The Asian Age
March 20, 2009
Act firmly, swiftly to bar hate speech
March.20: Varun Gandhi’s deplorable debut in electoral politics is, above all, a challenge to our institutions — the Election Commission and the political parties. Without losing time the EC has put the young BJP candidate from Pilibhit in UP, as well as his party, on notice. It must show similar dispatch in hearing the parties and deciding the case before it. If the candidate in question is found guilty, he deserves exemplary punishment — to the extent of being debarred from contesting. If the EC falters, we may just find that other candidates from chauvinist parties may be led to think that there is purchase in the model presented by the Pilibhit contestant. In that event, we may be courting all-round disaster as hate speeches rent the air without let in the election season. In Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena has already patted the BJP’s man in Pilibhit on the back, even as the BJP itself plays coy, saying it dissociates itself from the observations attributed to its young candidate. Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray has once been legally punished for making hate speeches, but the retribution came years after the crime. Had the price been extracted swiftly, the Sena may have shown rather less enthusiasm in endorsing the communal rantings heard at Pilibhit election rallies lately.
The present case throws no mean challenge to our political parties. They must offer their nominations to people who genuinely deserve them. The first criterion here is respect for the Constitution and the rule of law. This is fundamentally a matter of exercising good sense. It is indeed surprising that the BJP failed to judge their man when they sent him to the electoral battlefield at Pilibhit, though they had permitted him to be in their company for several years. Anyone can see that the candidate’s defence is infirm. He has spoken of parts of the tape of his speeches doing the rounds being doctored. However, the reality is that the tape, which almost everyone has heard on television, is a disgrace in its entirety. It is an affront to democratic values as well as good taste. There is little that separates it from fascistic ravings.
Several individuals who respond to the Hindutva brand, and at least one senior priest associated with a famous Delhi mosque, have in the past been on the same approximate track as the BJP’s Pilibhit candidate. But on account of their greater political maturity, they showed greater sophistication and restraint when they spoke in public. The novice will perhaps learn as he goes along, but chastisement is in order.
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