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Friday, September 14, 2012

The most intelligent comment I have read on the Aseem Trivedi controversy

COURTESY: AJIT NINAN/ToI
There have been many reports and editorial comments on the arrest in Mumbai last week of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi. But it is veteran journalist Salil Tripathi, whose writing I admire, who has put the whole issue in perspective.

And the issue, he writes in his column in Mint is not whether Trivedi's humour is juvenile or witty. That is irrelevant.

To be sure, the cartoons for which Trivedi landed in trouble are neither great works of art, nor are they necessarily funny. Like graffiti, some of his cartoons remind one of teenage toilet humour ...  But... his right to express himself is fundamental, even if it is a rant ... For the Constitution recognizes his right to express himself, without preaching violence. And he aims to taunt and ridicule, even if he may end up irritating and disgusting some. But that’s the point of the law.

And look how Tripathi treats the person who filed the case against Trivedi in the first place:

When the laws are wrong and the defendant acts to exercise his freedom, what is the state to do? Err on the side of freedom. And yet, unfortunately, from the police who registered the complaint of a random busybody (who shall remain nameless here, to deny him the oxygen of publicity he craves), and the prosecutor who decided to argue the case, and the magistrate, who thought it fit to admit the case, the state has capitulated again to the hypersensitive, insecure among us.

This is commentary of the highest order. Read the column in its entirety here: "Aseem Trivedi vs the State".

COURTESY: RAJNEESH KAPOOR

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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 16, 2012 at 2:24 AM

    "Bitter truth",after reading this article I can't resist to express my recently encountered situation.

    "your mobile number has won,$1000,000.00,in coca-cola lucky draw, congrats,please do claim your money,with all your details to MR MONGOLI ANTHONY at coca-colaanthony@gmail.com"

    Exactly the same thing,made my friend sunanda's father feel like king, well he gave all his detail and as a clearance fee also deposited Rs 18700, but that was not the end they charged more money to transfer it to his a/c,at this time sunanda's father realize something fishy and came to know it was too late,and he has lost his money which never going to get back.
    13th sep,now it's my uncle's turn he got the same thing and informed me about it,I thought,lets do something so that we can save people like sunand's father from the hand of those fraud, I start the process and replied them with all my fake id,on 14th morning I received a call from an unknown number,who called himself as MR ANTHONY,and told me that he has came to Delhi from all the way to England to give my money, huh! I enjoyed his irritating false accent of British English,as I worked few months in call centre,other than putting down the phone I talked to him with broken English to
    assure him that I am uneducated and am in there trap.Then they told me the same story about the money transfer and all,and asked me to pay them Rs22,500,and at that time I thought yes,I am in my track,and I asked them about the procedure that how can I pay them the money,they text me a e-mail id and asked my to pay it immediately,I agreed and told them "okay I am going to the bank right now just give one hour" they agreed, I dressed and get out of my place and went to the nearest bank,opps!, don't you dare me to thing I am a fool,I went to the police,but now the funny thing I encountered, when I told them all the story and showed them message and all,the on duty sub ins said in bengali "egulo shob vuo,charo bekar jhamela kore ki lab" (all this are fake,and not a fruitful work for us leave it)I told them about sunanda's father and also asked them that they are working freely and with the help of IMEI and bank a/c tracking it's very easy to arrest them, so why the hell you people are not interested, sub ins said" oto tracking faking bujhina,tumi koro,kore amae phone koro amra force pathiye debo"( we don't all those tracking thing if you know,then do it and catch them we will back up you with our force) I realised all my work is worthless and they never going to help me, so I came back and received ANTHONY's call once more and filled his ears with slang, well that much I can do,what else, after all those fraud are not CARTOONIST..

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