when a bouquet is a brick bat

Watching Tasleema Nasrin being attacked i learnt a few things.

the first was that bouquets when tossed dont always mean praise. if they are tossed with the great force that the respected members of the andhra pradesh assembly used they can hurt like hell.

it sure seemed so watching the small old man who was trying to defend her get the crap beaten out of him. perhaps it was the introduction of chairs and other things as projectiles but i was impressed with the form shown. it would make the maruading members of the trinamool congress who trashed the west bengal assembly want to brush up their skills. they were good too but post the incident they did not splutter death threats like in this case. it is that additional touch that makes the difference.

muslim right wingers have started to behave like hindu right-wingers. see my blog entry on the fine arts protest.

now, i am of the firm opinion that on the list of people that deserve a public beating with bouquets (i would again point out that its way more harmful than it sounds) tasleema nasrin ranks quite high.

living in calcutta i have had the unfortunate experience of finding her in my vicinity and it has not been a pleasant experience. she speaks at the full volume factory setting a lot of bengali women (a la mamata banerjee as well as my mother) come with in order to attract attention to herself. my ears are still ringing.

secondly, she chooses to write biographical books exposing who she slept with. The visual images are not pleasant.

however, one must spare a thought for the old men who have written perfectly nice books and lead exemplary lives who get beaten up in the process. i feel they are the real victims.

more interesting however was the usual english channel coverage.

perhaps it goes without saying that the people who attacked tasleema nasrin had not read a single word of her book. as an aside it is for that reason that satanic verses is my favourite book. its not like ive read it but if people can hate a book without reading it, i can love it without reading it.

then came the liberal progressive muslim woman who of course said that she should not have been attacked but the indian government has no business to grant her a visa or grant her citizenship because she has made living out of offending muslims. of course, then teesta setalvad arrived fresh from a meeting where four maulanas had contemned the attack.

very sweet of them to take the time out to do so but this observation was best:

'there was no reason to beat her up. she should be jailed instead.'

now while this is a lovely moderate position to take i really would like to think that in a modern secular (such a dirty word) there cannot be something like blasphemy or religious sensitivity.

i really wish the muslim community would take the time out to point out what a suck ass author taslim nasreen is instead of giving her legitimacy by tossing bouquets at her. maybe then she'll just shut up and move to europe.

that way all our problems will be solved.