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Tolerance is Anupam Kher can call me cockroach and I can call him numbskull

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Abhishek Sikhwal
Abhishek SikhwalFeb 23, 2016 | 18:45

Tolerance is Anupam Kher can call me cockroach and I can call him numbskull

I don't know about you but whenever there is a political fiasco I frantically run down the street looking for Anupam Kher and his opinions. The only people who can help me make sense of complex current affairs are has-been actors who are married to BJP ministers. When a riot erupts in Malda or a bomb explodes in Kashmir, my first instinct is to find out if Anupamji is safe and able to tweet.

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Anyone who doesn't even have to apply to get a visa or work to get a Padma Bhushan is surely a force to be reckoned with. If I can't find Mr Kher, I have to make do with Chetan Bhagat and his TOI editorials. But let's face it, there is nothing like the real thing; Bhagat is only a half-girlfriend and I'm looking for someone who will go all the way.

The actor who played Dr Dang in Karma hit a homerun on Twitter when he posted that "the country is going through a pest control" which will clean it and flush out the "insects" and "cockroaches". Several people, including Rajdeep Sardesai, were quick to point out that the last time that analogy was used was in Nazi Germany. Perhaps the actor who played Jaan Mohammad in Refugee was alluding to a new Swachh Bharat drive but - mired as he has been in all recent controversies related to patriotism - chances are that he is most definitely hinting at the alleged "anti-national" students of JNU.

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Agree to disagree, Anupam Kher. Or not.

Something perceptible in the hullabaloo playing out in Delhi is that BJP supporters, like the actor who played Totaram in Beta, can certainly dish it out but can't take it. When they push diktats against women, Dalits, beef eaters, LGBT rights, Aamir Khan, porn, comedy roasts and Valentine's Day, then the rest of India is supposed to take their harebrained ideas as patriotic proposals.

However, when students, RTI activists, journalists and ordinary citizens refuse to drink their Kool-Aid, they are quickly labelled as "anti-national" or "sickular". This is how conversation is at a national level:

"Say anything you want but don't say anything against the country."

"Ok, can I protest against the environmental dangers of coal mining?"

"Say anything you want but don't prejudicially hurt the economic interest of the state."

"Ok, can I make jokes at a comedy roast which will only be broadcast online?"

"Say anything you want but don't say anything vulgar."

"Ok, can I live with my girlfriend?"

"You can live with her only if you marry her."

"Ok, can I live with my boyfriend if I marry him?"

"You can marry anyone as long as they are not your sex."

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"Ok, can I see pornography at my home using internet I've paid for?"

"Porn leads to rape. Just watch movies like a normal human being."

"Ok, can I see James Bond kiss Monica Belluci?"

"Yes but only 50 per cent of the kiss. You're welcome."

Freedom of expression can only be absolute because when it is disparate there is bound to be interpretational perplexity.

In America, the First Amendment prohibits the Congress from passing any laws that infringe upon the rights of citizens to freedom of speech and to peacefully assemble.  This is how groups like the Westboro Baptist Church can regularly protest using picket signs saying "God hates fags" or "Thank God for dead soldiers".

This is why part-time presidential candidate and full-time muppet Donald Trump can get away with calling Mexicans "rapists" and African-Americans "lazy". Their freedom to express may not be astute but it certainly falls under the ambit of the First Amendment.

Like the late stand-up comedian Bill Hicks explained: "Freedom of speech means you support the right of people to say exactly those ideas which you do not agree with. Otherwise, you don't believe in 'freedom of speech', but rather only those ideas which you believe to be acceptably stated."

In the United Kingdom (where sedition laws have been long abolished), freedom of speech has exceptions pertaining to breach of public peace and incitement to racial hatred. Last year, a controversial article by the reviled Daily Mail columnist Katie Hopkins saw her compare Syrian migrants to "cockroaches".

There was a petition signed to try her under the Incitement to Racial Hatred Act, but her freedom to express herself saw her walk free. Far-right groups like English Defence League that are against "Islamisation" of UK regularly carry out street protests. Freedom of speech allows them to express themselves freely (even if their arguments are dumber than a sack full of hammers).

There is no place for nationalism in civilised society.

This is why, in the developed world, the opinions of Westboro Baptist Church or EDL or Donald Trump or Katie Hopkins are not mainstream. Somehow in India we have managed to let rightwing mobs dictate our opinions with their state-funded sciamachy. In Rising India, it is the supporter of universally accepted values of truth, freedom and justice who is seen as the fringe loony.

The rule of the mob can't be allowed to take over every facet of a democracy. The majority can vote for and elect who they wish but that doesn't magically erase the rights of other citizens.

Instead of alleviating the fears that their non-supporters felt before elections, the BJP has only proven that their paranoia was warranted. To some extent it even appears that such controversies are simply distractions from the failures of their electoral mandate.

Even after two fruitless years of the former "chaiwalla's" rule, the goonda nationalists refuse to wake up and smell the coffee. With swathes of the population hijacking the law and affecting policy-making, the day is not far when not supporting Free Basics is seen as anti-national or when mobs block highways and railway networks to get reservations for the next OnePlus smartphone.

Because tolerance is a quid-pro-quo game, I completely respect the opinions of the actor who played Limbu in Aabra Ka Daabra; even if his opinions come across as xenophobic nonsense. The Constitution grants him the freedom to call me a cockroach but it also gives me the freedom to call him a brown-nosing numbskull.

I even respect BJP MLA OP Sharma's right to say that he "would have shot Kanhaiya Kumar if I had a gun" (as long as he does not make good on the threat). But I also want Mr Sharma to respect my right to call him an incorrigible knobhead.  

When BJP supporters disapprove of what you say, they are ready to put you to death. Even if I disapprove of what you say, I will defend to the death your right to say it.

That is the fundamental difference between free speech supporters and the actor who played Dr Screwvala in Kyaa Kool Hai Hum.

Last updated: February 23, 2016 | 18:55
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