New Delhi: If Arundhati Roy has one unfaltering global amplifier, it is Hollywood actor and activist John Cusack. The High Fidelity star shared on X a recent essay by Roy, ‘Cockroach Democracy: Unarmed and Dangerous’, captioning it: “Beautiful news from my favourite fellow cockroach.”
In the polemical essay about the ongoing student protest in Delhi, published in The Wire, Roy writes of how “the cockroaches took the capital city by storm” to reclaim “our dignity as a people and as a country”.
Describing the Cockroach Janta Party mobilisation and police crackdown on NEET protesters marching towards Parliament on 20 July, Roy argues that the movement has grown beyond anger over exam paper leaks into a broader resistance against the government.
“It is vulnerable young people up against a vicious, vindictive government that has shown itself to be merciless to those who oppose it,” she wrote.
It comes as no surprise that Cusack came out in support of Roy. Long known for his activism on free speech and government surveillance, the actor has served on the board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation since its founding in 2012 and has been an outspoken defender of whistleblowers including Edward Snowden and Julian Assange.
Also Read: TV news showed the CJP protest live. Then it rewrote the story on primetime
The Roy-Cusack connection
Over the last decade, Cusack has repeatedly used his platform to showcase Roy’s essays and other commentary.
In 2014, he persuaded Roy to join him and Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg in Moscow for a series of conversations with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden on surveillance, state power and free speech. Those discussions formed the basis of the 2016 book Things That Can and Cannot Be Said, co-authored by Roy and Cusack.
The actor has made no bones about his admiration for Roy, once referring to her as “a space creature from a more evolved planet than Earth.” She too has described him as a “true comrade”.
Over the past two years alone, Cusack has repeatedly shared Roy’s essays and speeches on X, including her PEN Pinter Prize address and her writings on Gaza and Palestine.
'No Propaganda on Earth Can Hide the Wound That Is Palestine: Arundhati Roy's PEN Pinter Prize Acceptance Speech
Things that can and cannot be said ⬇️ https://t.co/f41bMlO9V8
— John Cusack (@johncusack) October 13, 2024
In 2023, when authorities approved prosecution against Roy over a 2010 speech on Kashmir, Cusack highlighted the development on X.
Cusack has also commented repeatedly on political developments in India. He voiced support for students after the police action at Jamia Millia Islamia during the anti-CAA protests in 2019 and backed the farmers’ protests in 2020 and 2021.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)