KOCHI: Ideological battles over socio-political issues are not new to the Malayalam blogdom.
However, the latest and the ongoing one, which revolves around a post for its alleged racial remarks and obscene content, has a specialty.
It could probably be the first incident where a cyber case has been registered against a blog for its alleged obscene content.
The Malayalam Blogosphere is boiling over a post - Saraswathikku Ethra Mulakalund? - which discusses some socio-cultural issues related to the Malayali psyche in the backdrop of a painting of goddess Saraswathi.
The blogpost hosted under the title ` Aathmagathangal ’ by Murali, an artist in Kannur under the pen name Chithrakaran at http://nisaram.blogspot.com , has a number of social issues on discussion.
A case has been registered against the blog based on an e-mail complaint by a blogger Santosh (Ponnambalam) of Thiruvananthapuram.
It is alleged that the post portrays Goddess Saraswathi in a bad light, therefore, hurts the feelings of devotees.
The state cyber cell has forwarded the complaint to the Kannur Town Police, which registered a case (number 18/09) for alleged obscene content in the post, under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act.
Murali has already moved an anticipatory bail application before the court.
The blog puts on debate the Brahminical attitudes of the Kerala society in the backdrop of the portrayal of gods and goddesses in the media. The blog attempts to bring out the caste and racial attitude deep inside the Malayali psyche through the way people here approach issues.
The post, however, has invited severe criticism from a number of bloggers.
On the other hand, many bloggers have come up in open supporting the freedom of expression in blogdom. A blog http://dpkdrishtidosham.blogspot.com by Pradeep Kumar has posted the issue on discussion and a huge number of responses have been posted so far. There are arguments that the issue should be considered as a right to expression and hence should not be dealt with legal action.
“It is an expression in the form of satire.
We should approach it in that way only.
There are certain racial and communal forces who have come up against the post. The blog was meant for a spiritual development for the readers. I believe that we still have that a slavery attitude in mind and hence the inferiority attached to that. It is high time we drop that slavery in mind.
My blog was a mere contribution as an artist to remove that inferiority from the society,” said Murali.