Freedom of Expression is resting in Peace...

Why this ‘Kolavery’ Didi???

                     Article by,

Mujahid Deputy

                                                     (mujahid.deputy@gmail.com)                  

Freedom of Speech and Expression

                      Before dealing with the article, I just want to take you back to the past, when the baby named Mamata Banerjee stepped on this beautiful planet called earth. Mamata Banerjee alias Didi (born January 5, 1955) is West Bengal's recently elected chief minister. With a landslide victory in the 2011 state assembly elections, she dismantled 34 years of communist rule in her home state of West Bengal. A feisty politician, Mamata Banerjee is the chief of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), a party she established in 1997 after breaking away from the Congress, the party she started her career with in the early 70s.


Will she now file a case of defamation against me? I didn’t write anything wrong, right? Neither I drew her cartoon nor I made fun of her. Did I? Well, I have support of Mr. Dinesh Trivedi’s who said, "Cartoons cannot destroy your image. It is the people who make your image and it is they who destroy it,"


Probably, you might be wondering by now, why this person is talking in favor of Didi, who has thrown a Professor into the darkness of the cell, just because, the Professor Ambikesh Mahapatra of the Jadavpur University Kolkata made use of his right, which the Constitution provided him; Right to express. Somehow, the Right to express took away his Right to Freedom and perhaps he might be now enjoying the freedom without expressing it. Indeed, now the Professor knows, Mamata Benerjee can be feral if someone defames her. That is the height of ‘Didigiri’ Mamata ji.


According to the news reports, Prof Mahapatra was attacked by Trinamool supporters near his New Garia residence on Thursday night and the next day he was honored with penalty because he circulated a cartoon of Mamata, based on Satyajit Ray's movie Sonar Kella (The Golden Temple), allegedly shows Mamata and railways minister Mukul Roy discussing how to get rid of party MP Dinesh Trivedi. The Professor and his neighbor, Subrata Sengupta was arrested under Indian Penal Code, Sections 509 (insulting the modesty of a woman), 500 (defamation) and 114 (abetting a crime), and Information Technolocy Act, Section 66 A(b) (causing offence using a computer). However, both were, later on Friday, granted bail.


Rebel Trinamool Congress MP Kabir Suman commented on the Professors arrest, "What has been forwarded in the website is an innocent expression and it is difficult to accept that a person can be arrested on the basis of this.” Well it may be because, didi does like cartoons, and the professor terrified her by his drawing. He may be a poor Cartoonist or its didi whose looks are!


So, if criticizing the Government by drawing cartoons for their poor work is crime, then R K Laxman have to spend his whole life in jail. And In what footings do you call it Democracy?


As I have written this article, do I put myself into the trap? Or should I have to be afraid of being attacked by Trinamool supports on my way to college and back. Well, I think the Trinamool goons are not aware of the fact that I usually take the back gate of my college to get in and out. It is a highly confidential secret between my readers and me, I think I’m Safe!


Indeed, I want to ask a question, is this post in any way violates the IT Act? Or it is eligible in the category of defaming anyone. Moreover, somewhere I read one of the charges was “outraging the modesty of a woman”! So, does this post come under that? Everything is a conspiracy for her. So was Prof Mahapatra’s cartoon, so could be my write-up.


The Facebook and the other social network users ought to be aware by now, didi’s eyes are everywhere. She is watching every single cartoon that you upload and which is against her and she might also be crossing the roads to see; if the chicken are making fun of her other side or the dogs are barking against her Hoarding.

Image courtesy: The Hindu

The undamaging, cartoon went wildly viral across the internet. A thousand people saw it earlier, but in 24 hours, a million people had seen and shared it and became a smash hit. Well, I too saw it many times and probably didi is not aware of it. I’m Safe again. In 48 hours, the number reached tens of millions through Facebook, twitter, TV and other mediums. Moreover, a mild, unknown Bengali became the most famous professor in India, an icon of free speech and expression.

The English version of Professor's cartoon which was initially in Bengali 

In India's IT Act (2008 amendment), section 66A covers sending anything electronically that is grossly offensive or has menacing character. In this case, the childish, silly cartoon in question, which was posted on various Facebook profiles, and subsequently used widely in online and electronic media and newspapers. Yet, the professor's act of forwarding it by e-mail to a few friends has been considered a cyber crime?


If yes, then India's Ministry of ICT needs to urgently seek legal advice and recommend an amendment. For a start, pre-publication in mainstream media could become grounds for non-applicability of section 66A. Nevertheless, I am not a lawyer and I am sure that I have given the will, they can find a way.