♦️Why is it important to listen to Kangana Ranaut?
♦️The essence of democracy is dissent
♦️And an opposing point of view that may be completely and totally opposite and noxious to one’s most fondly held beliefs
♦️When Kangana Ranaut says “Mumbai/Maharashtra is like PoK” it’s a statement that’s vile, obnoxious and designed to provoke exactly the kind of reaction that has come from the Hon’ble Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut!
♦️So why am I defending Kangana Ranaut’s vile utterances?
♦️Simply because inherent in the Right To Free Speech is the Right to OFFEND by that free speech otherwise speech is not free!
♦️Kangana Ranaut has set out to offend and provoke
♦️She has succeeded in both
♦️The reply to free speech is free speech laced with an argument far superior in logical argument than the original provocation
♦️It is not the threat of physical violence that’s a logical or legal answer to a vile accusation
♦️By getting the Shiv Sena and some others to respond in a this manner Ms Ranaut has succeeded in what she perhaps set out to do!
♦️A reply could have been “it is rather sad that this film actress Ms Ranaut has chosen to compare Mumbai with PoK when it is Mumbai that has given her everything. We hope she will apologise to all Mumbaikars and the Mumbai Police for her unjustified and unjustifiable comments”
♦️Such a reply would have taken the wind out of the sails of a Kangana Ranaut Team that seems hellbent on eliciting the worst possible reactions from all and sundry
♦️Sadly that did not happen!
♦️So does Ms Ranaut have the right to say what she did?
♦️Absolutely! She does!
♦️But the people of Mumbai and the Mumbai Police have the right to reply!
♦️Personally I disagree with Kangana Ranaut and all that she says, but to paraphrase that most famous saying on Free Speech “I may not agree with what you say but I shall defend to the death your right to say it!”
♦️Reply to a comment howsoever vile cannot be a threat to violence
♦️Your free speech ends where the end of my nose begins!
♦️And then of course there are the Courts
♦️Since Kangana Ranaut has attacked and accused the Mumbai Police of everything under the Sun, the protectors of Mumbai have every justification to approach the Courts with a case of criminal defamation against the actress who has set herself up as Accuser in Chief of all that she disagrees with!
♦️If indeed Ms Ranaut’s remarks have caused such pain, have been responsible for bringing the legally elected Govt Of Maharashtra into disrepute and have generally lowered the trust people of India in general and Maharashtra in particular have against this great institution that makes Mumbai the safest city in India a Court Of Law should be the logical next stop!
♦️So why haven’t “they” done it?
♦️I am neither in Govt not an adviser to the State of Maharashtra
♦️However the sooner they do it the better it is for everyone!
