It all started with the ruckus generated after a meme depicting Bengal’s Chief Minister in a fashionista avatar started doing the rounds during the Lok Sabha Elections of 2019. Investigative scrutiny revealed that the meme was created and circulated by a BJP worker in Bengal named Priyanka Sharma. She was arrested immediately. When the activist’s brother petitioned the Supreme Court, the observation that came through deemed the arrest to be ‘arbitrary prima facie,’ and directed the State Government to release Priyanka Sharma from jail. They took a while to comply with the Apex Court’s directive.
This posed a question before us- ARE WE FREE? Is Indian Democracy and its Civil Society at large truly egalitarian to allow our artists and activists to voice out their expressions without any fear of a fascist backlash?
Join us in this video as we trip from Salman Rushdie’s anecdote on Natyashastra delving into the Indian tradition of championing freedom of expression to the invisible boundaries set up by our constitution when it comes to artistic and civil expression in India.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRL16IrKn58