David Irving, a British right wing historian, has been jailed for three years for denying that the Holocaust by an Austrian court. Apparently the denial of Holocaust is crime in Austria with imprisonment of up to 10 years!!! While Jewish leaders and historians have said that the decision was correct a few have also questioned wisdom in imprisoning Irving. Interestingly the decision comes when Europe finds itself wrapped in an intense debate over freedom of expression. Now this one should be an interesting affair. Mr. Irving has found himself once again on the wrong side of law after having been already fined for making Neo-Nazi remarks in Germany and being labeled as “anti-Semitic and racist” by a British court.
Meanwhile in India, Ms. Sonia Gandhi finds herself extremely disturbed by the Danish cartoons of Prophet Mohammed. I never heard about her being disturbed by MF Hussain’s drawings. On the other hand she definitely would have been disturbed by the attack on Mr. Hussain’s exhibition.
Also a UP minister (of Haj!!! Do they have a minister for Amarnath yatra or do they sponsor it with tax payers hard earned money?? But that is another issue.) has called for the beheading of the Danish cartoonist and offered a reward of 51 crores. Also a UP cleric has offered reward for anyone who kills the Danish cartoonist. Interesting. A public supari you may call it. Are there no laws against such people??? They should be classified as anti-social elements in the bracket of Dawood Ibrahim and Chotta Rajan.
Meanwhile, Manisha Koirala is in midst of a controversy (not for any skin show this time.. thank god for that) for naming her dog (which she claims does not exist) as Mustafa. We do live in interesting times. I think I read 1984 at the right time. This is what Dilip D’Souza and Amit Varma have to say about it.
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