The ‘honourable’ minister for Haj (UP), Haji Yakub Qureshi, calls for the Danish cartoonists head with a reward of 51 crores, and the Government of UP - and the Central Government, does nothing. The Shiv Sena goes on rampage in Nalla Sopara - a suberb of greater Mumbai - and again apart from feeble apologies from the Sena - there is nothing to suggest that the Sena is going to pay for disrupting Civil Society. Somehow, the incitement to violence by politicians gets excused under the ‘freedom to express’ guaranteed by the Constitution. But, maybe it is time to throw the book at a few to ensrue that we all don’t end up sufferering for their irresponsibility. I know that there are those who disagree on the idea of responsibility being an integral part of a citizen’s behaviour. And the fact that responsibility as citizens also means a certain degree of self restraint. But, it is time to throw the book at those who behave irresponsibly. And hit them where it hurts - with the full might of the legal system against those who want to disrupt our lives and our basic and fundamental freedoms. I would really like to see the "honourable’ minister arrested, tried and sentanced for incitement to murder, and the SP fined like crazy for inflicting a person like this on the people of India. And I would like to see the goons in Shiv Sena being jailed and the party itself? fined out of their ample coffers for the? disruption to our civic lives. Maybe a few such ‘examples’ will make us a safer society

Tags: India, Politics, Religious Fundamentalism, Uttar Pradesh