Freedom of Speech?

I am sure that u guys have been watching the news coverage on Raj Thackeray's provocative speeches and the consequent rampage his supporters went on against North Indians appearing for Railway exams in Mumbai. Appalled and distraught, i just hoped that the long arm of the law , at least this time, will put him behind bars for good. As it turned out, he is out on bail again, free to speak his mind, ready to play with fire and stroke up linguistic passions...all at the state's cost. (8000 state police men were put on duty on the day of Raj's arrest to prevent any untoward incident...imagine that 8000...to me that sounds more like the entire population of a cluster of small villages..what a drain of resources...)

Now i don't wish to debate whether the gag orders on this man in particular is long overdue..because if u are double minded on that, then u r taking the issue of free speech too far. What appalls me is the state of society. Why have we become like this. Who is responsible for the rise for extremist(like Raj) into mainstream political scenario. How do u tackle pests like Raj without according him too much media attention. How do we sensitise our people to shun outfits like MNS and whats the threshold limit for a total black out of a organisation. How should the media react to gross violators like Raj

As usual we have more questions than we have answers. I do agree that this protecting the Marathi manoo and the likes are all about political posturing than it is about anything else. Our politicians will take a long time to wake up, address and debate the real issues like creating employment, reviving the farming sector etc. Until then they will be harping on totally irrelevant issues( to the common man that is) but politically sensitive ones...

While our political class gets is sense right(and this might take years), what tickles me is why we are allowing them to talk their mind. As we know its hard to get anybody pinned down on accounts of violation of free speech. A token arrest at the max is the only thing these errant politicians have to face. A bail is waiting for them and the cases filed against them go on for years and years and only serve to keep government lawyers busy. Now if this is all it takes to gain a lot of political mileage, why wouldn't any politician do it. It makes perfect political sense, corner the extremists among the masses while u make these provocative speeches and cry foul of political vendetta when u get arrested and serve a 1 day "jail term"...

It is widely accepted that if the general public tends to ignore a certain issue or a school of thought, then the chances of political leaders taking it up will be extremely low. Raj was talking(blabbering?) what he was talking bcos there were a sizeable no. of people who turned up for his rallies and probably an even greater number who sat at home and followed his speeches through the print and electronic media. Now i say if we drain politicians of these kind of listeners/ followers/ supporters then chances of them championing these "causes" would certainly reduce.

This is what i propose...a serious discourse on free speech across the nation with people from every spectrum of life participating and chipping in. A consensus cant be that difficult to reach bcos after all every one would want to live in a peaceful society and hence would propose ideas that propagate peace. .so tell me whether u agree with me..is it time we showed our political class how we want them to behave ..how we want them to take up sensitive issues...how we want them to tackle problems to eradicate them and not just pay lip service...IS IT TIME WE SHOWED THEM THE WAY?