While politicians see fit to pass inflammatory comments without batting an eyelid, India continues its ban-first policy on the common man’s right to speak.
A report by Facebook entitled ‘Global Government Requests Report for July to December 2014’ showed India is leading the way in asking for online content to be banned.
Facebook claims 5,832 pieces of content were “restricted” at the request of the Centre.
Given that Pakistan only asked for 60, this is a shocking statistic.
The problem here is something that we all know – politicians are more “free” to voice their opinions than the rest of us (the Sharad Yadav incident is but the latest example).
They do so in the hope their comments will be caught in the 24-hour media.
The outrage provides the “oxygen of publicity” and crafts the politician’s image. In the brouhaha to curb the politician’s “hate speech”, news media, activists, and the rest of us forget, or ignore, our own.
As a result, “political India” continues to say what it wants, while stealthily removing the words from our posts.
Are we indignant? Do we care? Is there an Indian ‘Julian Assange’ looking to right this wrong? Sadly, no, there isn’t.
There is the Right to Information (RTI) Act here, and yes, it is a great vehicle to gain information. But information is redundant without publicity, and publicity, as we all know today, rides more and more on the “vehicles” of new media – Facebook and Twitter.
By curbing our right to speak, view, and react to ideas and information, politicians are curbing what we can or can’t do.
The Indian citizen is at a crossroads. It is all very well to cry ‘free speech’, but as the lives of Assange and Edward Snowden have shown, fighting for this ideal, is a fight only the most brave or foolish undertake.
Are enough of us ready to become ‘foolish?’ Let’s hope so. Because if we are not, the Indian citizen’s voice is something that will slowly cease to matter.
