The other day, the Prime minister was telling the students at a university in Banaras about the virtues of being young and free-minded individuals they have to become if the country has to move forward.  Maybe the grotesque irony of the situation was completely lost on him.  Because just a couple of days before that, there was a brutal crackdown on a group of students by the police on the campus of one of the premier liberal arts university in the country, the JNU in the capital New Delhi.  Their supposed crime was that they were chanting 'anti India/anti national' slogans.  This peaceful agitation so unnerved the government about the imminent collapse of the mighty Indian state that it used methods which was grossly disproportionate to the so called 'treasonous act' by a handful of disaffected youngsters.  Anyone not familiar with the devious high-handedness of the Indian state would have thought this something out of a banana republic!

   There is a basic problem with the attitude of the government.  They believe that they have a monopoly over what constitute nationalism and patriotism.  When you start defining these nebulous and subjective facets of community life into a rigid structure of your ideological value system; then it is a very short step before your patriotism turns into a worldview grounded in jingoism, reaction and half-truths, that can do incalculable damage to this country.  To me, the freedom of speech and expression is absolute and non-negotiable.  I must have the right to express my views without any fear, and this also includes the freedom to mock and ridicule any religion or nationality, and if in the process, somebody's sentiments are offended, so be it.  As long as people are not indulging in violent activities, why can't the government just let us be?  Even the Constitution has not defined nationalism and has left it to the individual's devices.  I am much more concerned about the health of the Republic which need to be guarded against the growing virus of intolerance.