Saturday, August 11, 2007

Taslima Nasreen and Salman Rushdie

Taslima Nasreen writes against Islam, that is what we are told by some people who consider themselves legitimate mediators between the almighty and ordinary mortals. The government of India does not ban her books [only government of west bengal did], gives her political asylum in India and she is free to preach her cult of anti-Islamic feminism in her Bangladeshi British accent. Fair enough. India is a secular society and is also trying to be a tolerant one and the Indian state should give a democratic platform to people who are deprived of that platform in their own countries.
Salman Rushdie too once wrote against Islam, Salman Rushdie is a person of Indian origin. The Indian state banned his book and made sure that the circumstances were such that he is never able to enter India and visit his native city of Mumbai without fear. Indian state at that instance did not uphold it's secular and freedom of speech values for an Indian citizen.

My belief is that if we had treated Salman Rushdie through our demicratic principles, what happened to Taslima Nasreen in Hyderabad would probably had not happened.

Someone should remind our policy makers the old adage "what you sow is what you reap"

Jai Hind.