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RIGHT & WRONG The age of intolerance Swapan Dasgupta 29 January 2012, 02:35 AM IST Share on Hotklix
Jan 29, 2012, 02. There are many

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There are many in the government who are absolutely chuffed at the ease with which Operation Stop Rushdie was successfully played out. First, the Rajasthan Police (or was it the Central authorities?) informed the organizers of the Jaipur Literature Festival that sundry assassins financed by the Mumbai underworld were on the prowl. That ensured Salman Rushdie didn't check-in for his flight to India. Secondly, once it was known that the organizers would use technology to circumvent the unofficial Congress ban on Rushdie, the local hotelier and the organizers were deftly arm-twisted into cancelling the video linkup for fear of violence and police indifference. Yes, there were voices of liberal outrage at the subversion of democratic freedom. However, since the indignation was confined to a class that rarely bothers to vote, has no worthwhile electoral influence and, if the chairman of the Press Council is to believed, still harbours a colonial mindset, it could be safely ignored in favour of the satisfaction among those who, apart from being more authentic, also control powerful Muslim vote-banks. What was witnessed last week was cynicism perfected into a fine art by a government that has excelled in the art of subterfuge. Where the regime wants to offset protests against free speech, it does so unapologetically. In Punjab, crowds at a public meeting to be addressed by Rahul Gandhi were compelled to leave their shoes and any black apparel outside the venue for fear that these could become either missiles or black flags. In Jaipur, however, the authorities chose to be cowed down by the threat of small groups of demonstrators. The champions of intolerance won in Jaipur because their victory was facilitated by the might of the state. Yet, many apologists argue that the events of last week don't necessarily imply any waning commitment to democratic freedoms. Rushdie, it is said, was the exception because his mere mention sends many Muslims into an apoplectic tizzy. And, say the apologists, the timing of the celebrated author's visit was all wrong. If there had been no elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress regimes at the Centre and in Rajasthan may well have been more inclined to showcase India as a place where the bar of intolerance is generously high. Recent trends suggest otherwise. It is becoming increasingly clear that the kerfuffle over Rushdie was no unfortunate aberration but part of a bid to replace an argumentative society with a regulated democracy where freedom is circumscribed by constant reminders of the limits to freedom. The attempts to muzzle free speech in the social media and the cyber world can no longer be wished away as obsessive concerns of individual ministers with particularly thin skins. Since September 5 last year, the department of information technology has held five meetings with organizations such as Facebook, Google, Blogspot and Yahoo to force a code of conduct governing their content. It is not that the government is concerned with lewd pictures and pornography. It has demanded that the social media sites "scan and screen/filter the content hosted on their websites for objectionable content about Constitutional authorities, council of ministers in Centre/states, political leadership, public authorities and disable them on their own or as and when brought to their knowledge in writing by an authorized

representative of such authorities." A public interest litigation protesting the "damage (to) the secular fabric of India" is also before the Delhi High Court. In plain language, the government is demanding the right of pre-censorship of all potentially "objectionable content" relating to public life and politics--a demand that has striking resemblance to the censorship practiced by the authorities in China. It is, of course, possible to dismiss these moves as trivial concerns that will affect a minority of internet loonies who are unaware of the niceties of parliamentary decorum. The only problem is that when the right to determine what is objectionable is given to people who are unaffected by the charms of pluralism, the consequences can be very dangerous. The Rushdie affair last week has vividly demonstrated that for a section of the political class, the right to offend does not count as a permissible freedom. India is being forced into a mental straitjacket. 1 Comment | Post Your Reviews. Rated 4.50/5 (16 Votes)

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Dr. D. Prithipaul (Canada) says: January 29,2012 at 05:29 AM IST It needs to be recalled that the original source of religious and cultural intolerance lies in the Old Testament. Due to the spread across all continents of the 3 revealed religions, this semitic intolerance now strikes even a tolerantly benevolent civilisation like India. What is dangerous is, due to the fear of vote banks, the slow, inexorable islamisation of what is left of the classical Indian culture. No one has as yet started to engage a meaningful dialogue about why those who, even after a 1000 years of coexistence with the pacifism of the Jainas, of the Buddhists (which they obliterated), with the tolerance of the Hindus, with a pluri-religious tolerance written in stone on the cave walls of Ajanta, They still pour out only anger, violence and threats of murder over such a minor "offense" as Rushdie's paragraph. Can it be that there is not even a single Indian Muslim who does not still feel as part of their glorious history punctuated the destruction of so many libraries. centres of high learning? On what do they hase their easy offense over a word, a caricature, when they do not experience the slightest scruple over so much of the splendour they have subtracted from the culture of India? How long can they continue to plague

the Indian democracy. with the arrogance of a religious sensitivity founded on the belief of a God who actually does not exist. Is there not at least one single Indian Muslim who benefits from the secular Constitution to agree with French author Stendhal's statement: "The only excuse of God is that he does not exist!"? Without the Muslims India - it must be said - would be more tolerant, more peaceful, more beautiful. They have added nothing to Indian civilisation, except intolerance and the holy duty of killing as the only response to difference of thought , of belief, of deed. The vote bank acts on Indian polity as the old man riding on the shoulder of Sindbad and clasping his neck with his legs with the desire to suffocate hi Agree (0) Disagree (0) Recommend (0) Offensive

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ABOUT SWAPAN DASGUPTA More Well-known journalist and political commentator Swapan Dasgupta has worked for many leading Indian publications, including The Times of India. He thinks the Right is an endangered community in India's English-language media. "Right & Wrong" is one of the few voices of the community.

The views expressed in Right & Wrong are the authors own. POPULAR TAGS

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