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| Vote bank politics is unfair | | | KHUSHWANT S RANIAL | 5/21/2012 11:09:51 PM |
| It looks as if Indian parliamentarians are always looking out for an emotive issue to be exploited for cashing political gains. But always playing vote bank politics particularly when emotive issues are involved is quite unfair .
No doubt, democratic set up does afford equal chance to openly express one's feelings but such feelings must not be exploited beyond limits at the cost of liberty offered by the democracy. This is a dangerous practice which we undeniably adopt to meet our desired end.
Recently in the parliament, our parliamentarians protested against the cartoon of Dr. Ambedkar carried in class XI NCERT book -' Indian Constitution at work' riding on the snail with a whip in the hand followed by the Pt. J.L.Nehru with a whip in his hand produced by renowned cartoonist Shankar in the 1949 .
The cartoon made by the Shankar , a renowned visionary cartoonist was to remind members of the drafting committee led by Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedka , about the amount of delay in finalizing the draft of our revered constitution. What is more surprising to know that for whom such caricature was made ,themselves shown tolerance to Mr. Shankar's act and acknowledged the spirit of the cartoonist without holding any ill will or malice against him . They took it in lighter vein by showing their staunch support for the freedom of thought, expression and speech in a democracy.
Further ,it is on record to state that Dr. Ambedkar had himself once said that there is nothing wrong in being grateful to great men who have rendered lifelong services to the nation but there are limits to gratefulness...no nation can be grateful at the cost of liberty. Apart, much earlier to this incident Sh. J . L .Nehru while inaugurating the weekly of Shankar in 1948 had himself encouraged Shankar to not spare him even projecting the thing in the best interest of this nation. Since both of the legendary intellectuals were of the view that democracy is the only tunnel through which one can peep the outside world to ventilate one's emotions so they rather taking it to the heart mocked at the cartoonist's venture to carry on with his business in the near future with the same zeal and spirit .
But how much sad, it is to admit that our present leaders have stooped to so low levels that one cannot even dream and think of. Such is the panic of the caste based politics that apparently even sober legislators of all parties jumped in to support the suppression of the cartoon oblivious of the fact that both the victims themselves promoted the cause of the cartoonist in satirical manner.
Someone has rightly said that intellectuals do not waste time on the trivial issues .Instead they debate on the healthy subjects to find useful solutions that can lead the state and society forward .Only absurd's have plenty of time to ponder over irrelevant subject to show their presence. Had these well wishers been so alert then why they did not take up this issue when the cartoon was first published in the year 2006. Why they did not find anything objectionable and against the norms for all these years. What made them to wait so long? I t means that they were either not aware of or uninterested to pursue owing to their certain compulsions.
On the intervention of HRD Minister Sh. Kapil Sibal ,the cartoon has been removed and further the Minister has given assurance to the well of the house to look into the other publications of NCERT to set the tings right before something ugly turn hostile or dangerous .I t is really disturbing to note that the NCERT ex advisor Suhas Palishkar 's office was ransacked at Pune in the aftermath row in Parliament .The Ex advisor reacted by stating that "the caricature was a symbol of the progressive outlook in education".
This incident shows that Parliament is no longer a platform for meaningful debates of dignified parliamentarian's .Noise and muscles powers are used to settle the scores. The cry of the parliamentarians that these cartoons will spread a wrong notion of the politicians is a self serving congratulatory observation but a hollow argument adding insult to the independent thinkers. In the light of the discussion, it can be concluded that Indian political set up has many miles to traverse before it transforms into a mature vibrant democracy.
Remember intellectual advances made by our civilisation would have been impossible without freedom of speech but hero worship is surely leading a road to degradation .So they leaders must stop it and project right things at the right time for unifying the nation rather bent on cheap politics to pursue vote bank politics based on the castes etc. |
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