Free speech: Only an act in India?

The story of two college-going girls being arrested for an innocuous post depicts an intolerant India and a dangerous trend.

Shaheen Dhada and Renu Srinivasan, the two arrested girls

Slightly overcome by sentiment, one is reminded of iconic American singer Johnny Cash's famous line: 'I don't know where we went wrong...'

Doubtlessly, millions of netizens in India too would today be identifying with Cash's emotion even as the story of two college-going girls being arrested for an innocuous Facebook post dominated news headlines across the print and electronic media. Almost thumbing their noses at the rights provided to Indian citizens under the nation's sacred Constitution, Mumbai police had on Monday arrested two girls.

Shaheen Dhada was held for posting a Facebook comment that questioned the logic behind shutting down an entire city in the wake of a Bal Thackery’s death. She had written: 'People like Thackeray are born and die daily and one should not observe a bandh for that. We should remember Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev, two martyrs of India's independence struggle.'

Her friend, Renu Srinivasan, was arrested for merely 'liking' the Facebook update.

Bizarre? Well, welcome to 21st century India, the global powerhouse in information technology and the land of astonishingly inflexible I-T laws. It is only here that one can be arrested, no matter how young or harmless one is, for as insignificant a thing as questioning something that does not really make sense.

And we take pride in calling ourselves the world's largest democracy!

The arrest of the two girls - who were later granted bail following nationwide furore and outrage over the 'illegal' confinement - also brings into sharp focus the Section 66 of the amended Information Technology Act.

This almost Draconian law states that transmission of any text, audio or video that is offensive or has a menacing character can land a sender in jail. The punishment will also be attracted if the content is false and has been transmitted for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger or insult.

Nowhere have any clear definitions of these purportedly offensive words been given, leaving everything wide open to contrasting interpretations.

The girl who posted the post got her Facebook account deactivated for fear of a further backlash from the Shiv Sainiks. She and her friend both apologised profusely, regretting the incident and saying that Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray was a great man.

However, they also wonder what wrong, or crime, did they actually commit. 

This sets a bad, and dangerous, precedent and shows India in poor light in the world. Such instances demonstrate that despite its 'unity in diversity' slogans and 'tolerance towards all' axioms and 'fastest growing economy' claims, India largely remains shackled to archaic beliefs and dogmas and one has to think twice before expressing one's view on any eminent personality, irrespective of how innocent the opinion might be.

The two girls who were arrested were told by the Mumbai police that they had 'hurt religious sentiments'. We already know what the girl had posted: one wonders how in the world can it be construed as something that hurts religious sentiments.

The scared girls say they have apologised for their actions because they fear for their and their families' safety and hurting someone was not their intention.

These should not be the words of a fearless 21-year-old girl who posted what she thought was the correct thing to do. But what other alternative does the poor girl have when a violent mob of vandals attacks and ransacks her uncle's orthopaedic clinic in Mumbai, causing damages over Rs 2 million. 

The police action of arresting the girls and the goons' violent act were criticised profusely and under heavy pressure, the girls were granted bail. A probe too has been ordered into the arrest, but will that be enough to heal the scars on a young mind? 

We are taught to be fearless and say the right thing. We have been told that free speech is our fundamental right. Wonder if these are just plain words, or is their import more significant: something on which the foundations of this nation were laid.

Such incidents tend to shake up our belief systems and question all that we learnt about our democratic values.

Meanwhile, Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal -- who is the main architect of the I-T Act that has been giving Indian netizens ulcers -- termed the arrests of the two girls 'illegal' and said that the cops had acted in haste and were wrong in detaining the girls. Minister of State for IT and Telecommunications Mr.Milind Deora slammed the Mumbai police for acting in haste for arresting two girls for their facebook post. Mr.Deora said that the question isn’t about amending 66A of the IT (Information Technology) Act, its about preventing misuse by the police, who clearly acted in haste and applied wrong section of IPC and the IT Act. This was written by Mr.Deora on his social networking site Twitter. The statements of people like Mr.Sibal and Mr.Deora do make us feel that we have the right people sitting at the right place but they need to change the wrong people from the right place.

Be that as it may, even as cyberspace and right-minded people criticise this abhorrent act, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut has said that his party supports the arrest of the two young women. 

"We support the police's action," Sanjay Raut said, adding, "the Facebook comments could have led to a law and order situation."

A global PR campaign to sell India as a tourist destination to foreigners has the tagline 'Incredible India'. But lately India hardly appears to be incredible; it seems to be metamorphosing into an intolerant entity.

From our leaders fuming at the slightest provocation to khap panchayats doling out punishment to those who dare go against their 'rules', India is in danger of slowly turning to a regressive state.

Why does the Pakistan cricket team that will soon tour India to play three ODIs and two T20 games have to wait for clearance from religious fanatics? Why does someone get arrested merely for jotting their thoughts on Facebook?

Threats like this are a grave danger to India as a few self-appointed moral guardians seek to stifle our freedom and have taken it upon themselves to correct all that is 'not correct' in their antiquated books. Trends like these if not nipped in the bud will not only embarrass at the global high table that we aspire to sit at, but also push us to the brink of a Talibanised society.

And we will not be remembered for being the largest democracy but as the largest anarchy in the world.

Courtest Anirban Choudhury