Fredom

Freedom of speech. Freedom of expression.
We have been told and taught for as long as we remember that these, amongst others are our fundamental rights. Whether we exercise them or not, we like to know that we have them. I would like to think that tomorrow if I don’t like what Mr. Manmohan Singh or Mr. Balasaheb Thackeray, or Mr. L.K.Advani, or Mr. Togadia are doing or saying, I have every right to go out on the street, in public, or up to them and tell them that I disagree without being worried about being killed in the process. It would mean that I have the freedom to speak out.
Can I really do this today? Or is freedom of opinion, thought, and expression, only restricted to a few?
Do we still retain these fundamental rights? Or have they been taken away?
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and a few leaders in the BJP have asked Mr. L.K Advani to give up his position as the party chief because of a statement that he made about Muhammad Ali Jinnah in Pakistan. Irrespective of whether we agree with Mr. Advani, irrespective of whether we support his political agenda and agree with his ideology, we should all view this as a very dangerous situation. A situation in which not even a Member of the Parliament is allowed to exercise his freedom of speech, expression and thought. And we thought we enjoyed these rights!
The book “A Hindu King in an Islamic Kingdom” by James Laine was banned by the Govt. and torn to tatters by the Shiv Sena, because it had a mention of a legend questioning Shivaji’s parenthood. Vijay Tendulkar’s “Ghasiram Kotwal” was banned in Maharashtra because it portrayed a famous Maratha administrator Nana Phadanvis as a womanizer. Pradeep Dalvi’s “Me Nathuram Godse Boltoy” faced a lot of opposition and the Maharashtra Govt. denied it permission to be staged as a drama. The play “Ponga Pandit” by Habib Tanvir faced huge amounts of opposition by the BJP. Mira Nair’s “Water” was not even allowed to be filmed because it talked about prostitution of the widows in Banaras. Rakesh Sharma’s documentary film, “Final Solution” on the Gujrat Riots is not for public viewing in our country.
It is becoming clearer, that the reasons for opposition and the reasons for imposing bans, are becoming more and more mundane with each passing year. The people of the Narmada Valley protesting the court verdict in the Sardar Sarovar Project case were jailed just for protesting.
With each passing year our freedom of speech becomes less free. We recognize the threat only when it slaps us in the face, like it did during the Indira Gandhi regime. Why don’t we recognize it when we don’t leave for office when Shiv Sena calls a strike. Shouldn’t we be free to not participate in a boycott if we don’t want to? Isn’t that a basic fundamental right? The right to choose.
It is up to us to decide to wake up and save our rights from being violated in such a manner before it is too late. Today “they” stop or ban a few individuals, a few books, a few plays, a few movies. We need to clear the rust off and exercise our rights to speech and expression before we lose our right to freedom.

Tejal Kanitkar