Taslima's travails
Finally, Taslima has had enough of "athithi devo bhava" of the "incredible" Indian government. She has decided to choose the cooler climes of Canada or the US than remain in the hot house in Delhi. She feels her creativity is wilting by the day, in fact, every hour she spends away from her beloved Kolkata.
Fair enough. Our Taslima may have her faults. She may not be anywhere close to the best writers in Bengali and pushes her point a bit more forcefully than the "Bhadralog" would have liked. But that doesn't quite explain why the left barons felt that she has to be kept out of the city for good with just one loony protest against her.
The question is, why should governments turn weak-kneed the moment a mob hits the streets protesting against this or that? Especially works of art, literature or cinema. Instead of laying down the law to protect fundamental rights of speech and action, why should the ill conceived views of a few hold majority opinion hostage? How many of the worthies who constitute the mob have read any serious piece of literature, admired an artwork or appreciated cinema as an art form.
In any case, each individual has got a choice. He or she does not have to read or listen to anything they do not want to. It is not as if M F Hussain's nude art works are on display in huge billboards at every traffic junction or Taslima's books are selling like hotcakes and every Muslim who reads it suddenly suffers a loss of faith and switches over to some other religion.
It is the duty of the government, especially in a democracy, to stand up to such attempts at mobocracy by laying down the rules in a firm manner. It should remember that mobs comprise of cowards who take advantage of the anonymity it offers to do what they want. In these days of modern communication equipment, it is easy to track down perpetrators of violence and mete out exemplary punishment. Playing safe by bowing to the wrong dictates of any one or any community will erode authority and in the long run result in anarchy.
Fair enough. Our Taslima may have her faults. She may not be anywhere close to the best writers in Bengali and pushes her point a bit more forcefully than the "Bhadralog" would have liked. But that doesn't quite explain why the left barons felt that she has to be kept out of the city for good with just one loony protest against her.
The question is, why should governments turn weak-kneed the moment a mob hits the streets protesting against this or that? Especially works of art, literature or cinema. Instead of laying down the law to protect fundamental rights of speech and action, why should the ill conceived views of a few hold majority opinion hostage? How many of the worthies who constitute the mob have read any serious piece of literature, admired an artwork or appreciated cinema as an art form.
In any case, each individual has got a choice. He or she does not have to read or listen to anything they do not want to. It is not as if M F Hussain's nude art works are on display in huge billboards at every traffic junction or Taslima's books are selling like hotcakes and every Muslim who reads it suddenly suffers a loss of faith and switches over to some other religion.
It is the duty of the government, especially in a democracy, to stand up to such attempts at mobocracy by laying down the rules in a firm manner. It should remember that mobs comprise of cowards who take advantage of the anonymity it offers to do what they want. In these days of modern communication equipment, it is easy to track down perpetrators of violence and mete out exemplary punishment. Playing safe by bowing to the wrong dictates of any one or any community will erode authority and in the long run result in anarchy.
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