Finally, people are coming together to voice their concern against rising intolerance and moral policing. A forum is being created to facilitate exchange on issues of morality, personal liberty and freedom of speech and expression in Chennai.
I did a story on the meeting that happened on Friday evening.
Those interested can register by emailing sanerchennai [at] yahoo [dot] com. There is a meeting scheduled to happen at the Asian College of Journalism on October 15, 10 a.m. Please land up for the first brainstorming session to discuss modus operandi. How do we carry out the campaign for civil rights and personal liberty? How do we engage people involved — the lawmakers, the police, the state and the judiciary — in a discussion to create a progressive society free from Taliban-like legislation?
The forum has over 60 volunteers already, including noted lawyers, doctors, businessmen, journalists and even students. One thing we discussed in the meeting was the need to mobilise young people for the movement, especially because they are the most affected and hence have an active role to play considering the future of the civil society.
If we want to be a modern evolved society, we cannot stop with protests and online bitching, we need to engage people involved in a dialogue and reason it out with them. For which, we need to become a significant body that represents the voice of a silent majority. We need to be able to deal with hypocrites and arm-twist them into making them see sense. It is a tough task cuz most of them know they have different sets of rules for men and women. The only to do this is to become a significant mass, a body whose opinions they cannot ignore, a body that reflects sentiments of a significant vote bank. We need to get them on TV and influence more like-minded people to make themselves heard, through electoral franchise or moulding public opinion. There were some fascinating points that came up during the meeting, sure-fire strategies to preserve personal liberty and freedom of speech and expression.
For which, we need you, you, you, you and you to join. The stronger we are, the more power we weild. Let’s show them who rules in a democracy — we, the people!
MADRAS INK. 