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| Saturday 6 September, 2008 |
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The right to speak bakwaas should be respected
Today, I came across this news item in rediff.
Jamshedpur court issues arrest warrant against Raj Thackeray I started off my blog talking about freedom of ex-pression, and how it affects everyone. No just the ones who insult you today, but also your own freedom of ex-pression tomorrow. The Raj Thackeray case is an example of that.
Here is the quote from the rediff story:
A local court on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray for his alleged provocative statement against Bihari community two months ago.
What was the actual statement? Here it is:
There are several ways to look at this issue, from different perspectives:
1. Raj Thackeray's perspective: My people are angry, they are being discriminated against, we have to make our anger very clear, and threatening to beat up Biharis is just expressing our anger. Sometimes our people may beat them up too - but that may not be my intention in saying this.
2. The Bihari's and outsiders' perspective: We are citizens of this country, and we have a right to go look for a job wherever we please. If Raj has a problem with it, he should deal with it politically. Saying that we would be beaten up is not right, and in fact it is provocative, and exhorting people to harass us. He should be arrested, thrown in jail.
I have another perspective to offer. In the words of my friend VT, it can be simply termed the 'gaali de, gaali le' principle. It suites my position as a classical liberal (not a leftie liberal. Lefties, in my own home state, are brilliant at beating up anyone who offers perspectives that offend them!).
In my view, whether Raj Thackeray is justified or not, he has a right to express his anger. And a so-called 'provocative' statement does not exist. Why? If he makes a 'provocative' statement, and people are actually provoked, the state is there to deal with it. The duty of the state is to deal with it. Not to go around censoring peoples' ex-pressions. (I will come to the state's capability to deal with it in a moment).
Now, I know that Raj Thackeray belonged to the party that started off harassing South Indians with their infamous slogan "lungi uthao, pungi bajao". (I am a South Indian.) Then, the Sena moved on to newer targets for their anger, like the Bangladeshis, then Muslims, then Christians (I am a Christian too), then North Indians, then North Indian muslims only when approaching elections, and it continues. At any moment, the only thing we can be sure about is that Sena does not want to throw Maharashtrians out of Maharashtra. Everyone else is fair game!
So why am I supporting Raj's statement which is offensive to Biharis? And might provoke to his supporters?
Because I support Raj Thackeray's freedom to make a fool of himself. In a free country, everyone has the right to be an idiot, and express his idiocy in whichever way he feels fit.
(I personally think raj is smart and this is just for popularity but thats another post)
So, let Raj offend Biharis. Provoke his followers. But it is the country's duty to control the result of that provocation. So if MNS workers go around beating people up, it is the state's job to ensure it does not happen.
But can our country control anything? Ha!
Our country can't provide toilets for people to crap - are we going to control crowds? No way. Not when we are a country which has foodgrains rotting in its godowns, and can't figure out a way to get that food to hungry, starving people. We can't do shit.
It is when a nation state can't do its job that they resort to easy fixes. Like ad-hoc laws against provocation. Because that is all we can do. A cult leader wears flowing robes and to some it looks like Guru Gobind Singh, and they are provoked! Some others are provoked when they see couples walking hand in hand! More are provoked when some cartoonists in a faraway country (whose name they can't pronounce) draws a few cartoons. And more retards from my own community think the world will crash down on their heads and everyone will abandon Christianity if Da Vinci Code is shown in Indian cinema halls. Recently, Mumbai's police was provoked enough to warn a 60-year old husband and wife against intimacy when the wife rubbed her coughing husband's back.
There is too much of provocation and provoked. And very little rspect for the individual.
It is easy to fight for values you hold dear. It is difficult to fight for values some idiot holds dear, but true classical liberals know that freedom is not only about good things, but also about freedom to offend. Civilization demands it, and saying no to it is just going back to the dark ages.
So coming back to Raj. Let him, and his uncle, and the angry ones who think all Muslims are terrorists, and the terrorists who think that all non-Muslims should be converted - let them all say what they want.
Can we hold together as a country if everyone says what they want? I doubt it. That only means that we are an immature, unstable state - and we better become stable and mature fast. And telling everyone to shut up and not kiss is not the way to grow up.
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3 Comment(s)
