Free Speech and the Nepalese Hypocrisy

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Nepal has a long history of oppression of speech. The Rana regime was the longest and the harshest example of this. People were hanged for speaking their mind. When democracy did come in 1951 (2007 B.S.), it was short-lived. What followed was another autocratic regime—the Panchayat system. It was only in 1991 (2046 B.S.) that democracy was restored. This didn’t last long either, the then King Gyanendra seized power and Nepal was forced into yet another autocratic regime. This, however, didn’t last very long and came to an end in 2008 (2065 B.S.) and Nepal embarked into an era of true democracy, or so we thought.

 But, the Electronic Transaction Act 2008 and Information Technology Bill in 2019, has once again pushed us in the wrong direction. Sadly, when it comes to free speech the Constitution leaves too much for interpretation and manoeuvrability for those in power and effectively keeps freedom of speech in their mercy. The Constitution of Nepal article 17(2) (1) states, the condition for freedom of opinion and expression—“Nothing in sub-clause (a) shall be deemed to prevent the making of an Act to impose reasonable restrictions…” 
As such, there have been several cases of encroachment of this basic democratic right in the past few years. On August 21, 2018, Homnath Sigdel was arrested after he shared doctored images of PM Oli and on September 10, Raju Basnet, editor-in-chief of Khojtalash, a weekly magazine was arrested for publishing a news report about the illegal involvement of the lawmakers in selling the government owned factory land. 

Similarly, the same year on December 13 photojournalist Barsha Sah was arrested for taking the pictures of a protest outside Shital Niwas. On June 7 the following year, in 2019, comedian Pranesh Gautam was arrested for his review of the movie Bir Bikram. Singer Durgesh Thapa on October 22 and Vten on October 24 were also arrested because their songs were “offensive and promoted anti-social values”. These are just some of the most high profile cases of arrests.

                                            www.amp.dw.com/en

Fresher to our memory might be the arrests of "Enough Is Enough" protestors from Baluwatar, Maitighar and Patan. Or, the silencing of Sarita Giri in the parliament for her “anti-national” views. Or, the recent banning or “reasonable restriction “of the Indian news channels with the exception of Doordarshan for their propaganda against Nepal. 

                                    www.kathmandupost.com

However, the point of this opinion piece is not to highlight how the government has been silencing the voices, everyone loves to do that. What I am interested in is, what we as the people of this democratic nation have done to protect our right to free speech. What I am interested in is, how we as a nation have responded when free speech has come under threat. How have we responded when our notions of right and wrong have been put to test by free speech?

Did we not hurl insults at Sarita Giri? Did we not vandalise her house? Did we not demand her exile? What did we do when Aayush Shrestha published the “offensive” Kumari filter? Did he not receive death threats for his artistic expression? Or, was that the people in power too?

                       manggogresiknews.blogspot.com

More recently, Sandip Chhetri— for his offensive portrayal of the Madhesi community and the Indian news channels— for their outlandish and outrageous media coverages against Nepal, have faced the ire of the Nepali populace. Coincidentally, these two events happened in such close proximity that it helped highlight the hypocrisy of the Nepalese people on their stance on free speech.

                                                              change.org

When we look at the Sandip Chhhetri controversy and the Indian news fiasco side by side, it becomes visible where we as a country, as a people stand on our fight for free speech. Free speech is ABSOLUTE, so long as it doesn’t “offend” us. Free speech is ABSOLUTE, so long as we agree with what’s being said! There were people who celebrated the banning of these channels wholeheartedly, but there were also people who, with equal vigour, condemned it and rightfully so. However, the same folks who condemned the banning of the news channels were also demanding that Sandip Chhetri’s program be banned. 
    
We tend to forget—maybe because of our; on again - off again history of democracy—that free-speech is a package deal. We fail to understand that it comes with the good and the worst, that by its very definition, free-speech allows even the most bigoted, hateful and revulsive thoughts to be expressed. Free-speech and hate speech do not exist as two separate entities but are, in fact, the two sides of the same coin. Hate speech can only exist because speech is free and free-speech only continues to exist so long as hate-speech is allowed to exist.

                               https://natlib.govt.nz/records

If offense and insensitivity is to be the limiting factor to free-speech, who defines what is offensive and what is not? If that is the case, we should also not forget that anything anyone says could be offensive to another person.

 An atheist's views on religion could be offensive to a religious person. An idea that a woman be allowed outside the house, that she be treated as equal to man be offensive to a patriarch. A communist’s political beliefs could be offensive to a capitalist and vice-versa. A Dalit saying that s/he is equal to a Brahmin and that s/he be allowed to be a pujari could be offensive and insensitive to a Brahmin. Do we, then, ban all speech?—because that’s the only way to not offend anyone.

Free-speech is the hallmark of democracy. Democracy cannot dare to exist in its absence. Sadly, we as a country don’t seem to understand this basic fact. What the Nepalese defenders of free-speech must understand is, to quote Rushdie--”It's no trick to support free-speech of somebody you agree with or to those whose opinion you are indifferent. The defence of free speech begins at the point when people say something you can’t stand. If you can’t defend their right to say it, then you don’t believe in free-speech.”
  
                               https://twitter.com/cbcbooks



https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/08/22/man-arrested-over-facebook-post-depicting-nepal-pm-as-monkey-.html

https://www.ifj.org/media-centre/news/detail/category/asia-pacific/article/nepal-editor-arrested-on-cybercrime-charges.html

https://www.ifj.org/fr/salle-de-presse/nouvelles/detail/category/rights-at-work/article/nepali-photojournalist-arrested-at-protest-outside-presidents-office.html

https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/mycity/amp/police-arrests-pranesh-gautam-again

https://thehimalayantimes.com/kathmandu/police-act-against-durgesh-thapa-for-his-controversial-tihar-song/

https://kathmandupost.com/art-culture/2019/10/24/rapper-vten-arrested-for-allegedly-promoting-anti-social-values

https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/sarita-giri-removed-from-parliament-expelled-from-samjwadi-party/




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