It took just two days for Shaheen Dhadha and her friend Renuto let go of the Civics lessons they learnt for a year or two in school. Forthem, democracy and free speech could well be just a couple of longwindedwords, respectively comprising 11 and 12 alphabets to give weight andsignificance to a tome called Indian Constitution.
In these two days, they were arrested for posting a statusupdate on Facebook, released, saw Dhadha’s uncle Abdul’s clinic vandalised,underwent persecution, made champions of free speech and liberty byself-claimed champions of both/either, apologised publicly for the comments(and Renu for approving it), and engendered a debate and investigation. OnTuesday, November 20, they finally deactivated the source of all this hyper-drama:their Facebook accounts.
They also swore never to write on Facebook again.
Shaheen to media: “I apologise for the comment. We're scaredwith this incident. We won't write on Facebook again.”
Abdul Dhadha: “We have great respect for the late Shiv Senaleader. Our intention was not to offend anyone.”
Renu, who had liked friend Shaheen’s post: “It was like abad dream…I felt traumatised for approving Shaheen’s comment on the socialnetworking website.”
We all know what happens to structures with a weak base.They collapse. The same is true for longwinded words with little strength intheir leg. They die. A slow, stinking death each day, in street corners, alleysand localities that have no connection to the pin code New Delhi 110001, whereparliament and other big-ticket offices are housed and ministers and officialssit. A bit of goodness in us drying up, before dying out, each day.
Some longwinded words are better left for supermen and womento mug up, and wage wars over in television studios. Most people have too muchto do any way to carry the weight and import of long words and upshots of theiruse and abuse. Shaheen and Renu have to build a career, Abdul Dhadha has totake care of his.
Let taller people take care of those longwinded words. Letthe Mumbai trio, and many of us, just carry on with our everyday life. And letthis be said without shame, guilt or fright: We are afraid, very afraid. Notjust of the rogues on street, but of the trigger-happy cops who think ofhandcuffs before using their brains to thrash out logic of complaints, and ofthe deaf and mute government machinery that loves to leave people in the lurch.
in association with Governance Now
