The long dark tea time of the soul

A number of film personalities have signed a petition demanding the gag order placed on Raj Thackeray be lifted, and affirming their support for his campaign. Some bloggers have also supported this call, in the name of freedom of speech. The logic is “if he wants to make an ass of himself, the state should allow him to do so” and thus preserve the fundamental right to act like an idiot. Nothing wrong in talking about preservation of fundamental rights, but the problem is that when Raj Thackeray talks like an ass, some people die. Other people loose their livelihoods. And the people who loose their lives and livelihoods, are not the ones who blog or the ones who are megastars. They are ordinary people, given minimal of state support either in their native place or the big city. When he says, “If they refuse, then we will raise our hands“, and the state refuses to do anything about it, the state is basically rewarding hate speech in the name of free speech. Besides, the gag order on the kid is entirely temporary as a security measure. He will be able to talk his heart’s desire in not so distant time in future.

While Raj was arrested for half a day, P. Govindan Kutty found himself in jail for more than two months. He blogs at People’s March and is the publisher, owner and the editor of the magazine People’s March. He was arrested on December 19th in Kerala. Despite the inability of the Kerala police in producing any evidence against him, his bail was repeatedly rejected for more than a month in both the trial court and the high court.  The only charge against him was that he wrote an article that hailed an attack on then AP CM Chandra Babu Naidu by CPI(Maoist) in 2004. Mr. Kutty was finally released from prison on 24th February 2008, more than two months after his arrest. During this entire duration, he was on a hunger strike, protesting against the detention, the denial of basic prisoner’s rights and professional losses incurred on account of not being able to send two consecutive edition of his magazine to the small number of subscribers.

The issue of Mr. Kutty’s detention has been raised in various fora, and there is (was) an online petition to secure his release. The issue was also raised in prominent newspapers across the country, and some magazines like tehelka carried a feature. Other than some left leaning and pro-maoist blogs, there was not a single blog that talked about this denial of freedom of speech.

On 14th Feb 2008, the district collector of Ernakulam has prohibited the publication of People’s March, citing it to be “seditious in nature“, and “bringing about contempt and disaffection against the Government of India by projecting ideologies and activities of CPI (Maoist)“. One can judge it by reading the past issues of People’s March on its website. The final authority lies with the Registrar of Newspapers of India. His website and blog was also mysteriously blocked by google at least twice in two months prior to his arrest.

The magazine does report the views and activities of CPI(Maoist). But that’s what most of the media in India is doing. Ever since the maoists have gained prominence, their articles, their interviews have appeared in a variety of media outlets. EPW carried one unedited article from CPI(maoist) spokesman, Comrade Azad. Some stringers have made money by selling exclusive maoist pictures and articles to the mainstream media.

If the maoists are talking to the people that is a very welcome step. It is important to know their views, and it helps in both to counter them and fight them. An informal dialogue with them is what is being desired by many state governments. Recently in Chhatisgarh, the local newspaper Daily Chhattisgarh, managed a coup out of sorts when the DGP of the state addressed the maoists directly, and the underground party replied back. This dialogue through the pages of the daily was termed a positive state by the DGP. Many rights activists, who have spoken out against human rights violation by both the state and the rebels, concur that the rebels are more receptive of their criticism.

Indeed, its not the magazines like People’s March that are bringing contempt against the Government of India. It is the GoI, that through its dubious actions like Salwa Judum, SEZs, arrest of rights activist and crony capitalism, that is encouraging disaffection against itself. Does it mean that the district magistrate will now go ahead and ban the Government of India?

How does it makes sense in banning the publication of an eight year old magazine, at the whims and fancies of a district administration? Who will speak out against such blatant violation of freedom of speech by the state, if not the bloggers and other independent citizens? Why is it that a blogger is arrested, tortured and force-fed by the state, and there are very scant protests against that? Will the Indian blogosphere be able to speak out for the freedom of one of their fellow bloggers?