Freedom of choice? Really?
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Freedom of choice? Really?

Yesterday, the whole of India rejoiced on its 70th year of independence, but what exactly did we celebrate?

Freedom of choice? Really?

I am 30. Single. Living alone in the city. I have a well-paying job. I read. I drink. I have a maid who takes care of the only responsibility I have – my dogs. I am as free as free gets.

But am I?

This is a question I ask myself every day as I go through my Facebook newsfeed and InShorts notifications. Death. Torture. Discrimination. Humiliation. War. Protests. Bans. It’s the same news every day, just with different faces.

So, yesterday, as India celebrated its 70th year of independence, I asked myself: What good is liberty, if we don’t have…

Freedom to love

Just the other day news of a Dalit man hacked to death in Tamil Nadu jumped out at me from a newspaper. He had dared to marry a caste Hindu girl. All of 22 years old, he was attacked from behind with sickles by three men on a motorbike. While he died on the spot, his wife, 19, suffered serious head injuries. No points for guessing who had ordered the attack — the woman’s family, specifically her father. This was in March. It didn’t take long for the charred bodies of another couple to make an appearance on the side of a Jaipur highway. The police said the man was Hindu, the woman Muslim. Honour killing, they suspected. But society is not so extremist all the time — it has a form of lesser punishment too. Life sentences. For relationships it considers taboo. Section 377 is its toggle switch — decriminalised in 2009; recriminalised in 2013. Films such as Aligarh, centred on homosexuality, are fodder for controversy. So what if pride parades are being held all over the country — even in our very own Gurugram, which hosted its first LGBTQ parade on June 25 at Leisure Valley Park? Will society accept me if I realise I am gay or fall in love with someone it doesn’t approve of? Will my country’s 70 years of independence come to my rescue then?

Image courtesy: Wallpoper.com

 

Freedom to eat

I love eating. Even till a few days back, I ate anything that caught my fancy. Octopus. Snake. Squid. Rat. Pigeon. Pig. Cow. Yes, I ate beef. No, I don’t any more. I quit meat some time back. But that has nothing to do with the beef ban. I, however, know of many who have quit beef for fear of government prosecution. And death. Hell, who would want to end up like Mohammad Akhlaq? Or that family in Karnataka that was beaten up by more than 40 members of a right-wing group on the mere suspicion that they had eaten beef? Or those poor men in Gujarat who were stripped, tied to an SUV, flogged with iron rods and then paraded by cow protectors — all because they were tannery workers. They were Dalits, you may say; you will not suffer that fate, you may say. But what about those four Jammu & Kashmir students in Rajasthan who were beaten up and arrested for eating beef inside their hostel room? Fanaticism, you see, knows no caste.

Closer home — and on a much lighter note — I have had to give up hopes of renting my dream flat just because I ate fish. The landlord wanted to rent out his flat only to non-meat eaters — didn’t matter if they left the place inhabitable afterwards. Well, at least now that I am vegetarian, I may stand a chance. No credit to my country’s 70 years of independence, though.

Image courtesy: i.huffpost.com

 

Freedom to be compassionate

Just yesterday my brother and I managed to save a pigeon caught in the wire mesh of the flat just below ours. It would have been just as easy as it sounds, had the flat owners not been insensitive twats. After lectures on how we could be evicted from the society because of disturbing fellow residents for an “insignificant issue”, we managed to bring the bird up. Its left wing was almost torn off and there was no way it could fly. So now I have a happy addition to the family, albeit temporary, complete with bird feed and Betadine-laden bandages. However, Baneshwar Shaw wasn’t as lucky. This 50-year-old man in Kolkata was beaten to death by a neighbour who was “irritated” by his habit of feeding stray dogs. And this is not just a stray incident. Animal lovers face outrage, apathy and hostility every day. Not to mention ostracisation. With two pets at home, and the thrice-daily duty of having to walk them, I know how many times I have had to fight with fellow residents just to walk on the same road they are walking on, or to share the same lift they are using. I have received threats of eviction more than once. But am I complaining? Not at all. I have my country’s 70 years of independence by my side, don’t I?

Image courtesy: Topdogtips.com