What is objectivity? At this point I am pretty sure a lot of us do not know that. We are anything but objective. Selectivity runs in our veins. I was not planning on writing this, or even saying anything on the topic. But I think, as a citizen of this country, a citizen who pays their fair share of Income tax, contributes to the society by participating in the day to day trade, abiding by laws and standing up for this country not just superficially but in every aspect, advocating and defending the flaws behind the few good things that this country has to offer, I am sad.

Not just sad, I am also angry at my fellow citizens. I want to read out Article 44 of the Indian Constitution:

Uniform civil code for the citizens The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India

Article 44 in the Constitution of India guarantees equal rights and civil code for all residents of this country. We are celebrating “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav” - 75th year of Independence, my quarter century old eyes are still not able to see those rights being equal.

At this point, I think we all know what I am talking about.

Truth, Lies

Excess of everything is harmful they say. Even cocaine taken at extremely low amounts is sometimes beneficial for health. As soon as we hit that tipping point, things start going downhill.

It’s exactly how information works. During the radio era, most of the information was controlled by government, which was bad. But now, information is democratised. We have such an access to the information that we are not able to classify between noise and news. In some senses, news has become a noise (Special mention to our beloved TV Journalists).

Truth is often hard to find. Truth is generally harsh, and boring. Truth is not instagram worthy. And that is why Indian Right is not popular. It is seen as a regressive thought process. What we generally miss is that the Indian Left, is extremely far from the true left. BJP is more reform friendly and works for marginalised small communities these days. But that is not seen as left these days.

Left in today’s definition is anything or anyone who can oppose what Modi/BJP (Since they have become synonyms sadly) does. Just for the hate for one man or one party, they can sacrifice the truth. Mind you, Modi/BJP is no saint. Meanwhile, Objectivity has left the chat.

Blasphemy Laws and Free Speech

We all know we have a problem in this country. People in this country are extremely intolerant about their religion. They get angry at small things. The thin line here is that Blasphemy against Hindu/Jain/Buddhist gods will get you into deep trouble. Someone might lodge an FIR (Obviously as Blasphemy laws exist - In 2022), and you will have shitloads of trouble at your doorsteps. But then Blasphemy against other communities will invite people with knives in your home/shop/workplace.

Blasphemy is a double edged sword. We saw how Md. Zubair advocated for people to be put in jail for blasphemy and now he himself is in jail for the same thing. If what he advocated for was not wrong, then putting him in jail is also not wrong. But in my view, what he advocated for was also wrong and his arrest is also wrong.

Free speech is a myth. No speech ever was, is and ever will be free. Free speech absolutists like me exist but then at the same time I can’t stand double standards. Either there is free speech for all or none. It can’t be both ways.

Visuals and Holocaust Deniers

A tragic event happened in Udaipur. Those who did that are not terrorists. Don’t make this mistake. They are normal citizens like you and me. They are between us. We need to understand what they did. There was a line that they said:

gustakh-e-nabi ki ek hi saza, sar tan se juda sar tan se juda

Where did they learn this from? Who made it so normal?

Obviously our schools are not teaching this! Obviously their parents won’t teach this. It’s coming from elsewhere. Because if we don’t find the root cause of the issue, a whole community gets painted in a color, and to be quite honest at this point I don’t feel so safe in this country.

UCC or the Uniform Civil Code, becomes an absolute priority for this nation now.

A Kashmiri Pandit woman ate rice soaked with her husband’s blood to save her family in 1990’s. We should treat that event as landmark and itch this Udaipur incident in our brains and never forget, never forgive.

Remember, if it can happen to a common man in Udaipur, me and you are not so uncommon. It’s time we wake up and ask for what is necessary.

Conclusion? There is no conclusion. Institutional punishment to blasphemy invites private citizens to believe that they can also do it. Blasphemy laws should be removed. Period.