FREEDOM
OF INTOLERANCE
appears to be available aplenty in our country, and rides
over the so-called ‘fundamental right’ of freedom of speech and expression. The
raw deal meted out to the famous actor and producer, Kamal Haasan, by intolerant
Muslim groups agitating for a ban on his film Viswaroopam and the connivance of the TN Government under
Jayalalitha with them is but one very recent instance. Not only intolerance of
various ways of life, of creeds and modes of worship, and manners of regions
and cultures is the order of the day, but even intolerance of intolerance seems
to be irrationally omniscient. True a KCR, or a Kodanda Ram or a Lagadapati or
Undavelli might have said some nasty things in their fiery mood but what of all
these nauseating FIRs etc. lodged and, gosh, directions by the lower judiciary
in various regions to register them? Don’t all these too amount to intolerance
of the very freedom of speech and expression which, as Salman Rushdie rightly
puts it, includes the freedom to offend too? Isn’t Daniel Gilbert correct in
saying: “Hateful, blasphemous, prejudiced, vulgar, rude, or ignorant remarks are
the music of a free society, and the relentless patter of idiots is how we know
we're in one. When all the words in our public conversation are fair, good and
true, it's time to make a run for the fence”? And to
quote Louis Brandeis’ wisdom: “Fear of serious injury alone
cannot justify oppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and
burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of
irrational fears” and “The fact that speech is
likely to result in some violence or in destruction of property is not enough
to justify its suppression. There must be the probability of serious injury to
the State. Among free men, the deterrents ordinarily to be applied to crime are
education and punishment for violations of the law, not abridgements of the
rights of free speech and assembly.” To these sterling words, it is
only to be added that the laws framed must also be in promotion and not for
derogation of the freedom of speech and expression and a periodic review of any
such repressive laws, e.g. Section 153A (which even Jinnah disapproved) and the later 153B of IPC, etc. in the spirit of defence of free
speech is essential. And the superior courts should wake up and forthwith put
an end to this virtual orgy of FIRs and counter-FIRs and bans on films, etc. on
flimsy pretexts. §§§
