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Where is the median?

writes Niranjan Iyengar

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FIFTY SHADES OF GREY
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It's ok to be confused. Like I am. Every time I read the newspapers or watch news on television I'm wrought with confusion. A few weeks ago there was a furor about AIB. Then Tamil writer Perumal Murugan gave up writing because of pressure from a community against his novel. Now Puliyur Murugesan has been beaten up by the Gounder community and lies in the hospital for a fictional story. Furthermore I read that censor board is divided against passing the film Fifty Shades Of Grey and Anushka Sharma's NH-10 because of `excessive sex and violence' respectively. As a staunch advocate of free speech I'm appalled and froth at the mouth. And each time the only argument these forces seem to have is that our nation is not ready for this kind of freedom. My entire being disagrees with this notion.

But then I read the results of the survey conducted on youngsters by Children's Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA), which reveals that 85 percent collegians believe women must face violence, 65 percent don't want girls and boys of different religions to meet and a whole lot of them believe that dowry is acceptable. A politician from a ruling party has asked for a ban on Shah Rukh, Aamir and Salman's films because they propagate violence according to her. A few Telangana cops chain a twelve-year-old boy for several hours because he stole 300 rupees. I bring these cases up because all three – GenNext, a politician and the police – are people who define the future of any nation. Somewhere confusion sets in when I begin to wonder if there is a merit in the argument that not everyone is equipped to handle free speech. In a culturally and economically diverse country as ours is it really possible to find a uniform interpretation for what is an `acceptable' median?

Last week my 86-year-old father passed away and as I scattered his ashes on our farmland, I was wrought with confusing emotions of grief. My mother said, "Confusion is the first sign of transition!" Perhaps there in lies the answer. Perhaps our nation is in a flux and hence this confusion. Only when we wade through it, navigate through it and eventually break through it, will we find clear answers on the other side. Till then it will help us to believe maybe the answers don't lie in the extreme of either censorship or free speech. May be it lies somewhere in between!

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