Ouch! We are touchy!

George Bernard Shaw famously said, “Censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions”. The adage fits the bill when the nation is swirling over Bollywood film Udata Punjab, which bares the brutal reality of the drug menace in the State. Obviously, the Central Board of Film Certification or Censor Board feels by ordering 13 cuts including the word Punjab as “it affects the State’s sovereignty”, the problem will go away. It’s called being patriotic!

Failing to realize it has cut its nose to spite its face. The issue is not whether the Bombay High Court strikes down the Board’s order and bats for the film makers but that India is earning the ignominy of being a paradise for those who take offence. Thanks to its flourishing outrage industry. At a drop of a hat X,Y,Z or the Government is offended by a film, book, joke, wit, satire, humour or defiance is treated as a monster and banned. Never mind if this makes public discourse impoverished and toothless. Whereby, life is lived in the slim strip called the official.

In recent times India has had a surfeit of censorship. Many films, artworks even cartoons which pokes fun or is not in sync with our leaders thinking, cause and outlook is not only banned, vandalized but worse every view is considered corrupting the mind and an act of Innumerable artists, writers, film makers or officials have faced taboo, been given a mouthful, barred and forced out in a country which prides itself for being the birthplace of so many apostles of peace and non-violence Gandhi, Buddha and Mahavir. If one doesn’t like a film just collect a crowd and burn the theaters where it is shown.

If you don’t like a novelist’s book get the Government to ban it or issue a fatwa against the author. Tamil Nadu banned noted actor-director Kamal Hasan’s 100 crore magna opus Viswaroopam which deals with the issue of terrorism in 2013 on the fallacious that it would hurt the sentiments of ‘unknown’ Muslim groups and create a law and order problem.

The Rajasthan Government registered an FIR under the SC/ST Atrocities Act against famed sociologist Ashis Nandy for his controversial remarks on SC/ST corruption at the Jaipur Literature Festival three years ago. Shankar cartoons of Ambedkar in NCERT school books were posthumously removed.

India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, called sedition laws “objectionable and obnoxious”. There is no gainsaying it is not only the Government but also our self-styled police, public at large and petty minded orgainsations who have usurped the moral right to decide what is good for society. Of course, with the powers-that- be backing them to the hilt surreptitiously.

Forgetting, that anyone with internet access can see endless amounts of pornography all it takes is typing three letters “sex”, while the Censor Board has long discussions on the permissible duration of a kissing scene in a movie. Again in the film Do Laphzoon Ki Kahani it has asked the producers to restrict the kissing scenes from 18 to 9 seconds!

I am not saying that we should legalize pornography, but in today’s age the Government and its minions have to understand that this generation exercises their right to freedom of speech and expression. Clearly, in a milieu of competitive democracy, the tragedy of it all is that the political class exploits the common man’s emotions and only looks at what will help popularise it more with its vote bank. Even if its amounts to heading towards an era of intolerance and cultural terrorism.

Shockingly, the culture of taking offence has acquired an epidemic proportion, and we are moving in a direction where nothing, it seems, is a safe topic. How else does one explain the Maharashtra’s Shiv Sena forcing cancellation of Pakistani Ghazal singer Ghulam Ali’s concert in Mumbai and disrupting a meeting for revival of Indi-Pak cricket ties. One is free not accepting the view of others, it is a matter of perception, a statement objectionable to a person might be normal to another.

Clearly, the speed with which our tolerance is falling to fragile levels is scary. In the ultimate our leaders must realize a nation is primarily a fusion of minds and hearts and secondarily a geographical entity. India is a big country with enough room for all to live If our leaders don’t step back from this abyss, the country will begin to resemble the dictatorships where people speak in coded language, where real thoughts go All in all criticism is a sign of a thriving and robust democracy. The aim should be to raise the bar on public discourse, not lower it any more than has been done. India could do without netas and their chamchas who distort politics and in turn destroy democracy. Pay heed before it’s too late. (INFA)

By Poonam I Kaushish