Many voices & Politics Nidhu Bhusan Das JNU is now the hotspot of political haggling with otherwise rival political parties having come together to share dias and express solidarity on freedom of speech and expression and,perhaps ,more so for enlisting support for electoral gains.In a country where Naxal Movement once propagated the message that power comes from the barrel of the gun, Emergency stifled dissent and three decades of Left rule left a heap of human skeleton in West Bengal,how far the political parties believe in what Voltaire once said - "I do not agree with a word you say but, I defend to death your right to say it" is not beyond doubt.
CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yachuri,CPI leader D Raja and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi are there to participate in the choric song against the arrest of the General Secretary of the students union of the university.Freedom of speech must be defended for a vibrant and meaningful democracy,but would the defenders of it today swear that they would defend it if they come to power tomorrow.Would they,really, respect tomorrow what they would pledge today?The question arises because,once in power,our politicians fail to remember what they have said before assuming power.
No believer in democracy denies the importance of the language of conscience but when there is conflict between the conscience of individual citizens and that of the state,which one is to be given priority and defended is the moot question for everyone who can think above electoral equations,and in national interest.
CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yachuri,CPI leader D Raja and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi are there to participate in the choric song against the arrest of the General Secretary of the students union of the university.Freedom of speech must be defended for a vibrant and meaningful democracy,but would the defenders of it today swear that they would defend it if they come to power tomorrow.Would they,really, respect tomorrow what they would pledge today?The question arises because,once in power,our politicians fail to remember what they have said before assuming power.
No believer in democracy denies the importance of the language of conscience but when there is conflict between the conscience of individual citizens and that of the state,which one is to be given priority and defended is the moot question for everyone who can think above electoral equations,and in national interest.
