At
the Nazi Concentration camps, Viktor
Frankl (a doctor by profession) and other inmates went through endless and
unbearable torture. Many of his colleagues in the camp withered away and died.
With immense strength of his mind and love for life, Viktor survived. Whenever
he was being tortured, Viktor would often think of halls at universities, where
he or someone else taught poetry and literature. After WWII and his release
Viktor wrote a profound book “Man’s
search for meaning”. His endurance of the torture of the concentration
camps is recognised as “pro-active”
thinking when his control over his mind did not allow the torture to conquer
him. It has led many insightful writes to state: “It’s not what happens to you, it’s how you respond to it that counts”.
And Viktor Frankl responded to torture and suffering with great courage, an
invincible mind and came truly came out a “victor”. A short summary from his
book:
No
amount of abuse, torture, violence or hatred can uproot a mind that is firm in its
conviction. The worst that can happen is one will die – which is an uncertain
certainty in any case. In Iran, there is a famous case in which a man was
sentenced to death for “thought crimes”.
One would wonder what exactly such a crime would be. His name is Youcef Nadarkhani:
Many
have been executed in Iran and the Islamic world for apostasy. It is not
strange that humans can be executed for merely thinking of a different pursuit
to reach God or whatever they were trying to reach. Men make religions, men
make stupid laws and rules too. The harsh truth, though, is that you CANNOT stop a person thinking from what
he or she wants to think. You CANNOT stop a Vedika Chaubey of TheHindu
chopping a 40sec video into 8secs and portraying a man saving a woman as her
molester. You cannot stop her mind from thinking filth even in the Elphinstone
stampede tragedy. You cannot stop a Suprateek
Chaterjee of TheQuint wanting PM
Modi dead. And the guy expressed it clearly on Twitter. Wanting someone dead is
certainly filth. But you still cannot hang for merely thinking of wishing it. People
have been burnt at the stake for thinking the earth is round or that it revolves
around the sun. Most scientific discoveries were made through what would appear
at first sight or hearing as idiotic or illogical or even blasphemy. And that
is why we should be concerned when two lawyers peddle a case and argument for
strangling and regulating social media to the SC:
Most
judges, courts or even the Supreme Court don’t have a presence on SM. I am not
sure the SC has an official Twitter account, though there is an unverified one.
Consequently, our judges are often led
by the whims, fancies and ill-conceived arguments by prominent lawyers who want
to strangle the freedoms of ordinary people, crush their freedom to think
and constantly want them policed. And how did this argument before the SC to
regulate and strangle SM come about? That must the greatest of ironies:
The
related case is one of Azam Khan of
Samajwadi Party who abused victims of gang-rape calling it a “political
conspiracy”. Is Azam Khan on SM? Did he make this vicious statement on Twitter
or FB or some blog? No! He made it in public and reported by the MSM. And the SC knows all too well that politicians make
more obnoxious and hate-filled statements collectively than ordinary people
make on SM. From SoniaG to Diggy to that “Boti Boti” guy to Azam Khan,
there is no dearth of abusive, filthy statements in politics. I cannot, though,
recall anyone being sent to jail even when there are enough laws to prosecute
them. So why does the SC want to express an intention to act on the frivolous
claims by these fat-moneyed lawyers?
There
are many of us who think often that some people should die and die soon. The
moment I see the face of a terrorist or those loveable media-darlings that kill
people, I want those guys to die. That’s a thought but it’s not a crime. And if
I express in writing that I want such people dead. It is not a crime either. It
would be a crime only if I acted upon my thoughts and carried out an
unauthorised killing. Protracted court
proceedings for known terrorists makes people they be killed in encounters
rather than be tried. It’s a natural thought. Some of the worst abuses come
not from ordinary folks but from the MSM crooks whose hatred is limitless for
ordinary people, some ideologies and politicians, and even for SC judges:
Sunetra is over the moon to hear
Modi has swine flu. She probably hoped he would die. Sagarika peddles vicious nonsense of Muslims being killed across
the country. She also calls a judge a “Crackpot”.
Sagarika has called Lord Ram a “Divine
encroacher” in RJB. Has passed racist comments like all Indian males are
ugly. Earlier, Sagarika was so agitated with the Allahabad HC judgement on
Ayodhya, she called it a “Panchayati”
judgement. In the bottom left pic, Priya
Ramani of TheMint calls Lord Ram a D*** and Sita a C***! Our courts are
blind to the consistently wanton abuse coming from those in the MSM.
So,
who are these lawyers pointing to? Is this another political gimmick to bat for
the “Sickular” parties to get them a toe-hold in power? After all, both Harish Salve and Fali Nariman are not known to be friends of BJP. Nariman, in fact,
agitated for the corrupt NDTV when CBI raids were made on Prannoy Roy. Who ARE
these people and what are they campaigning for? Everyone knows who dominates the
SM. Therefore, it is fair to suspect which voices these lawyers want to
strangulate the most.
Truth
is, many of these abuses from MSM folks can be prosecuted under many laws. But
people don’t keep running to cops or courts all the time like Prashant Bhushan does. I, for one,
certainly do believe Bhushan’s Rohingya PIL should have been thrown out by the
SC. But the SC judges having entertained it, we do not question them and let
them take the time to deliberate and rule on it. The only persons consistently
questioning judgements of various courts are not ordinary people. They are
Commies from IndiraG to RajivG to the MSM in these days. In a sentence I have
underlined in the TOI report pic above, the SC judge has surprisingly claimed
people think the SC is on the side of the govt. This is hardly the case. The SC
has consistently knocked down some anti-people law, like 66A and given rulings like the one Triple Talaq widely applauded by everyone. On the contrary, people
have often viewed the SC and govt being in a confrontation mode over many
issues. Far from judges or courts being seen as a “pro govt” there is rather an
increasing sentiment of judicial overreach as seen in regular reports from the
media:
Freedom of expression is
essentially freedom of thought. The lawyers who are provoking the SC to strangle
this by unspecified regulations in a casual manner is unfortunate and probably
motivated. And they are invoking SM in a case where Azam Khan is accused of
public proclamation and not something on SM. The rich, famous and powerful have
the money to buy media, they have public and media platforms, they can express
themselves or vent their anger on issues at the drop of a hat. Even cops and
courts respond to them faster. The
ordinary man doesn’t have all that luxury. Millions of them have taken to
SM platforms to express themselves. If
there are indeed racist, obnoxious or abusive content, there are also enough
laws to punish such acts. The problem is not the laws or remedies, the
problem is an over-burdened police force and judiciary that simply cannot
respond to every offence, whether on the ground or in the air on the net. SM is
power to the people as it should be in a good democracy:
You have a choice on SM to
TURN OFF the voice, noise and text that you don’t wish to hear or see. Nobody
can complain about being INVADED. The real “Thought
invasion” and “Privacy invasion” happens on the ground and remains a
nuisance for a vast majority of people. No court, no govt has shown the daring
to completely ban and eliminate the early morning nuisance of Azaan. There are thousands of people
complaining, some have gone to courts too. What right do these mosques have to
invade people’s sleep and their thoughts? This is nothing short of IMPOSING a religion on to others who
don’t subscribe to it. Anti-Azaan protesters (They are anti-Islamic too) had
taken up a novel way of protesting in Denmark by playing the Azaan loudly
outside the Mayor’s residence (Video 0.30 seconds):
You
can watch the full report on Youtube. Judges, ministers and
politicians live in protected areas where trespassers and noises are controlled
by cops. The common man has to face this nuisance every morning, early morning
and throughout the day for about five times. SM is not very different from the
real world. It has good, bad, ugly and the evil too. Just as law applies to
crimes on the ground, there are enough laws to prosecute crimes on SM. We have
multiple elections coming up – Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan, MP, Chattisgarh
and leading up to LS2019. SM has proved to be a platform for campaigning for
parties and for individual candidates. It has voices, opinions, propaganda and
those feeling the threat are usually those fearing losses.
Those
losing since 2014 didn’t learn – “It’s
not what happens to you but how you respond that counts”. The Congress and
Sickulars only responded with mud-slinging, slander, fake campaigns and abuses.
And that is why some want to silence voices on the SM. Still, all said and
done, courts often prescribe a model way of living, a model code of conduct for
most aspects of life. Our courts have ruled in even social customs from Dahi Handi to Jallikattu and that has brought a great level of defiance from the
public. I just had to reminded of a famous scene from “Philadelphia” – in the case where Tom Hanks is sacked from his job
because he has AIDS:
That’s
right! The laws exist for almost every imaginable crime. Our courts and judges
may want the most ideal society that has no evil or crime in it. Such a thing
has never happened in the history of mankind. Because the answer is simple – We don’t live in courtrooms. And thought policing is not a remedy anyone
should resort to in a free democracy.
