A few years ago, two girls, students, were arrested for a Facebook post which allegedly hurt sentiments of Bal Thackeray followers. The government and police received heavy criticism for the act and later all the charges were dropped. After the incident, Supreme Court took serious notice of it and the government ensured they will not curb freedom of speech. Yet, last week a class 11 student was booked for sharing the post (from someone else’s wall) which allegedly was hurtful to Azam Khan. Ironically enough, according to the IPC sections, the student is booked under, the post is alleged to have a potential to cause enmity between different groups. Just in recent times, other notable ban incidences are Aseem Trivedi’s cartoons – followed by a jail term, Perumal Murugan’s novel which made him declare that the author Murugan is dead, AIB Roast – a comedy show which warned audience to leave if they think it’s not something they can handle, a talk show which held a discussion on ‘should mangalsutra be compulsory’, Nirbhaya documentary – a documentary which everyone has seen and even referenced to file case against the defence lawyers. We are a country where we have film censor board – not a film rating board, which by itself is absurd considering they block almost everything even from an adult rated movie which adults are supposed to be able to handle.
This all from a country who has freedom of expression / freedom of speech as a fundamental right. This all from a country which fought for its independence. All this makes me wonder, is the situation any different than it was during British rule? British rulers curbed freedom of expression, not surprisingly, the laws were made to rule us. Now people in power royally abuse the laws and make use of vague terms, such as in section 66A or 153A to charge common people. These are the same politicians who use hate speech, communal speech to collect votes. Now when they are criticised by commons what do they do? Make a prompt arrest, take down the material from the website, and throw away fundamental rights in a dustbin. What does the government do when this happens? NOTHING. I haven’t seen a politician coming up and speaking for free speech (with few exceptions) or speaking for the people who had to face the wrath of the system. I haven’t seen an MP or minister criticising fellow member for such act. The government does not even give slap of words let alone prosecute them for wrongful arrest and abuse of power. All this makes me ask the question Bal Gangadhar Tilak – with whom I share my birthday, asked - ‘Has the government gone crazy?’ “सरकार चे डोके ठिकाणावर आहे काय?”
The attitude of the government is only symptoms of the problem. Our real problem is the people who empower such politicians. We have proven at times that Indians become adults because they grow old but they do not become mature. We think and act in one dimension. Politicians and godmen of India receive something which is only a dream for most women – unconditional love and support. Yes! We can’t both love and criticise our leaders. If we criticise, we must be against them. There are people so devoted to their politicians that they treat them as a god. People who instead of fighting against corrupt politicians, fight for their release. People who threaten and even beat media and individuals because they published something slightly against what they think is correct according to their culture. And for what; one reason is always, ‘how can you talk about our culture when you don’t talk about the other religions’?’ I think people who got offended by movie PK are intellectually incapable of understanding it. The people who opposed the discussion on mangalsutra need to understand, if it were allowed, probably a few weeks later that channel or some other channel would have held a discussion on burka. And it was a discussion for crying out loud, no one was making it a law next day. People conveniently forget that violence is against all religions.
The act of opposing ideas by abusing, killing the person is cowardice and sure sign of incompetence. Section 153A exists because there is a difference in our heads based on race, religion, caste, language. When these differences cease to exist, India will become a lot better place. People who get offended by literature which is merely different than what’s already written about their gods, need to understand that their god with his infinite wisdom, is a lot bigger to get hurt. They also need to understand that if commenting on and amending ancient cultural practices is causing to give equal rights to women and to people belonging to a lower caste, then it is a good thing and it is strengthening the culture, not ruining it. Politicians, who think a certain Facebook post against them was derogatory, think that only because their character is fragile and their ego is sky high. Instead of targeting individuals, they should better spend that energy on their work and build a strong character. And if that’s too much to ask, I request them to at least count backwards from 100, before puppeteering the police to make that arrest.
In school, I had learned that we live in a free country. I learned that we are secular and that constitution guarantees fundamental rights. But when I think of all this it brings me to tears and makes me realise, it was another printing mistake after all. India is not free, it’s fragile.
