There has been a lot of ruckus about free speech and I have been brooding over it for some time now. What exactly does freedom of speech and expression mean? Can you speak and express anything and get away from it? What are its limits and when do you act against it? These are some points I would try and think over in this article.
Voltaire once said “I absolutely oppose your views, but I will fight until death for your right to express them!” Remarkable statement indeed! Recently Harvard University removed the courses taught by Mr. Ramaswamy Iyer taking cognizance of his articles that provoked Anti Islam sentiments. Should Mr. Iyer be entitled to free speech and therefore be allowed to teach his courses irrespective of what he expressed? I think this is where we draw the line. If the expression evokes or is capable of evoking strong and necessarily violent reactions, it ought to be curbed. The next logical question is, who gets to decide that he is wrong and his expression is capable of creating violent reactions? I feel it should be someone who is capable of proving engaging him in a debate and proving him wrong. In due process, may be Mr. Iyer himself would be convinced of the wrongfulness of the act and amend himself.
Now comes the next question, can we always debate and convince? To this John Stuart Mill is crystal clear. He says “if you cannot convince someone of wrong, it might not be wrong after all”. Now comes some abstract ideas like blasphemy, religion, sentiments, etc. People live with all kinds of prejudices, biases and opinions. In a democracy, right is what the majority believe irrespective of whether it is wrong or right. That is exactly what BJP is trying to do. Make hate the bottom line of the majority and you will be able to manufacture opinions and manipulate people like a pied piper. Then how about rational thinking? Who will guard that?
Courts? In the recent 2G spectrum scam, most of the allegedly guilty offenders were denied bail taking into consideration the public sentiments. In case of Afzal guru, the alleged master mind behind the attack on the parliament was given death penalty on circumstantial evidence. This is a worrying trend. Things are straying away from the rational path.
I think its time to put in an institutional mechanism to fight bigots, chauvinists and jingoists. By fight I am referring to debate. If you err here, you will end up like an Orwellian society. History has seen many such examples: Taliban, Khmer Rouge, Hitler, Stalin et al.We don’t want to create one more…
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