National

Attack on Taslima condemned

CHENNAI: The assault on Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin by legislators of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) has been condemned by a group of prominent citizens.

In a joint statement, Andre Beteille, Rajeev Bhargava, Partha Chatterjee, Deepak Nayyar and Romila Thapar said:

“Many of us have been scandalised by recent events in Hyderabad. The physical assault on Taslima Nasrin was entirely uncalled for. The increase in the number of violent incidents of this kind indicates that the rule of law is ceasing to exist in this country. Any group of people, of whatever affiliation, can take the law into their own hands, and brutally assault those whose opinions they do not agree with and get away with the assault. Threats from groups such as the VHP and the MIM, and there is little to choose between them in terms of their tactics, have pulverised Indian society into accepting violence as a way of countering contrary opinion.

“We are equally scandalised that those who are supposedly the protectors of the rule of law seem to be more partial to the perpetrators of violence than to its victim. Are we to assume that this is now the new definition of protecting the rule of law and of dispensing justice?

“Perhaps we need to turn our attention away from the daily chorus of our improving rate of growth and pay more attention to what constitutes the quality of our citizenship, a quality that seems to be rapidly eroding. The deafening silence on these physical assaults from those who are the arbiters of citizenship points in only one direction — that the values that we had associated with Indian citizenship are being shamelessly subordinated to the arithmetic of electoral politics. This can only portend the worst form of social viciousness that will come to govern Indian society.”

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu