Sedition or Freedom of Expression??

· Posted by at
Reactions: 
Few days back, there was a political furore over Aseem Trivedi and his cartoons. He had allegedly disrespected our nation and its constitution by their controversial depiction in his cartoons. I watched a debate  on a news channel which had some politicians and cartoonists as participants. Some of them went to the extent of calling him a terrorist. Some felt that though the drawings were in bad taste, things were unnecessarily blown out of proportion and calling him a terrorist was too harsh!! Later on i saw exactly what the cartoons were all about. In all there were four cartoons. One had the national emblem, in which lions were replaced with wolves. Second showed mother India being raped by politicians and bureaucrats. Third showed Kasab peeing on the constitution of India and the last one showed a toilet seat, similar in structure to the parliament. 

My question is, whether Aseem Trivedi was disrespecting our nation or was he actually trying to portray what our leaders have done to it?? Was he disrespecting the parliament or the people running it?? Was he disrespecting the Constitution or our politicians and judicial system who have made a complete mockery of it?? Having said that, I don't intend to justify his cartoons. I would say it was his frustration that came out in the form of art. And why just him?? Today, every common Indian is frustrated over the way our leaders are leading us and their frustration is bound to come out in some form!! They say that our national symbols have been disrespected and therefore Aseem Trivedi is a criminal. Funnily, these are the words of our politicians,  people who do not mind watching p*** movies during important parliament and assembly sessions!! Is our Constitution so flimsy that it will lose its sanity by what a person thinks, says or draws?? Is our national emblem so worthless that it'll lose its dignity by a mere sketch?? If a person expresses his thoughts in some form of art, without causing any violence, without breaking any rule, isn't he just following his fundamental right?? Just because some people disagree with him, can we call him a criminal?? 

Well, I would say our country has much bigger and important problems than some controversial cartoons! So rather than making these cartoons a topic of national concern, our politicians should focus on other important problems, which unfortunately they rarely do...  

6 comments:

  1. Anu ~*~September 28, 2012 at 10:59 PM

    True .. So unfortunate !!
    i would say .. This one is a unique post ..

    ReplyDelete
  2. NBoseOctober 1, 2012 at 12:58 AM

    So true na...actually you are right..it is the frustration which is getting portrayed in his cartoons....these leaders are really bunch of cannibal wolves...my blood boils when i watch the news channels flooded with news of multi-crore scams when there are so many people who die on streets due to lack of basic amenities...disgusting :-(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Radhika GuptaOctober 1, 2012 at 9:54 AM

      Moreover, the problem with existing govt is that rather taking strict actions against corrupt ministers, it supports and protects them!!

      Delete
  3. Always UnluckyOctober 2, 2012 at 4:58 PM

    Thank you very much for your post! I am very interested in your points. From India

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)