I just read an interview of M.F. Hussain who turned 94 recently, while in his self-imposed exile on account of the few hundred cases pending against him.

It really makes me want to rant about freedom of speech and expression, which very few people really get. Most rational people think they support freedom of speech and expression, except that they don’t. Still worse, they don’t even know. The topic of M.F. Hussain is the easiest way to expose someone’s hypocrisy.

I shouldn’t really lay the blame on ‘offendees’ here when the constitution itself doesn’t guarantee us free speech. Just the fact that we have laws to entertain ‘offendees’ is the crux of the problem. In a country like the U.S. which protects free speech and expression, both the cases and the ‘offendees’ would be thrown out of the courts.

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I am reminded of a sentence I heard recently (don’t remember the source), “As people we need to realize that the constitution does not give us a right to get offended”.

I am not too optimistic that everyone will get the above sentence.

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