Thursday, November 22, 2012

Liberty Locked-up

It was a disappointing day for the hope of liberty when a 21-year-old girl and her friend were arrested for voicing their opinion, in a private domain, her facebook account. The girl was charged under the IT Act and for hurting 'religious' sentiments. A girl somewhere under the Taliban must have giggled on hearing this, "lucky for her, she only got arrested; had she been here, she would have been shot dead." All she did was to put up a forwarded message she received that said that the 'bandh' observed in the city due to natural demise of a political personality. 

What is important is not the power or the stature of the dead but the miserable state of the freedom of expression that we have in our country. Although the state guarantees freedom of expression, but when it comes to practice, my personal observation is that we have a system of double standards. Consider on one hand, politicians who keep hurling abuses at each other on national television, and on the other, the case of this commoner who voiced a simple protest, without even naming the person concerned. Never ever have I heard of a case being filed against any powerful politician who dared to mock even the prime minister but within hours of the facebook status update the girl got arrested.

The reactions: The arrest obviously sent a bad message and a sense of fear spread among the people, especially the youth, most of whom refrained from updating any status in the context, or showing any kind of support via 'likes' or comments until a ray of hope came from the judiciary which took suo motto cognizance of the matter, declaring it absurd and ordering an immediate enquiry. Facebook again was abuzz with status updates showing support for the girl. 

Interestingly, a few people suggested amendments in the IT Act so that such a thing does not happen in the future. Maybe the IT Act has certain flaws and loopholes but the law aside, was this incident not something to ponder on. The police is a state machinery that acts ideally only when there's disorder in the society. When sentiments are running high, is it not unfair on part of the people to be intolerant to others' opinions? When nobody cares when politicians hurl abuses at one another in public, what could be so toxic about an individual's opinion on a private domain? The answers to these questions comes not from the state or the government but from the individuals, the people.