Attack on freedom of expression

Salman Rushdie is a world-renowned writer, author and novelist. He is of Indian origin. The controversy has been deliberately created by a group of Muslim religious fanatics over his book Satanic Verses. They claim that his book has deliberately made objectionable remarks against the religious sentiment of Muslim community. With the publication of his book Satanic Verses, Muslim religious leaders of the entire Muslim world started baying for the blood of Salman Rushdie without countering his views in the book by their own. Freedom of expression is the fundamental right of every citizen. It is also a fact that freedom of expression should not be as such to trigger religious discord in society. The author is regarded as intellectual who has expressed his view through his writing. If any one feels that his views are not correct, he must try to prove it wrong by the use of intellectual power and not by creating problem for law and order. West Bengal Chief Mamata Bannerjee has prevented Salman Rushdie from visiting Kolkatta to attend Kolkata Literature Meet (KLM) on to keep her vote bank interest intact. Her claim of championing the cause of democratic rights stands hollowed after her government’s highhandedness in preventing Salman Rushdie from visiting Kolkata. Kolkata has been the land of liberals, authors, painters and artists who have expressed themselves freely. But the action of Mamata Bannerjee since became the Chief Minister of West Bengal against Cartoon making of her dislike and questioning by journalists have been deplorable. Mamata Bannerjee’s action is treated as an attack on the freedom of expression. She is a democratic ruler so she must not trample the democratic values. Salman Rushdie has directly blamed Bannerjee for cancellation of his visit to Kolkata. She has taken this step to appease Muslim minority community, especially hardliners among them, for the sake of getting their votes in the coming Panchayat elections. It has been reported that a prominent Moulvi of Kolkatta telephoned her to stop Salman Rushdie from visiting Kolkata. If the West Bengal Government apprehended law and order problem due to the visit of Salman Rushdie, it is its responsibility to maintain it. Take for example this hypothetical question, if a telephone call is made to her, asking her not to come out of residence, would she abide by that instruction? The tendency to go beyond all rules, regulations, norms, practices, decorums and democratic values by the party in power is very dangerous. The time is not far off when all democratic rights would be treated as null and void