Right to speech? Right to opinion??
I am relatively new to Sulekha. I joined this platform in January this year as I felt that this was the best platform to express myself and to be heard. I thought, on Sulekha, I will become more open minded and become more mature. I do believe that my mind has opened up a great deal and my thoughts and thinking process has matured.
However, I am a little disappointed, as I have seen healthy discussions turn into personal fights. I first experienced this in my write up on, “In the Raj of Raj Thackeray” and then in my next post on “Mumbai filthy – My personal top ten reasons”. I saw it in Mr. Avinashji’s blog on a few Sulekhaites and now I see it in Kalpana Anokhi’s post on “Shaming Fiona.”
I do understand that when a person strongly believes in something, they stand by it and voice their opinions very strongly. I am that way too. This is good and healthy as it gives rise to debate and discussion. However, when two opposite parties completely shut themselves to each other’s line of arguments and start getting too personal by passing judgments on each other and calling each other names…everything turns ugly.
A few weeks back Mr. Erad tried convincing me that dogs are a menace and they have no right to live in a civilized society. My argument with him was that God has created all living creatures and hence human beings have no right to wipe them away from the world. Being a nature lover, I said that I believed in life cycles and that I would not do anything to disturb the life cycle. This was my view and my opinion, which I voiced out. However, this was taken as my close mindedness. I was highly criticized for being a dog lover.
In my write up on, “In the Raj of Raj Thackeray” – I was criticized by a few for being anti Raj. All that I wanted from my write up was to make people aware that in many a political fights – the innocent is subjected to maximum harm. Through my personal experience, I simply wanted to bring out the plight of the innocent autowala, my little son and me. I was scared after the experience. I felt unsafe in the land that I had spent most of my childhood and youth.
When I brought out the issue of migrants in “Mumbai filthy – my personal top ten reasons”, all that I wanted people to be aware of was that migration has to stop. The city is exploding and can cope with no more. However, this was taken as an attack on migrants and I was labeled as being anti migrants.
Today morning when I read Kalpana Anokhi’s post on “Shaming Fiona”, I was shocked on reading the comments of some bloggers who in my eyes were mature, open minded and good writers. I felt Kalpana has a right to voice herself and so do others. What disgusted me was how bloggers had turned it into a personal fight. Kalpana had made a valid point. Another blogger I think it was someone called Madhuri had opposed it in her post. A discussion that started in a healthy manner gradually turned ugly with bloggers passing personal comments and labeling other bloggers whose comments did not match with their own.
Life is not all black and white. It is important to carefully view all angles of the shameful episode and then work toward a better future. All that Kalpana did was to put forth one angle. In my opinion, she wanted all mothers to be aware that they need to be careful of their children and watch their own behaviour. Through Atims comment, I could see her concern as a mother and the value she attached to the role of a mother. Through Supriya’s comment, I could gather that she was saying…good or bad mother…no one has the right to rape anyone…what I was trying to say through my comment is please do not mix up two separate issues. I did not read everyone’s comments…but this is what I gathered from what I read.
I know I am new to this platform. Yet, I am very much attached and addicted to this place. Let us keep it clean, let us avoid such unhealthy debates. Let us use this platform positively.
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