Apropos T N Ninan’s column “The right to offend” (Weekend ruminations, January 28), how can French Parliament’s decision to criminalise denial of the Armenian genocide be deemed as suppression or an abridgement of freedom of expression? If anything, such a law will serve as an enabling provision for those who dare to speak the truth. Similarly, laws in European countries against Holocaust denial empower their citizens against conspiracy theorists who would rather have them believe that the event was a figment of Jewish imagination to usurp Palestine. Thus, these laws are not the result of Europe’s fear of violence but a robust response against sophistry and calumny.
Unfortunately, in India, whenever we are faced with an issue that polarises public opinion, we tend to take refuge in words like tolerance and avoid it altogether.
Ajay Tyagi Mumbai
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