The recent stretch of events is beckoning the society towards a grim road of intorelence and vandalistic approach towards disagreement. Various incidents come to my mind when i consider the violent response to a piece of art, speech or expression. Salman Rushdie being debarred to attend a video conference at the Jaipur Fim Festival, Taslima Nasreen's books being banned, M F Hussain being sent virtually to exile or Kashmiri filmmakers condemned for making films of Human Right violations of Indian Army in the ever sensitive region of Kashmir, all signal towards a sad reality of today- Heckler's Veto.
I came accross this word in a national daily few days back and it intrigued me to the core. A heckler is a one who disapproves of an idea hypocritically and while he cannot back it up with proper logic, he thrusts his views on others with violence. While change and protests are an integral component of a democratic society, we can't afford to get it done at the barrel of the gun! Personalities like M F Hussain, Taslima Nasreen or Salman Rushdie have a intellectual or artistic career spanned over atleast 20-25 years and a single piece of their work may be offending. One may oppose a single work of these artists but can we ban the artist himself/herself? Few regional polarising powers are at work and it seems there is oppurtunistic politics at its blatent best.
The sad part of the whole episode is that the organizers and the state governments lack the spine and fail to provide safety and safeguard constitutional rights. We need to be a community which is so confident that a single person cannot change the whole dynamics of our belief system. The Supreme Court sits at the helm of things and the people who oppose an idea or a creations can always take the legal course of action.
I fear a world where many potential M F Hussains would think twice before brings their imaginations to colours or potential Salman Rushdies refrain from writting something with the fear that people may threaten his life. In the words of Voltaire, " I sometimes hate what you write, but i will give to my death the right you have to write."
