Mossamat Akhera Bibi who ?
That is exactly the point.
You are gangraped by seven hoodlums and then you witness your two teen teenage daughters gangraped all night, you are then dumped in your house locked up to suffer alone agonizingly over the fate of your daughters and your husband but then you did not write a controversial novel on your sexuality. So cut over to your liberated cousin from across the border. They did not even lay a finger on her but you have the Central Government, 2 State Governments, 3 National Parties, the entire national media and us bloggers too, all losing sleep over her.
Welcome to the theatre of the absurd also called the great Indian Political Tamasha.
So you have an otherwise conservative BJP defending what they would have in different circumstances called licentiousness (and now fashionably it is referring to as “freedom of expression”) while the Congress and the Communists are running for cover hoping its just a bad dream that will go away.
Meanwhile we are no wiser on the whereabouts of Mossamat Akhera Bibi’s two teenage daughters and the fate of her perpetrators.
Perhaps Brinda Karat could provide us with some perspective here ?
POSTSCRIPT:
Is the Taslima Nasreen issue really about freedom of speech and expression ?
Or
Is there more to it than meets the eye ?
Is this merely a stunt on her part to garner some P.R. in the run up to her next book, if there was one ?
As Nitin rightly points out granting her citizenship is a matter of due process. Given the number of illegals from Bangladesh who have been settled in India much thanks to the Congress, giving her asylum is a non-issue undeserving of national debate.
If all she wanted was a quiet refuge to carry on with her writing, there is hardly the need for this drama in the national capital, she could very easily have faded away from the public eye to retire into any non-descript corner of India, after all there were no killer suqads on the look out to hunt her down.
That she chose to make a political statement or two and a path fraught political ramifications can only mean she doesnt mind the controversy, the negative attention.
Which brings us back to the original question, is this really about freedom ?
Is India really a illiberal society ?
What is this debate be really about ?
Given the low threshold to provoke a mob into violence and the permissiveness with which the rule of law is flouted by the high and the low, frankly this debate is not about the society being illiberal about a controversial writer.
This debate is really about the lack of respect for the rule of law under every and all circumstances by everyone – the provoked and the provactor, the offender and the offended.
If we are to really debate freedom of expression, it ?ought to be a constitutional one that goes beyond specific individuals and specific circumstances.
If we are to be serious about freedom of expression that debate?ought to be a reflection of what we as a society are prepared to be allowed to be taken for granted. After all every social group despite all its liberal pretenses has its sacred cows that it deems to be above and beyond public rebuke or debate.
The Congress has its Nehru-Gandhis, the BJP its Gods, the Communists have Marx and Lenin, the Christians have their gripe with Da Vinci Code, the Muslims with Rushdie and Taslima, the Dalits with Ambedkar, the Tribals with whoever it is they swear their politics by, the psuedo intellectuals in the media have their sanctimony, political correctness, world peace, global warming and Mother Teresa.
Let us get real and first aspire for a law abiding society where “Respect for Rule Law” becomes that sacred cow that is above and beyond all public rebuke and debate.
Meanwhile there is enough Freedom of Expression for all of us to get by, the Sacred Cows willing…….
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Good work sir keep it up.
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That’s a honest post. Respect for Rule of Law comes when the law enforcers are perceived to be just and the law enforcement is perceived to be just and prompt. We have a long way to go.
It is generally the argument of the closet Islamist or the faux liberal to accuse Taslima of “attention-seeking”. They do this because they can’t be seen to be attacking her on the same grounds as the fundamentalists do. In almost every writeup seemingly defending Nasrin, you’ll find an argument on the lines of: “she maybe an attention-seeker and the literary merit of her work is questionable, but we should support her regardless” etc, etc — kinda like they’re doing her a favor despite having problems with her. Sorry to say Yossarin, you’ve fallen into their trap.
These fake liberals don’t explain how she is “seeking attention” though. For that matter, which one of the following isn’t an “attention-seeking” person: Salman Rushdie, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Irshad Manji? It is easy to “grab” attention in Islam, in which the only freedom that is granted to you is the freedom to applaud it. That should not be conflated with “seeking” attention because liberal democracies don’t live by the norms of Islamic theocracies.
Taslima Nasrin has not said anything that countless feminists before her haven’t. They all rooted the problems of women in religious sanction. Christian feminists traced the roots of patriarchy to the bible and the Hindu feminists did ditto to their faith, the widely-followed and daily-recited Manu Smriti being their favorite target. Taslima did the same to Islam, because that was the faith she was born in and that was the faith she felt oppressed in. Her “anti-Islam” arguments are lame by comparison with utterances of Hindu/Christian feminists on their respective faiths. There is nothing novel or noteworthy about the intellectual merit of her argument; in fact, if you have read any of the other feminists that laid the blame for women’s status at “religion”’s door, Taslima would even sound like she’s a tad bit late for the modern world, but of course that doesn’t include the Muslim world.
She didn’t mock or ridicule faith, she critiqued it. The main reason Bangladeshi fundamentalists targetted her was that she chronicled the abuse that the country’s Hindus suffered in 1992/93. She stood the norm — of projecting the Muslim as the victim and everybody else as aggressors conspiring against him — on its head. This was too much for the fundamentalists and Muslim ‘liberals’ alike.
Remember that her book Dwikhandito was banned by the loonie West Bengal government under pressure not from fundamenalists but Muslim ‘liberals’. The argument used was that the book insulted the prophet and his religion. The Culcutta High Court delivered a slap in the government’s face by overturning the ban — the court went on to say that there was no insult to Islam in the book, far from it, that it in fact upheld secular ideals. I wonder who was seeking attention here: Nasrin or the Marxists/Islamists of West Bengal?
I’m sorry to say that your ignorance of Taslima is most telling in the following sentence:
>>there is hardly the need for this drama in the national capital, she could very easily have faded away from the public eye to retire into any non-descript corner of India
That means that you’ven’t been following Taslima Nasrin’s course and that you don’t understand her.
She has the option of seeking asylum in many countries of the world. Following her escape from Bangladesh, Western countries vied with each other to give refuge to her. She chose Sweden. That option remains. She doesn’t want it. She wants to live in Kolkata, among Bengali-speakers, because she believes that as a Bengali writer, it is vital for her to live in the culture that seeds her thoughts and inspires her books.
Even the “drama” in Delhi is not of her making. It is surprising to see you blaming the victim.
Comrade Matt quacked, as expected.
There is nothing very noteworthy about bjp’s support for nasrin’s request for refugee status. Infact, the party needs to be congratulated for coming out in favor of nasrin. I suspect that comrade matt shares the blinkered worldview of the extremists hounding taslima: since she made unflattering comments on islam, anybody supporting her must be conspiring against islam.
Arguing in the smae vein as comrade did, it is easy for him to support hussain’s “freedom of expression”, because after all hussain did not paint any of matt’s female folk in the nude sitting atop a naked matt Hussain exercised a non-existing right to abuse. Offended hindus noticed this,, and reacted in an unexceptionable manner: they filed cases against him, from which the old geezer is fleeing.
Comrade matt is wrong on yet another count too. Saudia cant give asylum to hussain, because painting people — ordinary people, let alone muslim divines, and fully clothed, let alone naked — draws Allah’s ire..
perhaps comrade matt has not thought about this: there is no irony in bjp giving asylum to taslima: liberal democracies of the west were eager to do so too. The irony is in the marxist government of west bengal targetting her. This raises questions like: what time of the day is comrade brinda karat a feminist, and what time of the day is she not? On which weekdays is comrade jyoti basu a liberal, and on which days is he a fascist? Comrade matt might fuind himself at a loss for words here.
I agree with you OT.And for once I think Yossarin here u go wrong.
Taslima deserves the ’state protection’ as she is a ‘genuine refugee’ – a victim of ‘bigoted’ fanatics – very unlike the other BanglaDeshis. She needs to protected more as the ‘might’ of Indian State can not be subjugated to Islamic Terror.
PI.
Communists are going to ruin our country….
The way a courageous writer like Taslima is treated in WB speaks of the new lows of Communists…..
Comrade Matt,
I guessed that you are super at giving abuse, no need to for you stress on something that which is obvious. I have noticed that a comment of yours was deleted for foul language. It is my endeavour to give you as good as you’re giving. You don’t seem like you’re here for a genuine debate. You like flame-baiting, and you are spoiling for a fight. Well, I’m glad to oblige. I like a good fight too, though sometimes it may mean to have to wrestle in the mud.
Coming to the point: what’s in a salutation? Why does the word “comrade” cause palpitations in your knee so? Is it because of its association with communism? I’m a liberal too, and being a fellow liberal, you ought to know that communism is a fascist ideology that killed 80 million people, and that on that count, it is rightly despised by liberals. But liberals also know that not every comrade has blood on his hands. As long as you don’t rationalize communist murders like that frustrated, embittered old geezer Chomsky does by attributing the murders to “Leninist dictatorship”, you remain a staunch liberal in my opinion. That is, even if you’re a commie! So, don’t worry, be happy.
>>and as someone who has been accused of being Comrade, Rightist, Atheist and Fundamentalist all together
Oh boy. Obviously you took quite a few hard knocks in life. Much commiserate. At this rate they are going to call you a Shiv Sainik one of these days.
>>If the BJP wants to follow liberal democratic traditions by offering all support to artists irrespective of they offend anybody’s religion or not, I am with BJP this moment. But that would include full freedom of expression even when the insult is directed at your own religion.
I notice that you are in the habit of only asking questions, not answering them; and also of demanding your critics to answer for the BJP. I must say, comrade, both are commie traits.
So let’s clear this up first. I said that it is easy for you to support someone’s “freedom of expression” as long as that expression did not involve nude representations of female folk that _you_ respect. Do you want to agree or disagree? Do you understand my point or do you need me illustrate it with examples?
>>But that would include full freedom of expression even when the insult is directed at your own religion.
You seem to be suggesting that Taslima Nasrin insulted Islam. Just curious, comrade: can you explain how?
I have said again and again that I am here to explain a point of view.
I am not going to answer for commies because I am not one of them! I loathe the right wing and the left wing equally.
But you insist on clubbing me in a group – that just makes me want to club you among fascists, but again, thats not what I am here for. I have explained the classical liberal point of view that I have already.
So basically you are saying that I am lying about my beliefs. Then there is no point in discussing this further.
Taslima’s work is highly critical of Islam. No doubt about that, and I support that. In fact, I suppose criticism of all religions.
No, nudity does not equal insult for me. I support MF Husain’s work too, as well as the guy who painted Jesus Christ with a urinal or commode or whatever.
My question still remains. What is the BJP’s vision for a harmonious India? I know the others don’t have a vision. Does the BJP have one?
Comrade Matt,
>>No, nudity does not equal insult for me.
I will try and not corner you on this point, because I respect women: mothers, sisters, daughters, wives .. in all shapes and kinds.
>>What is the BJP’s vision for a harmonious India? I know the others don’t have a vision. Does the BJP have one?
Good question. I have another one: why is the CPIM hellbent on destroying India? The Marxist-fascists seem prepared to sell their mothers if that should benefit China. Why are these China patriots – the Karat/Chomsky kind as well the Mobile Republic kind (they are two factions now) — more jingoistic than the Chinese themselves?
To all my good friends who felt I was wrong on this issue, an interesting op-ed in the Indian Express by Bibek Debroy articulating a similar point of view but of course far more cogently.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/244057.html
Hey, do not take Bibek Debroy as a face value, he is the most politacally correct person. I think that you was wrong in analysis on protest by Intelectual. Problem to intelectual is that they are cut-off from bengal rural area as it was for media, even local media.
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