India Has Limited Freedom of Speech

Rest in peace, Balasaheb. May you continue to roar in the next life as you did in this one. Balasaheb Thackeray was a pioneer in Indian politics. He can be credited into bringing unabashed Hindu Nationalism into mainstream politics. In that respect he will be remembered forever.

I am a great admirer of his even though I did not agree with him all the time. A great man, he still was a subset of Mother India. No one is greater than Mother India and the system which represent her. Our democracy is second to none in the sheer number and the diverse nature of its followers. It is our crowning achievement, our rotten politicians notwithstanding. One of the hallmarks of any democracy is the freedom of speech and expression. It has to be preserved at all cost. Short of threats, deadly or otherwise and yelling fire or any such criminal mischief, we should be allowed to say whatever we want to say and the system should protect us. Just because Hindu nationalists say negative things about the Gandhi family on the social media, the government should not go out and ban facebook or twitter accounts as the Congress governments are wont to.

By the same token, if the leftists, pseudo-secularists or the religious minorities say something nasty about our heroes then should be allowed to do so and be protected by the full power of the law. Arrests of the two girls in the aftermath of Babsaheb’s demise were disgraceful. The decorum and the control that the Shivsainiks showed at the funeral should have continued afterwards and the girl’s uncle’s clinic should have been left alone.

That said, we should never ignore the ground realities of our country. We cannot become like the US overnight. Even the most corrupt of our politician is likely to be very sensitive about him or her and resort to violence to protect his or her “image”. The religious minorities are even more sensitive, if that were possible. We all should realize that India has very limited free speech and breaking that unsaid rule can have serious to dire consequences. The system favors the powerful, judiciary is slow and mobs cannot be controlled. We should strive for total freedom of speech but should never forget where we are.