Just watched Arundhati Roy’s interview in the Devil’s Advocate and she makes Karan Thapar look like a clueless teenager. It’s amazing to see the man giving silly arguments in defense of Buddhadeb for orchestrating the ouster of the Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen from Kolkata. How does he sustain his job? Karan’s point of view is that the poor chief minister had no choice left, that in order to prevent many people from losing their lives he had to send her away and withdraw the security given to her.
Arundhati rightly says that it doesn’t require rocket science to understand that the West Bengal government raked up the entire Taslima Nasreen issue just to divert attention from the Nandigram atrocities; the controversial book for which the alleged protests happened has been in the bestsellers list for the past four years in Kolkata and there have been no large-scale protests in the state. Then why all of a sudden there is so much chest beating against the book or whatever she has been writing?
I think it is a matter of shame for the State government to send a writer away just because it cannot control the rioting mobs. Don’t they feel embarrassed that they had to cite this reason in order to send her away? Precisely for this reason, no matter how much praise Narender Modi gets from the right wing writers and intellectuals, I strongly dislike him: that dude is a walking failure; instead of feeling proud of his “achievements” he should be totally depressed and he should be a liability for the BJP instead of an asset, no matter how many elections he can win for the party. If you cannot control riots then you have no business calling yourself the Chief Minister of the state. If you cannot control the law and order situation then why do you have the law and order machinery in your hand — give the control to someone who has the guts to control the mobs. The more excuses you give the sillier you sound. So it is highly moronic of the CPI(M) to say that they had to send Taslima away in order to contain the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. A capable government would both provide unbreakable security to the threatened person and contain the elements trying to incite violence.
As usual when Karan Thapar talked about all the artists and writers whose freedom of expression has been curtailed by the protesting mobs he only mentioned those artists and writers who have been targeted by the so-called “Hindu fundamentalists”; there was, intentionally of course, no mention of writers and artists who have been threatened by Muslim fundamentalists.
It doesn’t actually matter who is threatened and by whom but freedom of expression should be a fundamental right and it should be protected by the state by all means because when people are afraid to express themselves just because there could be retaliatory actions the society ceases to grow intellectually. If you don’t like something written or painted, well too bad, you can’t just go and bash up the person and destroy his or her creations and if you do you should get the maximum punishment available in the country. If you have a problem with the creation you can either create something contrary or take some legal action.
Sadly and tragically our successive governments always give in to the pressure of the mob whether it is the Gujarat riots, or the 1984 riots, or the banning of “The Satanic Verses” or the exile of M. F. Hussein or the violent protests in Vadodara. Our lazy governments, whether at the Centre or in the States, are always either going for the easier option or doing something that satisfies their political agendas.
I like what Arundhati says somewhere in the interview when Karan Thapar asks her whether it was right that Taslima removed the “objectionable” parts from what she had written, “What choice does she have? She is under the protection of the mafia, the mob.” By the mafia, the mob, she meant the government.
Technorati Tags: taslima nasreen, west bengal, arundhati roy, nandigram
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Suppression/repression/oppression by those in power is easier than teaching the people the responsible use of freedom.
I personally believe – although my libertarian stance on this often gets me into trouble – freedom of expression, short of violence – ought to be permitted. I do not believe in government censorship whether in India or my home country of Canada. Certainly in any country that calls itself a ‘free democracy’ people should be able to express what’s on their minds, even if it is offensive to some groups. Before I’m asked, yes, I do include speech and ideas that I deplore, whether the racism of the Ku Klux Klan and such groups in the States, the ramblings of Osama bin Laden (wherever he is) or those ridiculous Sardar jokes in India that so offend my own community. They offend me as well. But I would rather be offended and free than limit my expression or that of others. I let others know, politely, I hope, when they offend me rather than run to the courts to shut them up. If courtesy doesn’t work, I can get loud and nasty, but by limiting their free speech, I must of necessity limit my own, as well, so I leave the government, which is, at best, corrupt, out of the picture.
I insist on being free to express my own controversial beliefs – I specifically speak here of Khalistan – so how could I possibly deny that same right to others?
As a kind of an aside, I am still seething over the Indian censorship of the movie Amu. What are they afraid of? Don’t they realise that such moves make India look like a guilty, cringing, cowardly criminal in the eyes of the rest of the world? Are they really so frightened of a little bit of light being shed on a difficult topic? I guess the answer is YES. Ostrich government. *snickers*
In short, I think government trying to control the thoughts of their citizens through censorship is stupid, short-sighted and WRONG.
Thanks for letting me have my say.
Yes Mai, even I loath those Sardarji jokes because most of them are “jabardasti ke jokes” and the only, supposed, humor in them is that there is a Sardarji in the joke. I can very easily create a similar, even nastier joke (in fact many do exist) on Panditji or Gujjuji or Bihariji or Madrassi ji or whateverji.
It’s bad that Amu has been censored in India. On the contrary Parzania, a film based on Gujarat riots, has won many accolades. I wish Amu could be uploaded to YouTube. I think Sikhs should purchase the copyright of the movie and then distribute it freely over the Internet if the Indian government doesn’t lift the censorship.
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