When I say that you cannot be proud of something you are born in or with unless you contribute to it, including religion and the nation, I am asked, “So you don’t get goosebumps during the national anthem?” This is not the response of only the rightwing, but also centrists, and libertarians. My goosebumps for anything are a personal matter. Flashing fidelity is an insecure reaction, in personal relationships and in patriotism.
When a political cartoonist from the anti-corruption movement shows the Indian Parliament as a toilet bowl, should not the response be the same? If he depicts the symbols of the Indian Constitution in a manner that insults the symbols rather than pulling up those who abuse it, then why is he held up as an example of freedom of expression?
Aseem Trivedi is arrested. He refuses a lawyer. He has nothing to say in his defence.Reportedly, “he prefers to be jailed than live in a farcical freedom where activists are targeted and freedom of speech is denied”.
The farcical freedom he talks about has occupied grounds and done little else. IAC cannot take credit for any expose of scams. His stance is no different from the cries of “jail bharo”. This will help the movement come back into the limelight.
We do know that sedition charges don’t stick. But those who are charged with it get sympathy and a free ticket to ‘victim’ heaven. Has anything happened to Arundhati Roy? Isn’t Dr. Binayak Sen happily sitting in the Planning Commission, appointed by the very government that had sentenced him?
When a political cartoonist from the anti-corruption movement shows the Indian Parliament as a toilet bowl, should not the response be the same? If he depicts the symbols of the Indian Constitution in a manner that insults the symbols rather than pulling up those who abuse it, then why is he held up as an example of freedom of expression?
Aseem Trivedi is arrested. He refuses a lawyer. He has nothing to say in his defence.Reportedly, “he prefers to be jailed than live in a farcical freedom where activists are targeted and freedom of speech is denied”.
The farcical freedom he talks about has occupied grounds and done little else. IAC cannot take credit for any expose of scams. His stance is no different from the cries of “jail bharo”. This will help the movement come back into the limelight.
We do know that sedition charges don’t stick. But those who are charged with it get sympathy and a free ticket to ‘victim’ heaven. Has anything happened to Arundhati Roy? Isn’t Dr. Binayak Sen happily sitting in the Planning Commission, appointed by the very government that had sentenced him?
