MF Hussain was praised…. Salman Rushdie was ridiculed….and now Aseem Trivedi is seditious.
Cannot we have a same set of laws for everyone? Netas looting lakhs of crores are not traitors, MF Hussain painting nude Hindu deities is not blasphemous, but Rushdie and Trivedi are. WHY? Unfortunately Freedom of Speech is always attacked by Fascist mentality, which unfortunately is present in India also.
I remember my days at college. We had our problems. Every college students have problem with their authorities. This is nothing new. But since we had Indian Army as our authority (arian) we were denied to speak. There were goons in our college, but Army authorities told us to bear with them and even threatened us with dire consequences if we speak. Their excuse was that Army discipline does not tolerate complaints. Army means “SHUT UP AND FOLLOW”. We once tried to meet the higher authorities and they came to our college also. But only to say “…Law is an ass ‘and Lawyers are _._._’”. Yes literally. The higher authorities of Indian Army told the college authorities to throw away any one who is speaking against the authority. (And I thought we are living in India not Afghanistan and the college we are studying is managed by Indian army, not Taliban. Oops!)
We had problem with the quality of mess food. SHUT UP. Girls wanted to wear their choice dress. SHUT UP. We wanted to have better sports equipments. SHUT UP. We wanted professors for our subjects. SHUT UP. We wanted to elect our Student Representative. HOW DARE YOU? (Our student representative was elected by college authorities. True Democracy).
Well that was our college. And it is going to remain same (for a long time at least). Things may get better in future. How funny is it that on one hand our college is managed by Indian army but if you go to a Professor (most of them, sic) and say “Bhagwan Bhindrawala Amar Rahe”, you will get full marks in internals as well as full attendance. But if you dare speak ‘Hail Operation Blue Star’, you will for sure get zero in internals as well as external. (Oh! you will not be even allowed to give externals because of your low attendance). But that is defence administration which is obviously an exception in democracy. But what about civil administration – The Democracy, yes democracy, where citizens are masters and government is servant, where administration must always be managed by civilian authorities, where horses are meant to be inside stable and army inside barracks – what is happening in that democracy – which is supposedly the biggest in the world. Where the political parties are making millions and the person (Comptroller and Auditor General) who is exposing them is questioned of his integrity. Where a member of ruling political party even alleges that CAG of India has links with major opposition party? Where he is called to Public Accounts Committee and interrogated as if he was a criminal and MPs were Judges? Was Kasab also interrogated so harshly? Oh, he spat on the judge. (I heard it through media reports, please don’t charge me with contempt).
And now this Aseem Trivedi episode. I thought we only have one dictator in India (and that too in the eastern part of our country), but ah! Great we have one more in the form of Maharashtra Government. The same Maharashtra Government which has many ministers and bureaucrats involved in Adarsh scam – the army officers too. But no, they are patriots. Aseem Trivedi is traitor. The same Maharashtra Government which has leased out its governance function to a self styled Marathi godman (who has Bihari ancestors) and threatens all Biharis to flee Mumbai. He is not seditious. Why will he be? He is a true patriot like our ex-Telecom minister (who has given so much to our exchequer).
What has Trivedi done? Painted parliament as national toilet. Do you really disagree? Or you only are scared of the government and its torture agencies. We heard the famous dialogue from the movie Paan Singh Tomar, and everyone clapped, yes of course the people sitting in Parliament are dacoits. They have made this sacred place a general class toilet of Indian railway. Throw them out and you will get a temple/mosque/church or any other thing you want (I want a madhushala; anyways). The people who dare to say these things are being put behind the bars (reminds me of my college days – ‘SHUT UP’). Were we clapping for democracy or military junta in India at the time Pt. Nehru was uttering “At the stroke of the midnight when the world sleeps, India will awake for rise and freedom…”. Even Pandit ji would have been highly disappointed seeing this state of the country he fought the independence for. Once Atal Bihari Vajpayee gave severe blows to the Pandit ji’s policies in the parliament through his spear edged words. Later at a dinner hosted at the President House, Vajpayee was trying to hide himself at the back be
nches. Pandit ji caught him by his hand and brought him in front of media. He thanked him for his enlightening comments and told media that one day this young man shall be this country’s Prime Minister. Such was the respect for Freedom of Speech in the eyes of Pt Nehru. But this same government, 50 yrs down the incident, at the same venue, on the same occasion, did not even put up chairs for the opposition at the dinner. The whole opposition was made to sit somewhere at back benches (still reminds me of college).
Or you are disappointed that Trivedi painted the National Emblem with Wolves. Now let me tell you the significance of Ashoka’s emblem that has been adopted as the National Emblem by the Government of India. It symbolizes Power, Courage and Confidence. But what if the power and courage is now being used by few peoples (representing the Government) against India and the Indians. The Lions, which signify that Rule of Law has to be enforced in all directions, have now become Wolves, who actually try to kill the rule of law and socio-economic justice. Is it not the right of us Indians to understand this and make efforts to destroy wolves and restore the Lions? Is it not our duty to eliminate the corrupt who are actually prevailing in India. On one hand we have all the corrupt and tainted ministers out of jail and no one is saying them anything. CBI is openly being used to save them. The investigating agencies are moving slow against them (apparently to delay the proceedings) – Bhrastameva Jayate, and on the other hand we have common man being sent to jail for telling the truth – Satyameva Jayate.
Whose Jayate do you want? Bhrast or Satya.
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PARTH SARTHI 
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