’s wealth. Similarly 30 per cent of the total food grains are stored in Adani’s warehouses while seven airports, which is 23 per cent of the total airlines. The biggest private power projects in the country are owned by Adani, she pointed out.

Talking about the distortion of history, she said our history has turned into a mythology while mythology has turned into History. Fake news has taken the shape of an epidemic in the country.

Earlier addressing a gathering, she began her address with “Lal Salaam” to the cheering crowd. “I am from Kerala. I will speak in broken Hindi,” she declared.

During her 23-minute address, she talked about the Hindenburg report, fascism, BBC documentary, capitalism and caste system. She also quoted a few paragraphs from a chapter – Graveyard Talks Back – from her book Azadi: Freedom, Fascism and Fiction.

She also said that anti-caste and anti-capitalist struggles have to come together to resist fascism.