New Delhi: Contending that "reasonable restrictions" on liberties were sometimes needed to ensure public order and communal harmony, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has said content like Facebook pages promoting inflammatory causes should not be allowed to "go viral" on Internet.
Defending Union Minister Kapil Sibal`s statement, Tharoor said his "main concern" for asking Facebook and Google to screen user-generated content was the misuse of internet for inflammatory causes with potential of causing violence and threat to social harmony.
"Facebook pages calling for extermination of certain religious communities or castes were dangerous to India`s social fabric and should not be allowed to go viral on the net, as they could lead to violence and pogroms. "If someone is holding a match stick to destroy a petrol pump, my concern is to save the pump and not to defend the freedom of action of the vandal lighting the match," Tharoor said last evening while inaugurating a two-day Knowledge Sharing Workshop on `Sub-Regional Human Rights Mechanisms` organised by the OP Jindal Global University and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) here.
In a statement issued by the University, Tharoor said "public order and communal harmony were higher priorities for the nation and maintenance of these priorities could sometimes entail reasonable restrictions on liberties."
He said an individual`s rights have to be limited in the event that they are violating the rights of large groups to live in peace. Tharoor said "democratic freedoms should not become licence to incite people to discriminate, attack, defame or malign innocent fellow citizens. With all rights come responsibilities."
His keynote address to the gathering elaborated the universality of human rights and reasonable limits on this concept based on local cultural and social requirements.
Speaking at the occasion, Professor C Raj Kumar, Vice Chancellor, OP Jindal Global University called for establishing a regional human rights institutional mechanism in South Asia.
He said "establishment of a South Asian Human Rights Commission that will have a broad mandate to protect and promote human rights in all countries in South Asia will help in developing a shared understanding of human rights values within South Asia".
PTI