Censoring Tripura CM’s Independence Day speech is a travesty of freedom
Ironies abound in India of 2017.
As the country marked its 71st Independence Day in the usual pomp that accompanies everything in the Narendra Modi-ruled BJP government, as paeans to freedom and liberty and achievements were sung, bearing little or no resemblance to the sorry ground reality of the country, we had another despicable episode of trampling on the freedom of speech.
The CPI(M)’s Manik Sarkar, known as one of the most “honest and incorruptible” chief ministers in the country, said that his Independence Day speech was blocked out by Prasar Bharati, which runs both Doordarshan and the All India Radio (AIR). Recorded three days back, Tripura CM Sarkar and his party alleged that the chief minister was asked to “reshape” the content of the speech, in order to suit the wider celebratory mood.
In fact, CPI(M)’s official Twitter handle has put out the letter sent to CM Sarkar, saying that the speech “may not go with the existing content”.
CM Sarkar, in his speech, had drawn attention to the prevailing culture and context of disharmony and had asked for a “national introspection”. He had said:
“Unity in diversity is India’s traditional heritage. Great values of secularism have helped in keeping Indians together as a nation. But today, this spirit of secularism is under attack. Conspiracies and attempts are underway to create an undesirable complexity and divisions in our society; to invade our national consciousness in the name of religion, caste and community, by inciting passions to convert India into a particular religious country and in the name of protecting the cow.
Because of all these people of minority and Dalit communities are under severe attack. Their sense of security is being shattered. Their life is under peril. These unholy tendencies cannot be harboured or tolerated. These disruptive attempts are contrary to the goals, dreams and ideals of our freedom struggle.
The followers of those who were not associated with the Independence movement, rather sabotaged the freedom movement, were servile to the atrocious, plunderer and merciless British, aligned with the anti-national forces having decorated themselves today in different names and colours are striking at the root of unity and integrity of India.
Every loyal and patriotic Indian must take the pledge today to remain committed to the ideal of a united India and to counter the attempts towards such destructive conspiracies and attacks. We must all work and collectively strive to ensure security of the Minorities, Dalits and preserve the unity and integrity of our country.”
Much like the former vice-president of India Hamid Ansari, as well as the Opposition’s VP candidate Gopal Krishna Gandhi, who had drawn attention to the “feeling of unease” among the minorities, and had underlined the “psychological partition” of India in the current climate of communal polarisation, CM Manik Sarkar had tried to talk of the urgent realities in his well thought out Independence Day speech.
Sarkar had underlined the widening gulf between the haves and have-nots, the job insecurity and systematic decimation of the Indian education under the current dispensation. Not for Sarkar, the pre-approved and scripted performances that Prime Minister Modi furnishes every I-Day, and which have been dissected by columnists on DailyO to the last word.
AajTak online editor Panini Anand has this to say of PM Modi’s I-Day 2017 speech:
“The address to the nation has now become the address of convenience - the convenience of the man, his government and the party. The inconvenience to many, of course, remained unattended… At a time when non-BJP ruled states are complaining about non-cooperation and political vendetta, PM Modi told the nation how ‘effectively’ and ‘properly’ cooperative federalism was ‘implemented’ and ‘honoured’.”
The difference between the PM’s speech that was delivered from the ramparts of the Red Fort – a Mughal era architectural marvel that the BJP/RSS would have a hard time explaining, given their penchant to saffron-wash Indian history – and the one intended by Tripura CM Manik Sarkar, is an exercise in contrast and contradiction.
While the PM once again offered one more catchy slogan – “New India” – which he wants to work for him till 2022, on the occasion of India’s 75th I-Day, CM Sarkar called out the broken tryst with destiny and the national derailment that’s occurring at breakneck speed under the present political climate.
Little wonder then that CPI(M) general secretary and two-time former Rajya Sabha MP Sitaram Yechury has condemned this official censoring by Prasar Bharati in the strongest possible terms.
Senior journalists like Rajdeep Sardesai have also expressed dismay, putting out the Prasar Bharati email in public domain.
However, this calls for extreme alarm. Sarkar has said in response:
“Independence Day is a day for introspection. Every citizen has the right to review to assess to identify the areas of achievement, areas of failure and gaps and also to find out the ways and means how to overcome these gaps, this is what I have done. It may appear that the policy of central government is being criticised, so what is wrong there?”
In fact, the correspondence and unofficial chatter indicate that phrases that are hallmarks of a totalitarian regime have been used to coax Manik Sarkar to “reshape” his speech. The letter to Sarkar’s office said the speech was "closely examined by competent authority" and because of "the sanctity of the occasion, the broadcast code and the responsibility of the public broadcaster it is not possible to telecast it in the present format... However, Doordarshan/Prasar Bharati will be happy if the chief minister agrees to reshape the content making it suitable to the solemnity of the occasion and sentiment of the people."
If a chief minister is stopped so blatantly from saying what he wants to say, what happens to a common citizen of India, who has no official stamp of power? Much in the manner Hamid Ansari was subjected to an online smear campaign, any utterance critical of the establishment is being screen and blocked off, if it comes from someone higher up in the pecking order.
The Sangh-engineered cacophony may try drown out voices of sanity, but they eventually find a way. It’s only poetic justice that an innocuous and inconspicuous telecast of CM Manik Sarkar’s speech has been now replaced by a viral text, shared and read by everyone alike, thanks to social media.
However, it’s time India wakes up to what it means to mark Independence Day?
Is unfurling the tricolour on a tall flag pole enough? Or, is it time to reclaim the very freedoms our ancestors fought so dearly for?
Also read: Read Tripura CM Manik Sarkar's Independence Day speech that was refused to air