Dinesh Kamath's Editorial (Our rulers should become more mature) that was published in Newsband

Our rulers should become more mature

There are some people who get a rash when cartoons appear in either a text book or in the popular press that make fun of their pretensions. Naturally, they see them as ‘Honour Crimes’ as their status is being questioned, even mocked, by someone way down at the bottom. Like clan elders they can abuse and attack one another and lead rival cliques, but nobody outside their circle has that privilege.

Aseem Trivedi, a young cartoonist, is now paying for his comeuppance because one of his cartoons has offended the honour of this particular class. He must, therefore, face exemplary punishment because their honour is more precious than the right to free expression. He is charged with sedition under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code.

So far not a single MP or MLA, nor even a member of a recognised, but lesser, political party, including those from the Bal Thackeray blood line, has been accused of sedition. It is always people with no ties who have, at various points, been charged with this crime. They include Binayak Sen, Arundhati Roy, several journalists, scores of Kudankulam anti-nuclear activists, and now a young cartoonist.

Most western democracies, like Britain, America, France and Sweden do not treasure the flag and worship it the way we do. They allow its desecration: you can burn it, stamp it, tear it or wear it as a bikini. In Germany they even use it to advertise brothels. Does that make people there less patriotic? Not so.

But in India, the flag cannot be draped on a bonnet, laid on the ground, and must always be folded in a particular fashion.

Our democracy is very different from those in England, Europe or America, not because we are poor and they are rich. This is a popular myth.

The real difference lies in the fact that western governments treat their people as citizens while ours treats us like children. So if a mirror, even a cracked one, as in a cartoon, is held up to the political establishment in an advanced democracy, it is not an ‘honour crime’. In India you would be on a prison diet.

It’s high time our rulers became more mature.