On the 10th of Aug, the Supreme Court of India rejected a public interest litigation that argued that every Indian must respect the Mahatma. (See Article) It was heartening to note the court took the spirit of freedom of speech in mind while announcing this ruling.
In recent times, India seems to be getting more and more zealous. The litigation asked the court to enforce a rule to make people respect Gandi's contributions. But, isn't democracy all about discussing and finding a better way? Ganghi, no doubt was a great man. We've read about it enough times in our history books and movies. However, we Indians seem to believe in adulation over all our leaders. Anything said against a set of leaders is met with violence, irrational anger and senseless opposition.
Democracy is about freedom to express and debate. The litigation seemed to forget this. Gandhiji for all his greatness still was a human and the associated weaknesses. His concept of a self-sufficient village is jut not practical in the modern 'flat world'. If you were to follow this models, cities would be more like a dark spot on the Indian landscape and villages would be shrines of economic activity. However, the world over, it is the exact reverse that is true.
In this fit of adulation, we have crores spent of Mayawati's statues, lacs lost over violence just because some sentiment was hurt in a movie made for entertainment and cities shut down because of language affiliations!
The best part is - despite all these internal issues, we're fighting the Autrailians in the name of racism :-)
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