Does this freedom leave any room for dissent ?

Be it funerals or flying kites, the family is our security blanket in a changing world.

That F-word again. What is it about freedom that makes bravehearts out of mortal men and women and exiles out of writers and artists? Absolute freedom is the stuff of dreams. In the real world, freedom of expression comes at a price. Taslima Nasrin and M F Husain are two of South Asia’s best known examples in this regard.


On Friday, it was announced that Nasrin's Indian residential permit had been renewed. It was in India that she sought refuge after she was banished from her own country 16 years ago. Till two days ago, she did not know if she would have to leave India on August 17 or would be allowed to stay on. The Bangladeshi writer says the uncertainty is the price of speaking the truth "bluntly...I write what I feel, what I believe. Every society across the world has persecuted whoever has done that."


What of Husain, the 95-year-old painter, who must live away from his homeland and take Qatari nationality? He tells TOI: "In the last 5,000 years, Indian art has never suffered such setbacks (as now), not even during British rule." What does he mean? What crimes have Nasrin and Husain committed that the governments of their home countries have been unable to guarantee them the right to live freely and securely and the right to create? Perhaps their ‘crime' is that ‘people' might be offended by them.


British philosopher A C Grayling says the right to offence "is a major technique" used by religious groups. "Social and political satire is one of the healthy features of debate in liberal democracies, and so is challenge and criticism. Efforts to silence people who say things you do not like to hear are regressive and unacceptable," Grayling says in "Liberty in the Age of Terror: A defence of civil liberties and enlightenment values''.


The liberty myth Author Amit Chaudhuri and revolutionary poet Varavara Rao, whose writings have roused hundreds to revolt against the system, agree that absolute freedom is a myth. "But it's an attractive one," says Chaudhuri. VV, as the poet is popularly known, says "In a society riven by class, freedom cannot be absolute even in art and literature. My freedom to stretch my hand should stop at your nose. It is not that you can put your finger in my eye or I can put my hand in your mouth to crush you".

Iconic Taj hotel fully reopens after Mumbai attacks

MUMBAI: Nearly 21 months after the palace wing of the Taj Mahal Palace was destroyed in the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai, the restored heritage suites opened their doors to guests on Sunday - much grander than ever.

Paying a befitting tribute to the spirit and resilience of the nation, the iconic Taj chose Independence Day to begin a new chapter in its history.

Complete with multimedia systems and an emergency escape route, the wing has now upped its luxury quotient.

Occupying the sixth floor, the property is spread across 5,000-odd square feet. The palace wing will also feature a couple of new accommodation offerings in the form of duplex suites.

Guests in the palace wing will get to experience the attentive and personalised 'Palace Butler Service' where the butler will discreetly and efficiently guide them in the hotel.

The Palace Lounge will be a private retreat, exclusively for residents of the palace wing, for a cup of perfectly brewed tea or coffee; an evening cocktail or after hour chocolate and cognac.

High-end technology and interactive multimedia systems at the touch of a button ensure that the guest's experiences are wired for efficiency and comfort. Taj Club rooms and suites come with chauffeur-driven luxurious Jaguar transfers.

'Our freedom was born with hunger, we're still not free'

M S Swaminathan

On August 15, 1947, 22-year-old Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan famously headed for Auroville even as almost everyone else in Madras seemed to be bound for Marina Beach to celebrate the birth of a free India. Later, he would choose to study agriculture rather than medicine, rightly judging that plentiful food production had an important role to play in keeping a country independent. He went on to play a leading role in India's Green Revolution of the 1960s. In 1999, he was one of only three Indians to be on TIME magazine's list of the 20th century's 20 most influential Asians. The other two were Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi. Swaminathan, 85, was in the capital recently and spoke to Saira Kurup about India's many revolutions — those past and still to come.


It's 63 years since India became independent. But we are still fighting for freedom from hunger and poverty. Is this a battle we might never win?
Our freedom was born with hunger. It was born in the backdrop of the Bengal famine. If you read the newspapers dated August 15, 1947, one part was about freedom, the other was food shortage. This is why Jawaharlal Nehru said after Independence that everything else can wait but not agriculture.
The battle against hunger is a battle we have to win. It requires a fusion of political will, professional skill and people's participation. Our country is fortunate to have fairly good water resources, reasonably good rainfall, a hardworking farming population. We must bring about a marriage between brain and brawn in rural professions. We need a large number of educated young people to go into farming using science and new eco-technologies. We have all the necessary ingredients for progress. But the gap between scientific knowhow and field level do-how is large.


The green revolution was the product of four things: the first was technology. The genetic technology of the 1960s was transformational and changed people's understanding of wheat and rice yields. The second was services that took the technology to the field like extension services, credit and insurance; third was public policies of input-output pricing like the prices commission, and lastly, the farmers' enthusiasm. Today, unfortunately, the most important thing is missing — farmers' enthusiasm. A revolution cannot come from a government programme. A National Sample Survey study says 40% of the farmers want to leave farming. It's important to revive that enthusiasm.

Security forces, media, 2 pillars of freedom: Poll

How it all started: Lord Mountbatten announcing that India is free

To understand what the word 'freedom' means to us in the 63rd year of our Independence, we conducted face-to-face interviews with 500 people in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai. Here are the findings:


In a telling indicator of our troubled times, India sees the security forces as the institution that safeguards our freedom the most.


The media was seen as the next biggest safeguard of freedom, followed by the judiciary and civil society activists.


Perhaps our politicians and bureaucrats will be chastened to find that a mere 7% and 2% of respondents respectively picked them as the institutions that safeguard India’s freedom. Or maybe it is too much to ask that they see the rebuff for what it is.


Another indicator of the extent to which Indians feel imperiled is the fact that 53% said the government should be allowed to monitor phone calls, bank accounts and e-mail accounts and a further 19% said this should be allowed for a suspect person. That left a mere 28% of Indians holding the opinion that such monitoring was an unacceptable intrusion into personal privacy.


But what exactly do Indians associate with the notion of freedom, 63 years on? Interestingly, the most popular response was ‘the freedom to move freely’, followed by the freedom to vote in elections. Clearly, the atmosphere in the sub-continent has played a role in determining this response. The right to protest, which many other democratic societies might have seen as one of the most crucial aspects of freedom, ranked last from among the six choices.


Isn’t the right to raise your voice against wrongdoing by the "system" a key aspect of being a free country? Yes, said 45%, but 32% qualified the response, saying such protest was right only up to a point. Another 21% took the "my country, right or wrong" approach.

Text of PM's address to the nation on I-Day

Watch: PM's address to the nation on I-Day

See photo

NEW DELHI: The following is the text of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's address to the nation on India's 64th Independence Day:


" Dear citizens,


I greet you on the 63rd anniversary of our independence. When Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru unfurled the Tricolour on this historic Red Fort, on 15th August, 1947, he called himself the first servant of India. I address you today in the same spirit of service.


A few days back, many precious lives were lost in Ladakh due to a cloudburst. I convey my heart felt condolences to the family members and other near and dear ones of those who have perished. In this hour of grief, the whole country stands with the people of Ladakh. It is my assurance that the Central Government will do everything possible for rehabilitation of the affected people.


When I addressed you last year on Independence Day, our country was facing a number of difficulties. There was a drought like situation in many parts of the country. We were also affected by the global economic slow down. I am happy to say that we have acquitted ourselves well in these difficult circumstances. Despite many problems, the rate of our economic growth has been better than most other countries in the world. This shows the strength of our economy.


This strength has been evident not only in the last one year but also in our economic progress in the last many years. Today, India stands among the fastest growing economies of the world. As the world's largest democracy, we have become an example for many other countries to emulate. Our citizens have the right to make their voice heard. Our country is viewed with respect all over the world. Our views command attention in international fora.

Shoe hurled at J&K CM Omar Abdullah at I-Day function

Shoe hurled at Omar Abdullah at I-Day function

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SRINAGAR: A suspended head constable on Sunday hurled a shoe at Jammu and Kashmir chief ministerOmar Abdullah during the Independence Day function in Srinagar but an unfazed chief minister remarked it was better to throw shoes than stones.


Abdullah, who was taking salute from contingents of marching security personnel at the Bakshi Stadium in the heart of Srinagar, did not stir when Abdul Ahad Jan threw the brown shoe from behind. It landed on the grassy ground in Abdullah's front, without grazing anyone.


Later, in a clear reference to unending stone attacks on security forces in the Kashmir Valley, Abdullah said light-heartedly that it was better to throw shoes instead of stones as this would not hurt anybody.


"This is a better way of showing protest," Abdullah said in Urdu.


But the incident rattled the chief minister's security personnel, who quickly pounced on Jan and dragged him away. The man, in civilian dress, was arrested and later branded mentally unsound.


" Abdul Ahad Jan is a suspended head constable belonging to (south Kashmir's) Kulgam district who already has a criminal case pending against him," a police officer said.


Police said Jan was also involved in a case of claiming fake ex-gratia compensation from the government.


But no one explained how a man suspended from the police force could sneak into the highly-secured stadium.


Jan, who had been seated in the VIP enclosure, tried to wave a black flag when he was taken away.


The shoe incident marred the otherwise peaceful Independence Day celebrations in Srinagar and across the state where militants usually tend to target official Indian functions.


However, a separatist-called shutdown again paralyzed life across the Muslim-majority valley, hub of a separatist campaign that has left thousands dead since 1989.


Authorities had initially described the shoe attacker as an assistant sub-inspector of police.


The main parade continued despite the flutter in the VIP gallery.

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