Gorakhpur, Mar 22 :
The dust has only just about settled down on the controversy stoked by former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju, whose blog post denouncing Gandhi as a 'British Agent' kicked up a storm.
Close on the heels of Katju's denouncement of the father of the nation, Booker-prize-winning author Arundhati Roy has launched a scathing attack on Gandhi, calling him the 'first corporate-sponsored agent' in India.
She was speaking after inaugurating the 10th Gorakhpur film festival on Saturday.
Expressing her shock at the country revering a person who has spoken and written derogatorily about Dalits, women and the poor, the famous novelist labelled such reverence deceitful.
Ms. Roy's reference to Gandhi as a corporate agent caused a stir at the venue with some among the audience on their feet, protesting and demanding that the writer retract her statements.
However, Arundhati Roy shot back that she came to this conclusion after studying profoundly Gandhi's pronouncements and writings between 1909 and 1946.
Saying that the 'corporate controlled system of the country' initiated by Gandhi has now reached the footsteps of the Narendra Modi government, the acclaimed-author lamented that it was not Modi who was ruling the country at present but industrialists like the Ambanis, Tatas, who own and control enterprises ranging from the small ones making salt to even the big media mafias.
This is not the first time that Ms. Roy has lampooned Gandhi. While taking part in a seminar in Thiruvananthapuram, the writer had courted controversy by calling Gandhi a 'casteist', holding him responsible for the widening class divide in the society.
