I say this as an Indian and with sadness: The notion and importance of free speech is at worst alien and at best a concept with little or no respect in India. I

I say this as an Indian and with sadness: The notion and importance of free speech is at worst alien and at best a concept with little or no respect in India. If you exercise your right to free speech (you can only do so when you indulge in speech not welcome by anyone who holds influence) you seriously risk physical harm. This is the reason you dont have Jon Stewart show in India, wont have in the near future. If someone drops his pants, or more accurately does something much worse (multi-homicide level worse) and claims "I did because BTNM said so", no one will seriously question his/her judgement or responsibility of listening to BTNM but will fall over themselves in their eagerness to blame BTNM exclusively and put a blanket ban on anything that is deemed unpopular by the people who have influence: think of the women and children that may be harmed. I am sick and tired of waiting for us to behave like adults and treat people like adults with the full set of responsibilities that comes with it. But no, we want to be treated like kids incapable of taking responsibility of our own actions and elect such people to high places. I expect this to be downvoted if there is a large Indian audience hanging out here. This is definitely a minority view here, going by multiple conversations I have had on this topic.