Freedom of expression; draw the line The Paris shootings have opened up discussions on the limits for freedom of speech in democracy and about who should decide that. Let me remind the readers of an incident that occurred in Thodupuzha, Kerala a few years back, when a College Lecturer of Malayalam had quoted a passage from a book authored by a famous Malayalam writer who is a Muslim but had to pay a huge price for it. The Islam fundamentalists had chopped off his right hand and thrown it away mercilessly. What happened after that was several tragedies for the Teacher and his family culminating in the suicide of his dear wife from depression. The family is yet to recover from the tragedy. The reason quoted by the Extremists was that the Teacher had insulted the prophet. But if thats the issue, the original author should have been punished. Another issue that comes into our mind is a cartoon in the CBSE text that pictured Nehru with a whip in hand and Ambedkar trying to frame the constitution. We were in surprise that the cartoon had suddenly acquired a new meaning after over 50 years! Cartoonists in our country have their hands tied behind their backs and will never be able to express themselves freely coz what they depict may be satire on political parties, social issues, religion or the community. They will also have to be careful not to insult these sections on a future date too! Thats really a difficult preposition!
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 02:39:57 +0000
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