Sonu Nigam is the latest celebrity to be caught in the eye
of the storm. Voicing out his irritation over early morning azaan (which causes
many to lose their sleep) has not percolated well with the religious extremists
and their ever loyal (pseudo) rationalist supporters. Quite predictably, the
entire twitterati and glitterati were quick to take their positions in this
online tug of war, and main stream media pounced on their share of cake.
Intolerance rises in ever form, from verbal abuses and burning
effigies to religious fatwas. Liberals get to what they do best, play the secular
card and hype religious sentiments to garner attention and support. Garbage in
and garbage out- all over.
Noise, means NOISE, and in every form it is polluting,
irrespective of what generates it, isn’t it that simple? Be it the early
morning azaan or late night loud music during Hindu festivals, the pompous
marriage processions or loud birthday celebrations of regional / national
figures, what entertains few and troubles most is noise. Shouldn’t the big
picture of cutting pollution matter more than drumming personal or religious
sentiments?
The freedom of expression probably immunizes all of them-
free citizens of a free nation. We are
free to take others for granted, free to pollute and litter under the cover of
religious sentiments, free to dig holes on roads to install pandals for Ganpati
without carefully repairing them later. We are also free to let the traffic
suffer because we are getting married.
Well, being insensitive towards the rights, comforts and facilities
of others has been in our DNA since ages, irrespective of our religion, caste, creed or social status. Also, this has only aggravated in recent
years after all forms of political and communal immunity and irresponsible media
hype has empowered us to be a vigilante in our own measures. Anything, however
logical and rational gets opposed fiercely if it challenges the doctrine we subscribe
to- stopping triple talaq or azaan, or firing crackers in Diwali. We are
turning into an extreme society where parallel realities cease to
exist, against progressive societies where different perceptions and rationalism
is allowed to prosper.
Quite evidently, a lot of time, efforts and money is wasted
over these futile discussions and playing the victim. Nothing productive or
even remotely positive ever emerges out of it, except for the inflated TRPs for
the News channels.
Measuring religious / communal extremism, secularism and for
that matter, even nationalism on an individual scale is doing more harm than
good. People listen only to reply, not to understand. Let’s hope wisdom emerges
and prevails in coming time, just a hope though.
Disclaimer: Recent events have influenced me to pen this where I might sound switching loyalties between opposing ideologies at different instances. I've only tried to let rationalism prevail throughout this article.
