The Centre on Wednesday assured Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen shelter in India but urged her to "refrain from activities and expressions" that may hurt people. Should artists refrain from expressing their views? IBNLive readers and CNN-IBN’s Senior Editor Sagarika Ghose debated this in a chat on Wednesday.
Vijayraghavan: What exactly has Taslima Nasreen said about Allah or Prophet Mohammed that is blasphemous? It seems she has written derogatory remarks about the Islamic clergy, rather than Allah or the Prophet per say. Are remarks against clergy blasphemy?
Sagarika Ghose: I agree, most of those who are protesting against Taslima have almost certainly never read her books. She writes about the persecution that Hindus have faced at the hands of the Muslims in Bangladesh. There's nothing that is directly offensive to religion.
Bindu Tandon: Is Taslima being hounded because she is a Muslim? And the Muslim right does not want to discuss reform in the religion and least with a woman who says that Islam has accorded in practice a lower status to women? But in addition she is a cipher for the politicians who have made a profession of equivocation.
One word from Sonia Gandhi will quell the ardour of the Muslim right-wingers but the position is to empty the situation of most of its drama before the Congress chief will say a word. Our politicians have been presented with an opportunity to discuss literature, liberty and libertarianism. But will they take it? That’s bad politics and we are in the thick of it. C'est la vie!
Sagarika Ghose: Sad that the greater issues such as liberty are concerned irrelevant to those who are in quest for votes. It make us believe that we are not really a democracy in spirit and behaviour, instead we are only a psephocracy, where the only ‘democracy’ we have is the regular vote-casting and vote-counting circus. The rest of our society, the rest of the time is pretty authoritarian!
Nand Kumar: Don’t you think that a country which preaches tolerance is becoming intolerant?
Sagarika Ghose: Yes, that’s true. It’s the politicians, who swear by democracy, who are dealing a body blow to democracy by the slogans they use and the issues they take up.
CROSSING THE LIMIT?
Farzad: Everybody talks about freedom of speech, but what you will do if I abuse you or your family in public? Will you protect me for freedom of speech?
Sagarika Ghose: We are talking about artistic and intellectual freedom here, not the freedom of an individual to talk about another. Of course there are laws in society which we must abide by, but an artist or an intellectual is not someone who should be restricted by rules. Else, how will they create? How will their imaginations roam free? How will they ask subversive questions?
M Vijay Balaji: Freedom of expression should have limits, but who decides the limits?
Sagarika Ghose: Freedom of expression does have its limits and the limits are generally laid down by the Indian Constitution when it comes to public actions and speeches but when it comes to art, I believe that freedom is absolute.
Rajesh: I feel that Taslima is relishing the publicity. I am not convinced that she is a true representative of freedom of speech.
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Sagarika Ghose: There are certainly many authors and artists who seek publicity for publcity's sake. Taslima could well be one of those. But the fact is that it’s not her we should worry about it, it’s the freedom she represents that is of crucial importance. As Nehru said, freedom is indivisible. If we keep quiet on Taslima now, tomorrow someone will pass all sorts of laws curtailing our rights and we will not have the means to protest.
Aniruddh Mazumdar: Taslima Nasreen loves and survives on controversies. Controversies have been her bread and butter. She will have a much wider audience now for her anti-Islamic writings. Kolkata’s ‘intellectuals’ have always pampered her as a flag bearer of women's lib and she must be delighted with all this attention. But does Taslima warrant that much of news space? Are we not wasting our time on someone who loves to play to the gallery?
Sagarika Ghose: Whether she's a good writer or not, whether she seeks publicity or not, a writer's freedom is the duty of democratic India. Our tradition has always nurtured the subversives, the rebels and those who questioned society. We are a nation of iconoclasts. Taslima the individual is not that important, but what she represents IS of great importance.
Vijay: Be it about Ram or Rahim, writers in India are crossing the limit. I feel there should be limits because if provocation is permitted then the country will not remain safe for long.
Sagarika Ghose: You sound like a Nazi!
Ravi: Leave Taslima alone, and things will settle down. As long as the politicians and media keep getting mileage out of this issue, forget any solution!
Sagarika Ghose: We are not seeking “mileage” from the issue. We are concerned about the issue of artistic freedom. Anyone who loves and respects our long tradition of art and rebellious writing would hate to see any kind of freedom being curtailed. Anybody who is truly religious would know that God will not be damaged by any book or painting.
Karthik: You are misusing your channel to show your personal opinions influenced by your Leftist leanings. You can’t digest your food without bashing Modi and praising Communists (aka pseudo secularists). Why don’t you rename your channel as CPM-IBN?
Sagarika Ghose: Don’t think any other channel has been as vocal in critcising the Left as we have been. You should read our blogs and watch our programmes before abusing us.
PARTY TIME FOR POLITCIANS
Santosh Reddy: Don’t you think that the BJP is trying to make controversy of everything the government does?
Sagarika Ghose: The BJP is asking for political refugee status for Taslima only because her writings suit their political purpose. If it were any other writer, the BJP would not be bothered. A number of Muslims have spoken out on the need for her to stay in India: there are many liberal and moderate Muslims who oppose the fundamentalist forces within their own community very strongly.
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SD: How do you see the role of Congress in this whole issue? It claims to be a secular party.
Sagarika Ghose: The Congress is hardly secular, it only believes it is. A party that masterminded the killing of 2,700 Sikhs cannot be secular. It was the Congress that encouraged the Muslim fundamentalists on the Shah Bano judgment; it was Rajiv Gandhi who allowed Shilanyas at Ayodhya. The Congress is a past master at encouraging the worst elements in a community and using them for votes. It’s a shame that the government or the UPA has not made any statement on the Taslima issue.
Suman Sengupta: Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and his government find it convenient to keep Taslima out of Kolkata and protect their Muslim vote bank. Such people have no right to call themselves secular and communal.
Sagarika Ghose: Sure, the Taslima issue has certainly destroyed some of the CPM’s proud ‘secularism’.
M F HUSAIN AND TASLIMA NASREEN
Swaminathan: Should we not draw a line to keep amity in the society? People supporting Taslima denounced M F Husain’s paintings. Why should we at all allow our country to be a potboiler for such damaging events?
Sagarika Ghose: Protests against artists are all politically organised. If you went to an exhibition and saw a painting of a nude Saraswati, what would you do? Immediately lead a morcha against the artist and start screaming for his murder? No, right? Instead, you would look at the painting and simply move on, if it was not to your taste. Those who have the time and energy to protest and scream and shout are nothing but politicians.
S Sundararaman: Do you think the comparison between Taslima and M F Husain is tenable? Husain fled India to avoid the legal process while Taslima is on the run to save herself from violence?
Sagarika Ghose: Husain and Taslima are very similar. Both face attacks from fundamentalists from the Hindu and the Muslim community for being artists. Husain does not just face legal cases: many groups have issued death threats on him, said they want to gouge out his eyes and behead him. I wish such anger was reserved for the corrupt and the criminal, not directed at those who harmlessly paint pictures or write books.
Gaurav: Bal Thackeray is allowed to spit venom in public? He is facing trial for his writings in Saamna after the Babri Masjid demolition. Then how can freedom be absolute?
Sagarika Ghose: Bal Thackeray is a politician not an artist or writer. As an artist or cartoonist (which he is) he has the right to say whatever he wants from my point of view. But as a politician, he has to abide by the rules of democratic behaviour, which means recognising that fundamental rights exist only because we have fundamental duties not to cause damage to the democratic structure in which we live.
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Omar: Don't you think that Taslima has misused her freedom of expression? I am a Muslim but I don't have any right to condemn and write about religion, which she has done in Dwikhandita?
Sagarika Ghose: Can any artist or writer really cause harm to any religion? Can a single, small writer living in Kolkata harm a great religion like Islam? Of course not. Religion is like nature, even if people criticise it or abuse it, it goes on and remains as powerful as always. Religious sentiments are in their place, the rights of an artist are another. I think religion only becomes stronger is artists are free to question it in whatever way they want.
R Anand: Do you think West Bengal Government did correct thing by shunting Taslima out?
Sagarika Ghose: No I think the government did completely the wrong thing. In 1985 when the Rajiv Gandhi government brought the Muslim Personal Law Bill in Parliament, the West Bengal government opposed the compromise with fundamentalist forces within the Muslim community. Now it seems the government is pandering to it, so worried is it about the fact that a majority of peasants in Nandigram were Muslim, also that the Muslim community is very agitated over the Rizwanur Rehman case. So now the Marxists are so scared of losing the support of the Mullahs that they are destroying the freedoms of a writer.
Balvinder: In the larger interest of the country, instead of raking a meaningless debate on freedom of artistic expression we should deport Taslima.
Sagarika Ghose: Does religious hurt override artistic freedom? That is the important question. Taslima is simply a political football—every political party is using the issue to try and reach out to their real or imaginary votebanks. But artistic freedom is a very real issue and needs to be guarded jealously. Otherwise the only artists and writers we'll have in India will be those hired for state and party propaganda.
AB: Taslima has every right to pen her feelings, but don’t you because of her the ‘communal’ environment may get spoiled?
Sagarika Ghose: Taslima believes that India and West Bengal is her home and she faces persecution in Bangladesh. We have a long tradition of giving people refuge in India, and Taslima should be our guest. After all, atithi devo bhava! (A guest is like God) Why should Taslima change her residence just because of the political agendas of extremist groups?
M K Banerjee: The middle class and elite do not take interest in electoral process. As a result, right candidates are not elected in the end. Democracy becomes dangerous when people are not conscious and the wrong people are elected.
Sagarika Ghose: Democracy is not only about casting votes. It is about abiding by certain values: values of social equality, artistic freedom, engagement in civil society, and participating in public life. Sitting secluded in our own homes, trapped by suspicions about everybody is not democratic behaviour. Our middle class is far too isolated and it has failed to stand up for its basic freedoms. We are busy living in our private homes, with our private electricity and private schools and private transport and private spaces, with no engagement with the public sphere.
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