Cartoons & Freedom of Expression

On Sunday our parliament celebrated 60 years of parliamentary democracy and many lofty speeches were made by our politicians about democracy and how we have matured over these six decades. However if one tried to do a reality check he will find that we have only gone regressive, and with each passing day we are going even more backwards. Have we failed Democracy or has democracy failed us? I don’t know, but both seem to hold true.

Before this day, on Saturday and on Monday we saw our parliament debate on a 63 year old cartoon of Dr. B R Ambedkar claiming that its inclusion in school textbooks degrades the dalit icon. If Dr. Ambedkar were alive today he would have shamed this entire bunch who are trying to make political gain by using his name. This issue was raised first by Mayavati who is still licking her wounds from the drubbing she got in the recent elections and is now desperately looking at some short cuts to regain her vote bank and this issue proved to be a handy one. Then everyone else jumped the bandwagon, making merry while the sun shines and thus make a mockery of the parliament. Precious time was wasted time on a frivolous issue when the nation is facing so many difficulties like inflation, poor health care, farmer suicides, corruption etc.

I saw the cartoon myself and found nothing objectionable in it. None of the senior learned men and experts who were called up for discussions on Television found anything objectionable. Only a small bunch of misled fools were making noise and trying to drown every voice of reason. Had Dr. Ambedkar been around he would have used a whip against them. The students who were interviewed were seen laughing more and ridiculing the politicians for wasting precious parliament time on such a frivolous issue. A small 12 year old child seems to be more mature than our stupid politicians.

A leader like Yashwant Sinha is worried that such cartoons degrading politicians, and showing them in poor light will affect children and the children will grow up to hate politicians. Has Mr. Yeshwant Sinha ever cared to sit down and introspect as to why politicians are looked upon this way and have become a laughing stock today. Nobody talks bad about Nehru, Sardar Patel, Dr. Radhakrishnan, La Bahadur Sashtri and politicians of that generation, the way today’s politicians are talked about. If fact every one revers them. Why then so much change has come about in the last 60 years in people’s perception of politicians. People from every walk of like agree that they are the root cause for all the nation’s ills. Almost half of our MP’s have criminal records. Each one of our MP’s or MLA’s, since getting elected has increased his/her bank balances a thousand fold. Nobody has answered from where the windfall came from. They are involved in crimes like extortion, land grabbing, corruption, blatant misuse of power to suppress those who are weak. None of them seems to be interested in the country and its welfare and progress.

How then can one have any respect or sympathy for these politicians? If the common man was given an opportunity to have his way each one of them would have been lynched. When asked some of the heads of political parties say that criminals are given tickets because they win elections for the parties concerned and therefore cannot be ignored. Thus the poor voter from rural areas is blamed because he is uneducated and sells his vote and therefore these criminals enter parliament. If that is the case why does nobody blame our so called intellectuals and well educated people who still vote for a corrupt Kalmadi to the post of Olympic committee president. The same Kalmadi who is undergoing so many enquires, is named by the CBI and has spent time in prison is still being voted, not by poor uneducated rural voters but by well educated and learned people from across cities serving in various sports and games committees. Are they also not falling prey to Kalmadi’s lavish parties in five star hotels where expensive liquor flows when our sportsmen do not get facilities to train and a healthy diet during camps. Why is nobody questioned when such a thing happens?

I must say that our politicians are themselves responsible for the plight they are in, however they are too shameless to accept this fact. Everyone is to be blamed except themselves. Redemption however is not so easy because the rot runs too deep. They need to take that long and painful walk backwards from the cesspool of corruption and everything that is evil that they have walked into so far. I do not think that any politician of my generation will even try to do this. Power has corrupted each one of them so much that life without power simply terrifies them. Therefore they will only try to save their skins by blaming others and in this instance the cartoons, and maybe tomorrow something else. Encroaching upon our freedoms that are guaranteed by our constitution seems to be one easy way. They find objection in an innocent cartoon on Dr. Ambedkar, yet find nothing unusual in trampling upon the very constitution that Dr. Ambedkar gave us. What Irony?. Today it is cartoons in text books and tomorrow it could be cartoons in newspapers and magazines and then newspapers themselves, something Mamata Banerjee has started in Bengal by banning all newspapers that are critical of her in government libraries.

One ray of hope however, during the debate in parliament was the voice of Jaswant Singh who went against his colleagues and others as the only voice of dissent. He spoke as to how hilarious he found the cartoons and he had a large collection of them. He said these cartoons helped him realize whenever he had made mistakes in his political life. He said that his eleven year old grandson had so many other things that could influence his mind rather than some innocent and funny cartoon. All other politicians too should follow his example. First correct yourself and reform. Jaswant Singh needs to be applauded here for his stand.

Finally, too all politicians of India, I have this humble advice: Be an honest leader who is loved by the masses. Be mature in your thinking and not a fool with little matter in the head like a Mayavati and others like her. Your vote banks should be the masses across all castes, creeds, religions and regions. People will watch and appreciate your honesty, transparency at work and your good deeds and you will be rewarded by their blessings and good wishes. Remember the good wishes and blessings of a destitute and hungry countryman far exceed in value all the money that you have accumulated and all the monetary rewards that you have acquired. Remember that you are elected and sent there not to waste time, agitate and stall parliament, but to legislate, discuss the ills that are plaguing the country and help rectify them. After this see how the perception of the common man towards you changes for the better. Please leave our cartoons alone !!!!!!!!!!!.