Last week, I wrote about a subject which concerns our basic rights, something which is written in the preamble of our constitution. I made it very clear, how I feel ‘freedom of expression and speech’ is abused in order to create cheeky and vulgar content.

But, this week, let’s look at another aspect of freedom of speech.

For the last month, we are seeing videos of a man, dressed like a sadhu(saint), high on weed (or other drugs, I’m not sure); talking about science. From how E is not equal to mc²  , how ‘Gangamitti’ will make much better IC’s than silicon, etc etc…

You know who am I talking about, right ? This guy…

Well, this dealer of horseshit is named ‘Nithyananda’. And like many more self-proclaimed godmen, he has a large cult following. Now, I have no problems with godmen. What they do and who follow them, it’s their own choices. But things that guys like Nithyananda say is what bothers me. There are more. But if we consider him only, I find no educational record of him on the Internet.

Yet, there he is; talking about physics, chemistry, biology, and whatnot. Because, freedom of speech. Because he has a cult following, a saffron dress, a long beard, and long hair, he can say anything.

But, just imagine a teacher of Physics, walking into a classroom and talking about how matter is ‘continuity’ and energy is ‘intensity’ and they are not at all related. Next day the parents (even the students) will make sure I never teach anyone else. But he can say anything because freedom of speech because he is not teaching per se; just saying things that don’t make sense.

One time, the great poster child of Patanjali made claims like ‘AIDS and Cancer is cured by Yoga’. That time Indian Justice System intervened, and he had to withdraw his claims.

But this guy is making even more ludicrous claims, and if you follow his website and Facebook page, you will see, a whole lot of people are very convinced about his claims.

Why? Just think about it; in a country where people are jailed and harassed for sharing memes, making fun of celebrities, how are people getting away by making fun of stuff that is literally worth in Nobel Prizes?

In the dawn of #meetoo movement where people are speaking out about their sexual mishaps, especially celebrities, which shelving films, TV Shows and more. Don’t you think this, should be a burning topic of protest as well? What about a #nobullshit ? Because if freedom of speech means speaking anything without any consequence, then I think there is something very wrong with this kind of freedom.

Freedom comes at a price. And for a country under British rules for about 200 years, we should know that more than anyone else…

 

Talking about #meetoo, if you go to the Wikipedia page of this NIthyananda, you will see accusations of rape, and the existence of sex tapes (forensically proven). If you still think he is ‘harmless’… I don’t know how can I convince you….

 

Peace…

 

Neel

 

P.S. Those who are sharing this, please copy and paste the message below.

 

Being an Indian Citizen, I believe freedom of speech should come at a cost.

#nobullshit

Thank you!