Do We Need Obsessive Factions Governing Us?
An unnamed individual recently succumbed to the burns he suffered when he attempted self-immolation to voice his protest against screening of the movie Fanaa in Gujarat. I wonder why he considered his life worthless enough to be ended in this manner. There is little sympathy he arouses in me. Being the stooge of some obsessive political factions (that I suspect he is), he would have ended his life anyway in a similar manner in the event of the next Aamir Khan film screening or the next M.F. Hussain exhibition or the next time India decides to host some beauty contest or practically anything under the Sun that will sound agreeable to most human beings.
Burning effigies, books or even themselves is the most common form of protest that such cliques employ (They never get lathi-charged the way students got while protesting against reservation with genuine concern about their own and the country's future.) Most of the times, the event that instigates the protest bears no relevance whatsoever to the reason they state. What is really appalling is the fact that these days we so often find people by their crazy acts, attempting to determine what the normal layman should see, say, believe or do.
My respect for Aamir Khan has grown manifold after he took a stand in favour of NBA and stood by it. And it is irrespective of whether he did it for promoting his movie Rang De Basanti (which had already become a huge huge hit by then!! ) or for paving his path to becoming a politician. If expressing one's harmless views on a social issue is such a heinous crime in India ,I don't think there is a bigger irony than India calling itself a democracy. The political groups did whatever they are good at..viz. burning effigies, making disparaging remarks. As if that were not enough, they threatened to ban the screening of his new film Fanaa if he did not apologize. What a mockery!
Equally shameful were the protests against the Valentine's day celebrations. Times Of India Link . The groups assuming the role of culture police went about carrying placards that had extremly obscene slogans alluding to MMS scandals and what not. They went about sabotaging the special preparations shopping malls had for the day. They threatened to "take action" against couples who try to celebrate the day.
And then quite recently, we had incidents of police action against couples in parks. There are people who feel religion can get endanered by the release of a movie like Da Vinci code ( that too after the book has become a bestseller already) and therefore, decide to protest against it (by burning books of course). There seems to be no end to all the foolery. And amidst all this, one wonders whether governance is all about ensuring rights or depriving people of the same. Perhaps anything you do in India other than kissing cobras or marrying cobra idols is going to displease one or more of such obsessive groups.
Burning effigies, books or even themselves is the most common form of protest that such cliques employ (They never get lathi-charged the way students got while protesting against reservation with genuine concern about their own and the country's future.) Most of the times, the event that instigates the protest bears no relevance whatsoever to the reason they state. What is really appalling is the fact that these days we so often find people by their crazy acts, attempting to determine what the normal layman should see, say, believe or do.
My respect for Aamir Khan has grown manifold after he took a stand in favour of NBA and stood by it. And it is irrespective of whether he did it for promoting his movie Rang De Basanti (which had already become a huge huge hit by then!! ) or for paving his path to becoming a politician. If expressing one's harmless views on a social issue is such a heinous crime in India ,I don't think there is a bigger irony than India calling itself a democracy. The political groups did whatever they are good at..viz. burning effigies, making disparaging remarks. As if that were not enough, they threatened to ban the screening of his new film Fanaa if he did not apologize. What a mockery!
Equally shameful were the protests against the Valentine's day celebrations. Times Of India Link . The groups assuming the role of culture police went about carrying placards that had extremly obscene slogans alluding to MMS scandals and what not. They went about sabotaging the special preparations shopping malls had for the day. They threatened to "take action" against couples who try to celebrate the day.
And then quite recently, we had incidents of police action against couples in parks. There are people who feel religion can get endanered by the release of a movie like Da Vinci code ( that too after the book has become a bestseller already) and therefore, decide to protest against it (by burning books of course). There seems to be no end to all the foolery. And amidst all this, one wonders whether governance is all about ensuring rights or depriving people of the same. Perhaps anything you do in India other than kissing cobras or marrying cobra idols is going to displease one or more of such obsessive groups.
posted by Sindhu Verma | Friday, June 23, 2006
4 Comments:
Well Written yaar! Yes this is very very true and I share very similar views on these acts of stupidity. I feel our politicians and upto some extent media is also responsible for this.Channels like AJJTAK or STAR NEWS makes headlines out of the stupids news like "Frog marriage for rain" aur "Marrying Cobra" etc.
Moreover they cover these actions of self immolation and stupid protests in wrong light.
Hey that was brilliant ! Love all that attitude :) and I like watching Ppl maarying cobras..Its fun ;) hehehe..
For the record, even TV channels in Washington made fun of Indians for marrying snakes.
Tradition and religion are things we should preserve in cotton wool but the boundaries between religion and superstition are vague and it is easy to get confused.
This problem plagues all societies. Baptist Christians in United States practice polygamy and point towards Bible when confronted. George Bush thinks that God wanted him to go to war (in Iraq). In fact, all justifications of Republican policies in the US could be traced back to God. It is troubling. Isn’t it?
Here, in the western hemisphere, media is a giant which sticks to its job and stands up to government pressure. Their determination to pursue truth is admirable. In India, unfortunately, media is irrelevant. We need a strong media which can pin the government down and expose chinks in its arguments. Individuals like Medha Patkar, Satyendra Dubey and Arundhati Roy have stood up for social causes but they are few and far between. We would like to have an assembly line of men and women who are willing to walk on fire. That, alas, is easier said than done but a journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. Isn't it?
good reading..all of them. read a poem written by u in ..ehn. forget the name..kgp magazine for alumni (little hazy)..was good. sth about a flower and a butterfly? should include some of those here too.
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