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[Rakesh Iyer]

If only were there some sane rationality in the entire debate (as opposed to
personal mudslinging), we could have done better.

The entire debate has completely changed, and not for the first time.
Instead of arguing whether the ideas of Arundhati are right or wrong, now we
have come up to what Indian politicians indulge in (as their favorite game
of course). Not for nothing do I keep hearing: Only when we improve
ourselves, can we expect our politicians to improve.

Arundhati may be right or wrong, but it is utterly shameful that groups have
to resort to violence and even going to court to restrain someone from
speaking. It is even more shameful that if we don't like a speech, we don't
treat the other person as just a piece of shit and carry on with our work,
undeterred. It's here, there and everywhere.

If the Congress does not like anything spoken against Sonia Gandhi, it
creates violence. The ABVP is doing it, and so is RIK and BJP and their
related organizations. I can understand RIK not liking it, but throwing
stones and imposing cases is absolutely muzzling the right to free speech of
a person.

Yes, freedom of speech has its own limits. But those limits must be
self-imposed. If Muslims don't like Togadia's speech, they are free to
ignore it or even protest against it in a peaceful way. The same should be
true for RIK in this case also. And if you feel Arundhati is anti-Indian,
protest against her in a peaceful way.

This is total rubbish. Never mind that a case against Arundhati will only
give Pakistan a stick to beat India with whenever India claims it's a
democracy.

This also exposes the double dealing of India trying to be proud at the
world stage of being a democracy, while actually trying to muzzle all voices
possible.

Rakesh