by Dr. Jaipal Singh
A few other well-known restrictions on the freedom of expression and right to dissent during the Nehruvian era briefly include: (1) import of any newspaper that supposedly undermined friendly relations with any state was banned; (2) import of any (perceived) obscene drawing or painting was banned; (3) Historian Dharampal was arrested and imprisoned in Tihar jail along with two associates Narendra Datta and Roop Narayan for criticizing Nehru post-1962 Indo-China War; (4) President Rajendra Prasad's speech was barred from distribution; (5) Draconian Press (Objectionable Matter) Act, 1951 was passed; (6) Sharat Babu's play ‘Mahesh' and Tagore's plays ‘Gora' and ‘Bishorjon' were banned; (7) Balraj Sahni's play ‘Jadu Ji Kursi' was banned; (8) and Harmonium and Western Pop Music were banned on All India Radio; Poet Mazrooh Sultanpuri was jailed for two years for criticizing Nehru as Hitler in a poem on the charges of sedition; 1st elected Communist government in Kerala was dismissed by the Nehru government in 1959.
Films banned on such grounds as being amoral, depicting double standards, bold story line, sexually explicit scenes, depiction of violence and riots, showing the plight of refugees, overt political overtones, Sino-Indian War, unacceptable psychological motivation, and so on; Dilip Kumar's Jugnu in 1947, Protima Dasgupta's Jharna in1948, Mrinal Sen's Neel Akasher Neechey in 1959, IS Johar's Nastik in 1954, Bhul Na Jana in 1962, Gokul Shankar in 1963. In the post Nehruvian era too, Film Aandhi was banned in 1975 on the pretext that it was based on Indira Gandhi's family life, Kissa Kursi Ka banned in 1977 for somewhat same reason, and Amu initially denied permission in 1984 for being based on 1984 anti-Sikh riots but later allowed after many severe cuts. More recently, film The Kerala Story depicting how ISIS terrorists trap young girls through love-jihad was banned by Mamta Banejee led TMC government in the state of West Bengal in May 2023. As against this, despite opposition in a section of public against few films such as ‘Padmavat', their release and screening have not been stopped by the Modi government at centre or any other state BJP governments.
During the Nehru regime, a weekly journal “Cross Roads” by Romesh Thapar was banned by the Madras State for publishing critical views on Nehruvian policy. Thapar petitioned the Supreme Court against the ban which delivered a landmark judgment on 26 May 1950 in his favor, the first of this kind on freedom of speech and public order. Following this, the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951 was passed at the behest of Jawaharlal Nehru to overcome judicial decisions in fulfillment of the government's perceived policies and programs for the sake of the stated “abuse of freedom of speech and expression”. Subsequently, his daughter and late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi made many arbitrary changes in the Constitution through the 42nd Amendment during Emergency in 1975 which almost changed the nature and spirit of the Indian Constitution. Late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi too used massive parliamentary mandate to enact legislation in Shahbano case to overthrow the Supreme Court judgment in pursuance of the appeasement of Muslim clergy and radical elements. With this own gory history, leaders of the Congress and allied opposition parties continue a tirade against the Modi government that they are out to destroy Constitution and stifle freedom of expression and speech.
Intolerance: Attack on Minorities,
Dalits and Tribals
The Jinn of intolerance and current narrative of attack on minorities, dalits and tribals was set loose by the opposition in 2015 following the formation of the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A few isolated communal incidents such as a lynching case in Uttar Pradesh linked with the cow slaughter and the assassination of a left-leaning scholar-writer by unknown assailants in Karnataka was the immediate spark. The narrative of growing intolerance under changed regime was floated by the Congress and Left parties and soon escalated in a sort of movement against the Modi regime after a section of media, left-leaning liberal-intellectuals, some writers and cine artists like Nasiruddin Shah and Amir Khan joined it resorting to a wide criticism and adverse publicity. Although the movement subsided after few months but the narrative has been retained as anti-Modi government plank by the Congress and other opposition parties, who conveniently still use it from time to time in the context of minorities, mainly Muslims, and Dalits (scheduled castes) and tribal (scheduled tribes) population.
The net outcome of the two isolated cases quoted above suo moto ascribed to right-wing activists without any evidence was the maximum adverse publicity and flak from detractors to the nation and Modi regime. This author had identified a number of concurrent cases where the victims were Hindus with heinous acts of crime by the members of the minority community or insurgents/terrorists but none of these political parties, biased media and so-called intellectual-liberals ever made even a reference to these incidents; clearly a case of double standards owing to selfish interests. As for the issue of cow slaughter, approximately 40% Indians (most of them are Hindus) are vegetarian and even non-vegetarian Hindus do not endorse the killing of cows. Even Article 48 of Indian Constitution has mandated the prohibition of the slaughter of cows, calves, and other milch and draught cattle and the Supreme Court too in a landmark judgment in October 2005 had upheld the constitutional validity of anti-cow slaughter laws enacted by the states in India. In such case, using some isolated case(s) of crime related to cow slaughter to discredit the state and its government through a narrative of intolerance is grossly unfair to the nation and people.
The extreme case of double standards of certain political parties and their supporters & sympathizers in India is that they underplay the anti-Sikh riots and massacre of 1984 leading to the death of thousands of Sikhs and Godhra incident in Gujarat but rake the issue of the Gujarat riots of 2002 time and again wherein casualties of the minority community outnumbered the majority one in a communal backlash. They avoid even making a reference to the lakhs of Hindu and Sikh killings and exodus from the Kashmir Valley on 1990s but they fight for the illegal cause of the thousands of Rohingya Muslims and settlements thereof in various parts of India and for this even plead a case in the Supreme Court. They seldom talk about the plight of the tribal population of the north-eastern states forced to leave their traditional homes by the illegal Bangladeshis settlers but oppose the Citizens Amendment Act and National Citizens Register (NRC) citing it against the rights of the particular minority community. Recently, they raised much hue and cry in the accidental killing of Atiq Ahmad (a Muslim) on 15 April, a dreaded mafia don and gangster with more than a hundred cases of murder, kidnapping and extortion, giving it a communal colour but not a single voice was raised by the same politicians when another gangster Anil Dujana (a Hindu) was gunned down by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on 5 May 2023 in an encounter. Such is the strange paradox and hypocrisy of these politicians, and many of them including the Gandhi scion aspires to lead the nation someday as prime minister of a ruling party.
Volumes could be written on the instances, their repercussions and fall out, and consequent controversies and fake narratives projected nationally and internationally by the political leaders, biased media and left-leaning liberal-intellectuals in the name of the suppression of the freedom of expression and speech, and growing intolerance in India. The ground reality and status of the aforesaid class is entirely different and opposite. The last two Presidents of India have been chosen by the Modi government from the scheduled caste (Dalit) and scheduled tribe population. The Modi government has paid special attention and focus on these classes with many new schemes and commensurate resource allocation for their sustained development and progress. The commitment of the government for the tribal welfare and development could be learnt from the very fact that Prime Minister Modi has personally visited north-eastern states dozens of time during his tenure, which otherwise remained a largely ignored region by the previous governments. Though the government has not assigned any special status or new favor to the Muslim community but they too are enjoying the fruits of development and progress equally with other communities.
Epilogue
For his US visit, many detractors of the Gandhi scion have blamed him for associating and taking assistance from the groups, organizations and individuals who are directly linked to India's sworn enemy Pakistan and also with people and organizations that are well known “threat” to the Indian democracy. For instance, the Disinfo Lab, an organization associated with information-warfare and psychological-warfare, reportedly claimed in a series of tweets that meeting of Rahul Gandhi with non-resident Indians at the Javits Centre in New York is organized by individuals associated with the Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami and Muslim Brotherhood-linked fronts, which are funded and propagated by the Pakistan ISI. They also claimed that one of his organizers viz. Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) is a radical Islamic organization. Not only this, he was also seen associating with the likes of Minhaj Khan, Sunita Vishwanath, the latter with George Soros links, better known for their anti-India stand and activities. These are only some of the individuals and organizations which is certainly a cause of concern and discomfort for every patriotic Indian.
The very idea of seeking foreign assistance or intervention for the change of political regime at home appears quite ludicrous and scandalous, against the very concept of nation and patriotism. It's, however, obvious that the Gandhi scion is an unofficial head of the Congress Party and, except for his own conscience, no other person can influence or ask him to amend. As for his rhetoric on the democracy, intolerance, freedom of expression and speech, etc., the very fact that he can criticize and abuse India and its prime minister at will on the foreign soil itself vindicates the fallacy of his averments. At home too, he has been constantly addressing Prime Minister Modi as “Chor” (thief) without an iota of evidence or lead. The author also recalls ignominies freely sprung on Prime Minister Modi in the past by the members of the Gandhi family and other political opponents using such expletives as the mass murderer, poisonous person, liar and fraud, Maut ka Saudager, biggest Gunda, Butcher of Gujarat, Jallad, Neech (mean person), and so on. One wonders what more freedom of expression and speech as well as tolerance from Modi and his government is expected by such political leaders, their allied media persons and intellectuals/liberals.
concluded
