(Mohd Asim is Senior News Editor, NDTV 24x7)
Shirin Dalvi, the editor of the Bombay edition of Urdu newspaper Avadhnama has been forced to go underground . Two vendors, who in all probability didn't know the content of the newspaper they were selling, have been arrested. The Shirin Dalvi saga is getting worse every day.
She is being hounded, harassed and threatened - and nobody is in her corner. She carried a story on French magazine Charlie Hebdo, whose cartoonists and other staff were shot dead by some Islamists for publishing cartoons of the Prophet. Her crime: she carried the magazine cover with a cartoon of the Prophet with the story. She has said she doesn't understand French and didn't know what the cartoon said.
The last fortnight has changed Shirin Dalvi's life. She has numerous police cases against her. She is living in hiding, forced to wear a burqa (veil) for the first time in her life to hide her identity. A single mother of two, she can't see her children, and they are skipping college for safety reasons. She doesn't have her job anymore - her employer decided to shut down the newspaper.
Yes, there is a law and order problem when a person has to fear for her life and go into hiding because some extremists are targeting her. The police, instead of acting against the loonies threatening her, are now emboldening them by arresting the vendors of the allegedly defamatory newspaper. What is the message being sent to those who feel it's their right to harass a free citizen of this country just because she "offended" them in terms of their understanding?
To the offended Muslims, I say Grow Up. Your Prophet deserves better than some mad sloganeering and tormenting a woman in his name. It brings Him no honour when a mother cannot see her children because some "thekedars of the Prophet's honour" are waiting out there "to teach her a lesson".
Muslim netas especially need to raise their voice against the injustice being meted out to Ms Dalvi in the name of Muslim sentiments. The Muslim leadership has for long pandered to the most illiberal sections of the community. Time to say in one voice "Enough of this offence-taking business." It's time to change.
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