Many court judgements running into 200-300 pages or even more could
make a hardbound or paperback novel by themselves. If one takes time to read
court judgements in many landmark cases, those read better than or at least as
good as literary classics. This is particularly so when it concerns the
constitution or freedoms. In a somewhat adapted statement of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin
Luther King observed “One has not only a
legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely one has a moral
responsibility to disobey unjust laws”. Question here is; what exactly is
moral? For some the term “moral” means in the eyes of God and for some it
simply means “common human decency”. There are still others who believe the
govt cannot and should not decide or pass laws on issues of morality. All of
these appear to be valid beliefs, as long as they don’t threaten or violate the
freedom, life or property of others.
Lovers break up, relationships break up and marriages break up. Someone
does end up with “hurt feelings” all
the time. There is no law, and cannot be, that can heal such “hurt feelings”,
just as there isn’t a law that can guarantee “happiness”. When laws can’t heal human hurt how is it that there
are laws that claim “hurt feelings” for national symbols or even religions?
Flag, monuments, buildings, pictures of religious or spiritual leaders and so
on. Mind you, “feelings” are distinct from “physical” hurt and damage caused by
violent acts. Also, laws become just or
unjust only in a context. Cartoons and writings should be viewed from the
context of massive corruption and scams. This “I feel hurt so I want to screw
you” is a law for the insane. Jokes and cartoons in good or bad taste usually
offend someone. They are indeed intended to offend.
In a time of extraordinary corruption, scams and subversion of
institutions by the govt of the day it is natural and right for people to
protest. This may even involve breaking some laws that supposedly protect “hurt
feelings”. Aseem Trivedi is one such
cartoonist who decided to lampoon all such national symbols and some politicians
through images. If one looks at the images he drew, some are sure to find them
in bad taste and revolting. But that is precisely his objective: To revolt. A rampantly corrupt govt has
provided with him enough provocation. But he’s doing so without threatening or
violating the freedoms of others. He is not violently revolting to overthrow
the state. So the charge of “sedition” is even more absurd. If some people
ended up with “hurt feelings” they should be seeing a psychiatrist and not
filing FIRs against him. But hey, filing FIRs and legal cases is a lot better
than drawing swords and guns as some do. In normal course Trivedi may not have
been driven to such cartooning. These are desperate times. Yes, technically
Trivedi may have broken some stupid laws but in the current context of the country
such responses are not unusual.
Now, while the corrupt men and women in TV media tweeted vociferously
in support of Aseem Trivedi they refused to carry a debate or raise a storm on
their TV channels. Why? It’s because the National
Broadcaster’s Association (NBA) has issued an advisory to TV channels not
to carry the cartoons of Trivedi. Remember,
using the cartoons, howsoever offensive, for discussions and in news reports on
recognised news channels is not an offence and does not break the law. Cowards!
And they have the audacity to call themselves watchdogs! Does that sound
similar to the excuse they used in not covering the #AMS sex video episode
under some fake interpretation of court orders? No, not the video itself but at
least for 3 days the media blacked out the news itself till, inevitably, the video
went viral on the internet. Morality? Privacy? Hurting feelings? Okay!
Here’s an image from a TV channel. It’s actually a video that was aired
on the channel and then posted on its website. Oh, wait the NBA didn’t have any
guidelines or advisories about such episodes. The woman molested at Guwahati
was shown a zillion times across TV channels. Some of them didn’t even blur
images. Some blurred more and some blurred less. They didn’t think much before
flashing images of tits and cleavage. And the image on the website itself is no
different. Oh grow up they say! Tits- Good!
Cartoons lampooning parliament, Ashoka pillar or politicians – Bad! There’s a reason why I call the
NBA a union of snakes. The last thing these morons should be deciding is what
is morally right for the public.(I didn't want to use this image although I had it for long but this recent case makes it necessary).
Did I miss it? No, a little bird reminded me. Invariably, in all such
cases the Fiberals will unfailingly
bring up M.F. Hussain, the Father of
their “freedom of expression”. And
who else to recognise his freedom of art than the journalistic-bimbo? Don’t forget, she’s the one who wanted
female orgasm to be a ‘constitutional responsibility of men’.
Okay, the
tweet here isn’t a new one but from 2009. Now if at all anyone brings up MFH
against Trivedi, remember MFH had no provocation. Did he have a motive? Sure, he did.
But whether it was porn in his mind, money or art or wilfull abuse of
Hindu deities – we don’t know. But his consistent
painting of only Hindu and national
symbols in the nude can’t be passed off as art without being accused of being a
prejudiced bigot. Trivedi’s expression rudely captures corruption that affects
all Indians and hurts them. I wonder if the Fiberals will suggest that
Saraswati or Durga or Lakshmi or Bharat Mata were hurting all Indians so fair
to paint them nude. I hope not, but hey, the media morons never fail to
surprise. Do they?
The right thing to do was to file cases against MFH as someone has done
against Trivedi. Some people did and MFH claimed there were 900 cases filed
against him. So the coward runs off to some foreign land instead of facing the
courts and dies as a fugitive. In contrast, Aseem Trivedi went to Mumbai and
surrendered. He peacefully allowed the police to arrest him. He has not applied
for any bail till the time of writing. That
is courage and the bimbos from the Fiberal community would do well not to make
comparisons. Whether a FIR or legal case is right or wrong is for the
courts to decide but it’s always a more civilised way of battling. It’s
definitely better than drawing swords and guns like some God’s warriors do.
Mamata Banerjee has arrested even a professor and a farmer for
offending her. The GOI has been busy passing all kinds of laws to throttle the
social media and the internet. They have even identified eight specific states
to target for the clampdown. Till date the GOI doesn’t have a shred of evidence
that Twitterati or social media sites incited violence or rumours that led to
the Assam violence, its aftermath or the subsequent exodus of NE citizens from
many cities. Dictators use “fear mongering” to suppress voices and hide their
crimes. India isn’t different from that in the current situation. A corrupt
regime flailing its arms and hitting out at anything and everything to cover up
their shameful crimes. And what’s our supposed “watchdogs” up to? They are busy
slyly helping the govt to impose restrictions on freedoms under the guise of
hate-speech, spreading hate and such nonsense.
Larry Flynt, the founder of
porn magazine Hustler, will be more remembered for his fight for free speech
than his porn (Read about the case here in my post). In a parody that “hurt the feelings” of religious
leader Jerry Falwell he was
penalised with damages of $200,000. In the campaign to defend himself Flynt was
arrested 9 times. He was shot at and permanently paralysed waist below. In a
landmark decision the US Supreme Court overturned the lower court’s decision
and protected his free speech rights. In the landmark case the US SC observed: "The fact
that society may find speech offensive is not a sufficient reason for
suppressing it. Indeed, if it is the speaker's opinion that gives offense, that
consequence is a reason for according it constitutional protection. For it is a
central tenet of the First Amendment that the government must remain neutral in
the marketplace of ideas”.
Flynt and the late Falwell later became friends and often had friendly
debates. In one of those debates Flynt mentioned that in the monthly agenda meetings
of Hustler the discussion was “Who haven’t
we offended this month?” Haha! That requires constitutional protection. And
he added “Time and Newsweek don’t need constitutional
protection, it is people like us who offend who need the protection”. Govt
slaves like our MSM don’t need that protection. It is the likes of Aseem
Trivedi who need that protection. If he isn’t
afforded that protection watch more of our freedoms die.
