The social media went berserk today. There's nothing new about that. It goes berserk every alternate day. But today is a bit different. While in most or all cases the issue pertains to demanding an apology for an act, a statement, a thought ,a tweet, a post, and what not, today charges were framed for tendering an apology. Yes, AIB was hounded for saying 'sorry'. Led by enthusiastic, self proclaimed free speech advocates, AIB was mocked for coming down on its knees , bowing to pressure,being 'sickulars' for apologising only to Christians and betraying all those who 'virtually' stood behind them in their apparent hour of crisis. And their crime? In a society where everyone seeks to out do the other, where one's acceptance is inextricably linked to another's embarrassment, where even humour has ideological leanings and where troll and abuse are the norm rather than the exception, AIB dared to say 'sorry'.
Is sorry always a unilateral admission of guilt. A sorry can mean a lot many things. In a world so full of contradictions, many a rights inevitably end up hurting others. So what does the righteous do. Does he get around and say, I have the right to use my right to offend you and I will keep using it to hurt you(eg: Charlie Hebdo). Or does he choose to keep manoeuvring around his rights and keep offending others(Eg: communalists and pseudo secularists). Or else, does he turn around and say that even though I am well within my rights, I feel sorry for having offended you which was not my intention. I would prefer the last option and I believe so would the larger civil common public. Just like AIB, a certain political leader chose to say sorry for something he considered right but which offended the public. It was not an admission of guilt and even as I write this people are rewarding him in unprecedented ways. A sorry doesn't belittle you, a sorry doesn't make you guilty, a sorry doesn't make you any less right. It just makes you a person sensitive to your fellow social beings emotions. And probably that's what AIB is-sensitive. Probably....
PS: I am a catholic Christian and AIB has one less person to apologise to.
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