To my great cyncial delight, the Acorn’s optimism has been shattered. In some ways, by Taslima herself.

Back-channel negotiations between the Centre and West Bengal, with a little help from Taslima Nasreen’s “literary friends” in Kolkata, got the author to delete three pages from her book….

Her reasons for submission are irrelevant. She used to symbolize a principle. The moment you begin to justify a compromise on principle, your defenses start sounding like alibis. We could argue that, in the end, Taslima has just wasted taxpayer money. Regrettably, she has strengthened the edifice of competitive intolerance by adding another celebrity brick.

The Acorn’s post argues that the Rushdie affair “breathed life into the demon of competitive intolerance.” This is perceptive but incomplete. Rajiv Gandhi’s decision was the latest dangerous addition to the field of creative works. Competitive intolerance was already pervasive in other fields: most prominently, in politics. From Nehru’s time, a chief feature of Indian politics was appeasement. A horrible insult you could award Nehru was to label him the stooge of imperialism/capitalism. This is one of the reasons he bent backwards appeasing the Indian Communists. In a line: Indian leaders have been trendsetters in setting bad precedents. From the chronicles of the Mahabharata, the blind king Dhritrashtra, practised this till his entire clan was destroyed.

The Acorn’s optimism that Taslima presents an opportunity for India therefore ignores this fundamental flaw: Indian public discourse feeds on, rather, needs competitive intolerance. The Rushdie affair merely dragged the lid off the manhole. The demon he mentions, just stepped out from under there. Now you cannot afford not to feed the demon. The latest fodder:

The much anticipated comeback film for Bollywood leading lady Madhuri Dixit ran into trouble in its opening weekend when two Indian states banned the movie for offensive lyrics, officials said Saturday.

The film, “Aaja Nachle,” or “Come Let’s Dance,” was banned Friday in the state of Uttar Pradhesh, and the Punjab followed suit Saturday….

The correction should be fundamental. That’s not something governments can–and better not try to do. Nor will this happen for a long stretch of time given the atmosphere of current public discourse. Till then, cynicism is the only resort to consolation.

To be fair to the Acorn, I’m saying all this in hindsight. But even when the news about Kolkata violence first broke, I was convinced that West Bengal’s Islamic fanatics will get what they want.

Taslima deletes three pages, Jamiat says she may now return

It looks like Jamiat rules West Bengal. No further comments.

Tailpiece: A Conspiracy Theory

I had written earlier that the likes of Jamiat had suddenly woken up to Taslima’s insults to Islam, etc in a context completely unrelated to her. Taslima has been incessantly hogging the news. Is this some shady strategy to divert attention away from Nandigram, the original trigger for the Kolkata violence?