19 yr old blogger faces criminal proceedings as case is filed against him for hate content
(Pic Courtesy : iStockphoto)
I am really pissed off and angry too!
I recently read this article in a reputed daily ( I dare not write the name lest I be sued!)
It talks about how a young blogger from Kerala was made to face legal action and made to appear in court and explain his actions.
Click here to read the entire report
To quote from the report, it all boils down to one conclusion now :
“Bloggers may no longer express their uninhibited views on everything under the sun, for the Supreme Court said they may face libel and even prosecution for the blog content.”
In simple words,
Our Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Speech is being taken from us!
The boy in the above mentioned report was made to face legal action just because he had started a community on Orkut against a certain political party and the comments on his community/blog indicated that the actions of the party were dividing the nation on the basis of region and caste! (What I really wonder is if one would start filing cases against these political parties on the basis of ‘hate speech’, ‘hate content’, ‘violence’ and so on…would all the courts of law of the world put together be able to give justice or keep the cases pending? )
In this country of ours, which is the largest ‘DEMOCRACY’ of the world, its citizens are not allowed to exercise their basic rights without being afraid of facing legal proceedings. This is the democracy that our great freedom fighters and leaders dreamt of!
A place where the common people would be forced to remain silent and adjust and adapt to the amazing bullshit thrown around by a bunch of imbeciles who label themselves as leaders of the nation and weave false dreams of ” a stronger, taller and secure India”.
The only right that the leaders/politicians want the common man of India to exercise is the Right to Vote. They say, choose responsibly the person you think is right. Choose a candidate who will take the nation ahead on the path of progress. (Now that the elections are near you will listen to this being thrown around by all politicos a dozen times a day!)
But then to speak of selecting a good candidate, we as citizens are given a choice from a select few. We do not select who stands for elections. It is like going to a stock clearance sale where your options are limited. You either buy the goods or you walk out without buying goods.
Coming back to the main topic of this post, these so-called protectors of culture and Indianness are now after us bloggers. I think they got bored of bashing up valentine couples and ‘indecent’ ladies in pubs. Now its the turn of the vile bloggers because it is they who still express their thoughts freely and write what they feel. Such people are potentially dangerous to their ‘noble’ activities of ‘saving the nation’ (what they really are after is saving and growing their vote banks).
I agree that indecent and abusive language should be restricted and not used against others on a blog. That should be curbed.
But what are we suppoesd to do when a blogger is booked under a certain section of the law while politicians and other big-wigs go scot-free in this land of ours.
Personaly, I think the complaint filed got much attention and fast response because it was done so by a member of a political party.
What should a common man do when these courts of law fail to punish our tainted politicians and other criminals while innocents are brought to book very quickly?
They say ‘Justice delayed is Justice denied’ . I do not think this holds true in India where people who file a case in their youth get the results on their death-bed. (or even after they are long dead). What do you expect if the courts waste their valuable time on such trivial matters?
( One of my friends had gone to a court to apply for his Domicile certificate. He saw a case being heard before one of the judges. It was filed by one man on his neighbour and both were arguing furiously and the judge was listening intently before doling out scoops of justice. Want to know what the case was all about? One man accused the other of stealing his plastic tumbler! You tell me if this is trivial or not!)
If you ask my opinion, the Supreme Court should have better work to do. I think it should set up a Quality Check Counter. Only those cases that the court deems fit to dedicate its time to should pass this counter.
While the culture-protectors and the language-protectors go on rightfully beating/killing fellow country-men the courts are busy punishing violators of law such as this young blogger from Kerala.
What will probably happen is that the young boy’s spirit has been crushed after going through such proceedings at a tender age of 19. Or if he is a fighter and a tough one he will stand up and still continue to do what he believes in!
Today they have quashed attempts of one blogger tomorrow it could be all of us!
Rise blogger brothers, Rise!!
Pranjal Wagh
This work by Pranjal A. Wagh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License
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