Banning Orkut - Rape of Indian Constitution and Culture

Art. 19 of Indian Constitution

Right to Freedom

19. Protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech, etc.—(1) All citizens shall have the right—

(a) to freedom of speech and expression;

* * * * *

(2) Nothing in sub-clause (a) of clause (1) shall affect the operation of any existing law, or prevent the State from making any law, in so far as such law imposes reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.

The decision of Orkut banning taken by Maharashtra Adminstration in Maharashtra is a plain violation of the Art 19 (1)(a), even after it has been read in conjunction with Art 19(2). The administration can argue that it is doing it in the interest of keeping the public order but what needs to be looked into here is the spirit in which founding fathers wrote this clause. This clause has been written keeping in mind the ages old tradition of freedom of thought of hinduism. If one goes through the deliberations of Constituent Assembly then it becomes clear that founding fathers did not want this caluse to be misused by those who wanted to stop the development of Hindu/Indian Society as at that time various other laws and acts were being passed which were meant to outlaw the various draconian traditions like untouchability and so on in Indian Society.

Orkut is a free associating media. People gather here and they put forward their viewpoints on various topics. Just because somebody wrote something against Shivaji does not provide any justification for attack on cyber cafes and demand of orkut ban. It just shows the intellectual and moral bankrupcy of people indulging in that and the moral and legal bankrupcy of the administration which instead of tackling hooligans is busy bowing down to them. A shame on Indian Republic.

We are a land of diverse cultures and multiple languages and practices. We also have a history of clashes in our remote and not so remote past. There is nothing which one can say with guarantee that the view will not offend anybody in the country. Banning and violence is not the answer. Rather the answer is more dialogue in the nature of orkut where we try to reach a place of consensus or agreed disagreement so that we can bury the ghosts of our past.

The people who are demanding the ban,i.e., Shiv Sainiks, are in no way different from Talibans. They and Talibans and Ayatollah Khomeinis are all different sides of the same coin. The coin which brooks no difference, will accept no deviation from their line of thought and will try to stifle freedom of thought which is the hallmark of Indian and Hindu culture. These are the most vicious anti-hindu force we have seen in last 10,000 years as these people proclaim to be champions of hinduism. And this is the main reason that we must oppose them because if they succeed today then that day is not far off when every dissenting voice in India will be stifled out and we will become a hindu Iran where others will dictate what we should think, what we should eat and so on.

Coming to the administrations viewpoint that Orkut is a danger to public order.
"The police will certainly act since there's objectionable matter and an organisation has objected to it and we have verified that it is correct. Naturally, the police also feels there should be no law and order problem," said Anup Kumar Singh, Joint Commissioner Police (Thane).

Mr. Anup Kumar Singh, I pity the place from where you got your education as that seems to have given you a twisted sense of reality. You are JCP of Thane a district near Mumbai and so it is quite logical to believe that it is also a den of Organised Crime. On today's news channel there was a news that Iqbal Kaskar - brother of Dawood Ibrahim has been let off by MCOCA court due to lacklustre evidence gathering by Police. I understand it. You people are so busy banning Orkut and trying to stifle peoples ' voices that to you Dawood Ibrahim and the Organised Crimes gangs are upholders of public order. Your action speaks for you.

Going further, if we are going to ban every media which raises the heckles of hooligans then what about Parliament. Members of Parliament are known to be murderers (Navjot singh Sidhu), Human Traffickers (Katara), Scammers (Lalu Yadav) and so on. Every shade of personality which is deemed as a threat to Indian Nation and public order and Law and Order is represented there. So what about banning the parliament.

Furthermore, the various sections of Constitution offend the traditions of Hinduism, so what about banning the constitution itself.

Where do we Stop?