{"id":3716,"date":"2013-11-11T09:09:39","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T03:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/?p=3716"},"modified":"2013-11-11T09:31:49","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T04:01:49","slug":"the-assam-rape-festival-is-a-joke-get-over-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2013\/rights-and-freedoms\/the-assam-rape-festival-is-a-joke-get-over-it.html\/","title":{"rendered":"The “Assam Rape Festival” is a Joke. Get over it."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"It's
It’s satire. Now move on.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Right on cue, Indians are “protesting” against the satire article on The National Report talking about fictitious\u00a0The Assam Rape Festival<\/a>. Apparently it wasn’t obvious that it was a satire, and even if it\u00a0was<\/em> obvious, there are limits etc etc. So the question arises. What exactly are they objecting to? That someone\u00a0thought<\/em> of the idea? That someone wrote it down? That people are offended<\/em>? What exactly is the problem here? Apparently when it comes down to it, most people in India can’t digest the idea of Freedom of Expression. At the first sign of someone getting offended, they’re all for banning it, taking it down and pressing charges against those who say stuff that upsets them.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Coming to the article itself, ask yourself this. If instead of India and Assam, a European country like say France was mentioned, would anyone have thought it was real? No! Yet many thought that it was true about India. Ever wondered why? Just something to ponder. Good satire is one that leaves you unsure of whether or not it’s real. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve started to read an Onion article in all earnestness and only later realizing that this just\u00a0can’t<\/em>\u00a0be true. But the idea is to have a grain of truth in it. And that is precisely what the article in The National Report has. It’s a searing indictment on the casual way many people in India think about rape. I feel it’s brilliant.<\/p>\n

And let’s not have any of the “US rape statistics are higher than in India” nonsense either. The\u00a0gang rape of the photojournalist in Mumbai<\/a>\u00a0revealed without doubt that most rapes in India go unreported. Probably more than 90%. And that’s not even counting the absurd legality of marital rape in our country! So hold back on the bullshit statistics trying to make India look good in this regard.<\/p>\n

If instead of India and Assam, a European country like say France was mentioned, would anyone have thought it was real?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let’s get one thing straight. You have every right to get offended. You have every right to object to the article. You have every right to condemn the newspaper, every right to encourage people to boycott it, every right to remedy the misinformation with\u00a0correct<\/em> information, you can spread the word that it’s satire, and you can even say that it’s in bad taste. All this is making use of your own<\/em> freedom of expression to get your point across.<\/p>\n

What you may not do however<\/em>, is seek to ban the article, put the writer in jail, or otherwise bring legal action against them. You may not<\/em> threaten the writer with physical force or otherwise physically coerce them into taking it down. There’s a very clear line in the sand.<\/p>\n

And before someone starts, spare me the “reasonable restrictions” crap. It’s tiresome. Every nutjob claims that his or her particular restriction is “reasonable”. No one says that their particular brand of offense is “unreasonable”. Leave the definition of what is reasonable and what is unreasonable to the courts thank you very much. And since this particular article is subject to US laws, there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that it will be banned or the writer penalized. Honestly even if it was India, I doubt that the Indian Supreme Court would have struck it down. These days our courts are taking a more and more liberal interpretation of the freedom of expression.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that the “Rape fest” article hit a nerve. And that nerve needs to be hit…repeatedly. We need to talk more about it, not less. Whether intentional or not, the offending post has once again demonstrated the ugly truth about India…to ourselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As usual, we’re protesting over something that makes fun of us. This satire article has a grain (and only a grain) of truth to it. Which is why it hits us<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rights-and-freedoms"],"yoast_head":"\nThe "Assam Rape Festival" is a Joke. Get over it.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As usual, we're protesting over something that makes fun of us. This satire article has a grain (and only a grain) of truth to it. 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