Shaheen Dhada was arrested for her comment on facebook concerning the shutdown in Mumbai following Bala Saheb's death. Stranger is the fact that her friend Renu was arrested for liking the comment. It is very strange that people do not understand the meaning of democracy. There is no tolerance towards criticism. It has to be accepted that sane criticism in a democracy, made in proper language, has to be accepted - it does not matter what/whom the criticism is against. The criticism may be against anybody - it may be against the government, it may be against a certain custom, it may be against a religion, it may be against anything and anybody. It may stir emotional sentiments, but as long as it makes sense, and does not hurt the interests of anybody/any Government/any religion/any custom or tradition, or anything else, there should be no reason why some Government should arrest two girls for a harmless post in facebook (one for posting, and the other for liking the post), or some professor of some university for emailing a cartoon to somebody. It is shameful that we are ruled by people who do not have an inkling of what democracy is, what criticism is, who cannot accept healthy criticism, and also who either do not have the requisite quantity of gray matter in their brains that enables them to deal with criticism, or they have the gray matter but do not use it or do not know how to and where to use it. Shame!
One more thing - why in the name of hell was the clinic of Shaheen's uncle ransacked? What had that person done? It is indeed very shameful that hooligans are occupying those places where supposedly educated and informed people should be.
Is India not heading towards becoming a country of dictators? I think that 50 years from now, the word democracy will have some other meaning in India!
