In another incident, a cartoon in an NCERT book which showed a cartoon of Babasaheb Ambedkar. A harmless cartoon became enough of an issue that MPs from all political parties, including BJP. All cartoons are going to be removed from NCERT books now. Our democracy is now saved. Of course these books have completely wiped out mention of real incidents like the Moplah Massacre in the name of secularism. Protecting the kids is an important issue among Indian politicians. Not from poverty, hunger, abuse, ill health etc but cartoons. This is what some of our esteemed leaders said:
Kapil Sibal : 'I am of the mind that a large number of depictions in these cartoons are offensive and inappropriate for textbooks.'
Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Akali Dal MP : 'These textbooks are poisoning young impressionable minds'.
Sonia Gandhi: is said to have banged the table in approval (removing the cartoons)) when she heard that.
BJP MP Yashwant Sinha is afraid that such textbooks will 'mould the minds of students to hate politicians, politics and endanger democracy.'
In a separate incident, some Professor in Poschim Bongo had the chutzpah to make a cartoon of Mamta Bannerjee. He was arrested and treated like a criminal. However when it came to Shahrukh Khan and his scuffle with the Police, these are some of the expressions she used:
undemocratic" and a "minor" matter had been blown out of proportion.
"It is undemocratic and unwarranted.
"I think that harsh punishment has been meted out for a minor offence. The game should be taken as a game only. I am speaking not as a chief minister, but as a commoner," she said.
"This incident has been blown out of proportion.
"I was not at the spot, but what I watched or heard from TV, it is not a big issue. This is a small incident," the chief minister said.
The irony in this has to be clear to all but the TMC loyalists.
Since Didi and other politicians are well versed with what is minor or undemocratic or a small incident etc., they should know the importance of free speech in a Democracy. After all, free speech is one of the bedrocks of Democracy. In civilized and mature democracies, death threats and yelling fire in a crowded place are the only things not protected by freedom of speech. The press routinely skewers western leaders. Their personal lives are laid bare for all to see. They are mocked and humiliated on a regular basis. Yet the law so protects the people from any blowback from politicians.
Democracy and free speech give us the right to speak our mind and criticize our politicians if they do something wrong. After all, they are answerable to the aam aadmi and not the other way around. We elect them for a short period of time. We do not anoint them kings or queens. Cartoons and satires are acceptable forms of speech, cruel as they maybe. Their importance in literature and media cannot be denied by anyone except the closed-minded. If the politicians are not going to listen to us maybe they will respond to cartoons and satires. Would the Politicians rather have the aam aadmi bring out pitchforks and torches?
India is facing too many problems. Our netas and babus should focus on the real problems instead of cartoons. Banning cartoons will not make improve their opinions in the mind of the aam aadmi. In fact if any of these netas and babus find out what we really think of them then they will hang themselves in shame provided if they have any shame.
A Raja is back in the Loksabha the day after he was released from the prison for a 1.76 Lakh Crore graft. How should the aam aadmi look at this? A cartoon would be the most harmless way of expressing our anger.
An excellent article on the topic can be read at: http://www.rediff.com/news/column/cartoon-row-why-our-mps-dont-get-the-joke/20120517.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment