Why are we always so eager to ban something or censor it? Isn’t it simpler to just look away from a work of art we disapprove of, not go to watch a movie we don't want to, shun a book that offends us, zap out of a TV show that affronts our sensibility, surf away from a site we don't like. That’s what free will is all about, and democracy. The right to choose what we like, what we don’t; and allow others the same freedom. Instead, today, we’re no longer satisfied making our own choices. We want to disrupt the choice of others. This is dadagiri, the indiscreet art of the vandal.
It’s easy to blame the I&B Ministry or the Censor Board, call them Nazis. I do it all the time. But the fact is that they are constantly under pressure. Unlike you and me, they won’t admit to it. Worse, they strut their power and authority while signing off on decisions that subvert the very purpose of their existence which is to protect the freedoms that our Constitution guarantees us. So, as more and more pressure groups come into play and start intimidating the State, through parliament, media, random acts of street violence, the more the Ministry succumbs, the more mistakes it makes. This is exactly how the extremist groups grew.
Dadagiri has many faces. But the objective’s the same: To intimidate the silent majority by aggressive acts of violence. So a painter like Husain can’t exhibit his works in India without his shows being vandalised, his art destroyed by tiny groups of art-illiterate vandals, claiming spurious allegiance to Hindutva, who terrorise the organisers while the police look away. We all tut-tut but no one, not even the State, raises a finger to do anything about it. Result? India’s greatest living painter runs away from his home, fearful for his life and safety, and lives in London as an exile while some khaki chaddis celebrate.
Sach ka Saamna, on the other hand, gets MPs cutting across party lines jumping up in parliament and demanding its ban. Why? Because some silly people feel that we Indians are so stupid and vulnerable that we will be corrupted listening to someone bare his life secrets in public at 10.30 pm on a pay TV channel which you can easily ask your cable guy to disconnect. Instead, you pay for the channel, bring it home, and then demand the show be chucked off it simply because you disapprove. What kind of argument is that? Why not use your remote? If TRPs are any indication, there are many more watchers for the show than critics in parliament. But whose side does the I&B Ministry take? No prizes for guessing.
Savita Bhabhi’s another recent case. No one knew the lady existed in some remote corner of the internet till her fan following grew so big that everyone started talking about this gorgeous, sari-clad, self assured Indian woman who refused to accept male domination in matters of sex and decided to break out and do her own thing. She’s the Simone de Beauvoir of our times, disguised in pop iconography. Where does pornography come from? She’s animated, for God’s sake. But the Ministry has chosen to ban her under a law that makes her out to be a serious threat to the security and integrity of India.
You may not believe this either but we can’t buy Rushdie’s Satanic Verses here. You can bring it in from overseas or, like a thief, sneak in a copy from one of the booksellers on the net. But you can’t buy here a book written by one of your finest authors simply because some mullahs in Iran disapproved of it. Worse, Taslima Nasreen got hounded out of India because the mullahs of Bangladesh disapproved of her writings. Balika Vadhu lives under the constant threat of being yanked off the air because some idiots who have obviously not watched the serial think it’s encouraging child marriages. MTV keeps apologising on its ticker for things said on Roadies and Splitsvilla. Billu Barber becomes Billu a week before its release because calling a barber a barber is suddenly politically incorrect. In Aaja Nachle, a song that refers to a cobbler becomes such a contentious issue that three states go to war against the film.
So where does it all end? Christian groups want The DaVinci Code censored. Muslim groups want Rushdie banned, Taslima chucked out. Sikh groups want Jo Bole So Nihal yanked out of theatres. Hindu groups want Husain chucked out of every art auction. And all groups want Savita Bhabhi chased off their computer screens lest their women begin to assert their sexual freedom. Isn’t it time the State said: Enough is enough. Isn’t it time to assert the fact that no one can hold our freedoms to ransom. Isn’t that what the I&B Ministry should be out there protecting, instead of backing every thug, every extortionist down the road?
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