“You will never have a quiet world till you
knock the patriotism out of the human race”- George Bernard Shaw.
The hue and cry raised all over the
country by incidents that began in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is not
just unfortunate but also raises many questions. Anti national slogans were
raised at the programme which was organised in the university to mark the anniversary
of the hanging of Afzal Guru. Its video clippings spread over social media like
wild fire and also across every nook and corner of the country. People of all
sections of the society and country felt outraged. Slogans of breaking up India
and destroying India and “Pakistan Zindabad” cannot be defended by any amount
of convoluted logic. Any concerned citizen of the country will react in an
outraging manner.
The university has been at the centre of
a heated debate on “nationalism” versus “freedom of expression” after the
student union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested. Kanhaiya Kumar who heads
JNU’s student union was charged with sedition for his role in an event. The
campus is now witnessing a show down between those fighting for freedom of
dissent and freedom of expressions, versus those who believe that people
expressing anti-India sentiments should be charged with sedition. Freedom of
speech is not the ability to say whatever you feel like, when you feel like,
where you feel like. Protesting or propagating that you wish someone dead or
are looking forward to see a group of people dead is not freedom of speech.
I am not against having people screeching
at the top of their lungs like petulant children over non issues. After all,
having such obnoxious people is just something we need to accept in having the
right to say whatever they want in return. With that said, I do believe we need
to hold people accountable whenever they spread misinformation, lies and blatant
anti national statements. We simply shouldn’t ever tolerate such kind of acts
even if we have the liberty of freedom of speech. Everyone should be held
accountable for what one says.
The people who raised the slogans of
breaking up and ruining the country and then slip into arguments of freedom of
speech forgot that only if the country survives, then only will their
democratic rights and freedom of speech prevail. Unity in diversity is the
hallmark of a country. That is exactly why so many different thought systems
have flourished here. Who will save India from these ideas or these
nationalists if they have no love for the country? They will simple have no place to stay in
India.
Aaheli Ghose
( PG MEDIA 2015-2017)
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