So, just when you thought that the Government was neck deep, reeling under a hoard of "real" issues like the Jan Lokpal Bill, Food Inflation and the poverty debate, Kapil Sibal gives you his New Year's present.
Too soon, Sir. We have another month to go before that.
For first timers on this issue, you must understand that I am already under the government radar now for having maligned a Cabinet Minister. For, apparently, voicing an opinion in this country is "offensive" and demands censorship.
Right to Freedom - of speech, opinion and expression - is enshrined in the country's constitution as one of the Fundamental Rights of every citizen of India. Any Indian, may at any point in time, express his / her dissatisfaction with the governance, as long as the views do not qualify as being seditious in nature. The liberal outlook of the Indian press today, is a case in point.
Now, my question to Mr. Kapil Sibal is, what is suddenly so grossly inappropriate for us, the same citizen of India, to express dissatisfaction through social media sites? Sir, we need to understand three key points here.
a) That expressing dissatisfaction can happen through a number of ways.
b) That the real culprits of such public defamation is not necessarily the ones who harbor such "offensive" opinion.
c) That "Censorship" of opinion is not the answer. It is, quite the opposite of it.
So, my first point.
The first reality a politician must learn to live with, in a country as huge and diverse as India is that, not every one will blindly follow your ideas, accept your leadership and root for you. This lets you understand, that there will always be individuals waiting for the slightest of opportunities wherein you fail, to take advantage and turn the tables against you.
As such, a sound advice would be to "ignore". And definitely, to change such opinion by working towards appeasing them by ensuring the greater good of the country than by suppressing their views. This part on suppressing their views, I shall come to, when I discuss the third point.
Now, this "expression of dissatisfaction" - the central theme of the point I'm talking about, does happen through a number of ways. Till about half a decade back, micro-blogging was next to non-existential. But, today, you can't escape the wrath of the "public". Yes, this is not the representatives of the fourth estate, whose opinions you had the option of buying out. This is hard core "real" stuff. Opinions of people like me, or like the many other seemingly "ordinary" Indians, who will not stop.
This brings me to the second reality a politician must learn to live with, in a country like India. This, is rather unfortunate. A large section of our population still lacks the ability to express their views in a decent, responsible manner. I'm not supporting them, for that is absolutely unacceptable. But again, it is something you HAVE to deal with. Put simply, you signed up for this!
If your answer to that is curbing their rights to express, by means of censorship, you are certainly mistaken, Sir.
Now, my second point.
The main culprits of such irresponsible expression of views is not the ones who do so. Its you, yourself, Sir. You've failed to tap their faith in you. Why? Oh, why else? Scam after scam, after scam. Need I say any more? I'm not going vent my dissatisfaction on each of those here - and trust me, I will sometime - but I'm just merely trying to give you a reflection.
Public opinion of the masses is very volatile. Like I mentioned, there are people just waiting for the slightest of opportunities. And Sir, it would be a mere understatement for us to accept that we have given quite a number of such opportunities over the last couple of years.
If you just give it a minute, you can easily realize how your policy decisions, the very minutest of them, can cause a big stir in as far as popular sentiment is concerned. Hence, don't act surprised if there are people responding in the negative.
On a more obvious note, every social media organization have their own set of rules and regulations. Content which is seditious or that which incites violence or differences between sets of people is automatically censored. There is no need for the Government to step in, not at least when such stepping in happens when people speak out against an individual - meeting no parameters of sedition or incitement of violence!
And the third point, finally.
If there is something for you to learn from such "pages" - it is to know where you are falling short of the expectations. Hell, you want their votes in a couple of years!
Curbing their rights and censoring their views only makes it worse! You might as well analyze their opinions, take the positive criticism and improve. Your report card is certainly not all that impressive, anyway!
This was not a rant. Nor was this intended to malign anyone. This was just a simple observation cum commentary.
Yours faithfully,
The Aam Aadmi; who is going to vote, come 2014.
Too soon, Sir. We have another month to go before that.
For first timers on this issue, you must understand that I am already under the government radar now for having maligned a Cabinet Minister. For, apparently, voicing an opinion in this country is "offensive" and demands censorship.
Right to Freedom - of speech, opinion and expression - is enshrined in the country's constitution as one of the Fundamental Rights of every citizen of India. Any Indian, may at any point in time, express his / her dissatisfaction with the governance, as long as the views do not qualify as being seditious in nature. The liberal outlook of the Indian press today, is a case in point.
Now, my question to Mr. Kapil Sibal is, what is suddenly so grossly inappropriate for us, the same citizen of India, to express dissatisfaction through social media sites? Sir, we need to understand three key points here.
a) That expressing dissatisfaction can happen through a number of ways.
b) That the real culprits of such public defamation is not necessarily the ones who harbor such "offensive" opinion.
c) That "Censorship" of opinion is not the answer. It is, quite the opposite of it.
So, my first point.
The first reality a politician must learn to live with, in a country as huge and diverse as India is that, not every one will blindly follow your ideas, accept your leadership and root for you. This lets you understand, that there will always be individuals waiting for the slightest of opportunities wherein you fail, to take advantage and turn the tables against you.
As such, a sound advice would be to "ignore". And definitely, to change such opinion by working towards appeasing them by ensuring the greater good of the country than by suppressing their views. This part on suppressing their views, I shall come to, when I discuss the third point.
Now, this "expression of dissatisfaction" - the central theme of the point I'm talking about, does happen through a number of ways. Till about half a decade back, micro-blogging was next to non-existential. But, today, you can't escape the wrath of the "public". Yes, this is not the representatives of the fourth estate, whose opinions you had the option of buying out. This is hard core "real" stuff. Opinions of people like me, or like the many other seemingly "ordinary" Indians, who will not stop.
This brings me to the second reality a politician must learn to live with, in a country like India. This, is rather unfortunate. A large section of our population still lacks the ability to express their views in a decent, responsible manner. I'm not supporting them, for that is absolutely unacceptable. But again, it is something you HAVE to deal with. Put simply, you signed up for this!
If your answer to that is curbing their rights to express, by means of censorship, you are certainly mistaken, Sir.
Now, my second point.
The main culprits of such irresponsible expression of views is not the ones who do so. Its you, yourself, Sir. You've failed to tap their faith in you. Why? Oh, why else? Scam after scam, after scam. Need I say any more? I'm not going vent my dissatisfaction on each of those here - and trust me, I will sometime - but I'm just merely trying to give you a reflection.
Public opinion of the masses is very volatile. Like I mentioned, there are people just waiting for the slightest of opportunities. And Sir, it would be a mere understatement for us to accept that we have given quite a number of such opportunities over the last couple of years.
If you just give it a minute, you can easily realize how your policy decisions, the very minutest of them, can cause a big stir in as far as popular sentiment is concerned. Hence, don't act surprised if there are people responding in the negative.
On a more obvious note, every social media organization have their own set of rules and regulations. Content which is seditious or that which incites violence or differences between sets of people is automatically censored. There is no need for the Government to step in, not at least when such stepping in happens when people speak out against an individual - meeting no parameters of sedition or incitement of violence!
And the third point, finally.
If there is something for you to learn from such "pages" - it is to know where you are falling short of the expectations. Hell, you want their votes in a couple of years!
Curbing their rights and censoring their views only makes it worse! You might as well analyze their opinions, take the positive criticism and improve. Your report card is certainly not all that impressive, anyway!
This was not a rant. Nor was this intended to malign anyone. This was just a simple observation cum commentary.
Yours faithfully,
The Aam Aadmi; who is going to vote, come 2014.
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