The sight of Supreme Court lawyer and a social activist Prasant bhusan being brutally roughed up by two youths in his SC chamber beamed on TV screen is utterly shocking and took many by surprise.It's unimaginable that such an ugly and barbaric act could happen in a civilized society.It's reportedly the fall out of Mr Bhusan's recent remark on Kashmir.He called for referendum to resolve Kashmir issue.It's absolutely his view and one may not agree with it.In a democracy every body can speak his mind and our democracy is well founded.It has braced many rough weathers and has emerged stronger in the process.Tolerance and to pay heed to other people's view is the basic tenet of our democracy.Some time back social activist and Pulitzer prize winner Arundhati Roy commented Kashmir was not the integral part of India.Her remark created ripple.Some people denounced it and some welcomed it too.Debate on her comment continued for long and has now subsided.Prasant Bhusan's comment too has triggered a debate that would die down in days to come.This question of referendum regarding Kashmir was often heard probably during Nehru's regime and Bhusan has revived it after so many years.
In fact, there's no room for intolerance in democracy.So the organisations those inculcate intolerance and violence in their members should be closely monitored and if necessary they should be banned. The youths who gave vent to their pent up rage on Bhusan for a remark that did offend them should be taught a hard lesson so that they'd not ever venture to repeat the same.
All persons must have their freedom to express their views whatever be it is. Any views should be countered with logical ways not by intimidating and throttling that voice. That cowardly act is symptomatic of the atmosphere of intolerance sought to generated and established by the forces inimical to the concept of free speech and atmosphere of tolerance that's basic to the concept of democracy.
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