Lajja - for whom ??

From past few days I have been re-discovering the new meaning of democracy. The old version of democracy " Of the people, by the people and for the people "would soon get replaced by "Of the politics, by the politics and for the politics ". Do we need proofs for this?

I take the liberty of presuming that people who have the habits of reading newspapers and watching news on TV would be well aware of the political situation in India. Nothing to boast about. The recent bedlam over Gujarat polls is enough to support my words. Election is the best season to witness the slandering phenomenon. After all if calumny of somebody else's character can make you appear lesser villain, why not do it? If presidential polls can sustain such gimmicks, we are just talking about politics at the state level. Politics is not standing on any moral grounds. At least this is what the people have been compelled to believe. The political bigwigs do not bat an eye lid while using any object or person as a pawn for elevating their position before the masses.

This time EC has been cleverly used by the two major parties in India to checker each other. To show that it is not polarized EC had to issue notice to certain speakers. This is just a small glimpse of what the politics is capable of doing in our land. Ah, also how can we forget the melodramatic episode of Taslima Nasrin? Very aptly someone has quoted that "One Man's food is another man's poison". While Taslima is on flee from one place to another to find abode for herself where she can dwell with peace, she couldn't refrain from being a part in the Gujarat polls, though not willingly. Modi seized the opportunity to act host for the troubled writer, in the hope that his anti-muslim image would get a make over. By default, voters are assumed to be fools, who cannot see thru things .Maybe they are right!

I am not a politically inclined person and I share zilch interest in who is going to throng the hot seat. My only concern is that why is so much of fuss being made over Taslima's stay in India? Is it all genuine or politically moved? They know the best. Religious fanatics say that she has offended the religion by writing some controversial things in her books. Don't the very same people keep the communal sentiments up on the high tides perennially? Don't they cause mental and physical harm to our nation by killing its secularity? Well, I guess they don't fall in such categories.

At least Taslima's books haven't incited any physical harm. Not until her book got politically tinted. Whenever a writer pens down her thoughts, it need not appeal to all. There would be certain segments in society which would raise objections to anything and everything written and painted. Haven't we heard that the other name for art is radical? Radical thoughts need not be treated as blasphemy always. And if incongruous zones are not explored by the writers then who would bring the common man for rendezvous with eclectic thoughts? This in no means should be taken as prerogative by the writers to craft dictum without head or tale. This also reminds me of the small frenzy which Mayawati created some time back over a song in Madhuri's come back movie "Aaja Nach Le". Now I am sure that like me, 99.9% of people wouldn't have taken the use of word "mochi" in the song, as derogatory. Only after the hue and cry by Mayawati, such a thing came into notice. So ultimately who is undermining certain castes in India, is it the art or the political mob? This creates a sense of deja-vu in me about jingoism, all but for wrong reasons.

Taslima has conveniently become a pawn in the game played by the politicians. But can we blame her? The journey through which Taslima is going definitely needs to wind up. If we don't intervene in politicization of the art then we would continue to lose many more Hussains and Taslimas.

It is not Lajja for Taslima who vocalized her thoughts via books, but Lajja for people who adopt jaundiced approach towards art and poison the nation in-toto. Anomaly in art is still a diminutive issue to focus on. Need of the hour is to palisade the nation from the jaws of political and religious dogmas.