In the event of BJP government taking action against Yogesh Soman for having criticised Narendra Modi (in an imaginary situation) the champions of free speech and champions of dissent would have been on the streets by now.
Bengaluru: By now, you all would be aware of the ignominy Yogesh Soman, the senior Mumbai University (MU) faculty member is facing.
All that he did was to criticise Rahul Gandhi, the former AICC chief for his “Rahul Savarkar” comment.
But isn’t it freedom to criticise your own netas?
Now, for a moment, let’s shift our focus. In the event of the same professor criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Union home minister Amit Shah or Hindus and if there was a BJP government in Maharashtra and they had taken punitive action against Yogesh, guess what would have happened!
By now, many TV screens would be on fire, with Left-leaning journalists hurling the choicest of calumnies and the pseudos out on the streets, chanting slogans against Narendra Modi, his family, criticising Hindus, manipulating the Swastik symbol and even calling Modi “Hitler”.
Some more even would have questioned if India were slipping into the abyss of intolerance and if it were criminal to expose Modi’s hypocrisy.
But now, as the BJP is not in Maharashtra and it is the NCP-Congress-Sena trio which is ruling the state, the pseudos have fallen deafeningly silent.
In fact, Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, blatantly said, “Bombay University's professor (Yogesh Soman) has given an offensive statement against Rahul Gandhi. A professor's work is to teach children, not to give statements like these. He has been sent on leave for now but soon action will be taken.”
Look at the brazenness with which he blurts out such statements! A statement with at least half or one fourth vitriol and vengeance expressed in this bite of the home minister would have, by now, censured with the utmost disdainfulness.
This is the sheer hypocrisy which needs to be underlined and understood.
Narendra Modi has to be criticised, censured and cut to size for whatever he does. But if it is the opposite, all talks and thoughts of freedoms vanish and evaporate in seconds!
After all, all are equal, but some are more equal than others!
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