Taslima Nasreen To Celebrate India’s Independence Day (Not!)

“There is a fatwa (death sentence) against her and the fatwa is one and all for the entire Muslim world, whether it is Salman Rushdie or Taslima Nasreen. If Taslima makes another visit to Hyderabad, yes we will try to implement the fatwa on her” MIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi said.

Such people, their thoughts and their equally pathetic actions; make my blood boil. Its one thing to taunt our friendly neighboring nation but to witness the same kind-of bullshit happening in my own nation is seriously frightening.

Flipping thru various News Channels on Sunday evening, watching replays of the Hyderabad Press Club incident, made me realize the extent (some) people can go to simply because they don’t agree with your views/ideas or as in this case, to fill up their vote-banks . There she stood with her hands covering her face, with shock written all over her expressions. Her body shielded by couple of elderly men, while the media personnel had a gala-time recording, clicking, taking notes of MIM’s political actions. These men threw books and bouquets all in the name of religion, nahhh… political aspirations disguised as peaceful protest against the author of the book, Shodh.

If you dig a little deeper, such idiocy seems to crop very too often these days – Actress Kushboo’s thoughts on pre-marital sex, Sania Mirza’s skirt controversy, Chandra Mohan and his painting, Mandira Bedi’s tattoo and the likes. We Indians seem to wear our religious sentiments on the sleeves of our shirts – affected with everything that it comes in contact with.

But somehow the Taslima Nasreen incident stands apart from all the previous “moral policing” acts – it’s a gruesome rape of our “secular” character. Besides the horrific incident itself, it is the aftermath events that have turned up being even more mindboggling.

– Newspaper in Hyderabad carried a Muslim leader’s statement congratulating the MIM.

– Another Religious Group cribbed over the fact that MIM supporters had let Islam down by losing out on the opportunity to carry out the “fatwa” of eliminating Taslima Nasreen.

– The victim was booked under Section 153-A, while the MIM leaders who led the attack were charged with minor offences and were let out on bail within few hours.

– State Government refuses to take strict actions against the perpetrators simply because they need Muslim Group’s support for the up-coming elections.

– Allahabad University, where the writer was scheduled to deliver a lecture this week, has cancelled her engagements in an attempt to maintain peace and order on university campus.

To me (and I am sure many others) it’s really disturbing to witness such episodes, where individual expressions are so easily suppressed by religious and political goons. Any help or support from the those in-charge of maintain Law & Order is no less than a wishful thinking but what is even more annoying is to see the educated class watch the drama, without ever complaining.

Agreed, Ms Nasreen’s writings may not be of the highest literary quality and may not be approved by a certain section of the society – but is it a good enough reason to have her publically ridiculed or even worse, have her head diced off? I certainly don’t think so.

As we come close to celebrating our 60 years of Independence, the only truth that is smacked right in our face is that “freedom of expression” and “secularism” can rot in the shit-pot, while the “fatwa-wallahs” and the likes continue to rule the roost.

[Excellant post on the same by a good friend @ Indiequill & Melody does some talking too]