Dams be damned, beliefs be banned!

India: the biggest democracy in the world? Ask me and I’ll tell you: this biggest democracy is also probably the biggest joke in the world. Article 19, sub-clause [a] of clause [1] of the Constitution of India reads “All citizens shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression”. What they forgot to mention is that this particular freedom of speech is restricted to singing stupid slogans like ‘India shining’ and ‘India smiling’. And what freedom of expression really means is freedom to stand around wearing that dumb expression on your face when you know you’ve been fucked but you can’t do a shit about it so you pretend nothing happened in the first place. Cross that thin invisible line and you are a danger to national security.

Take for instance, celluloid star Aamir Khan’s much talked about stance on Narmada Bachao Andolan and its subsequent result. First to be lined up in the firing line was his Rang De Basanti. And now it’s Fanaa, scheduled for release tomorrow, which probably will not be screened in many of the multiplexes in Gujarat, thanks to violent protests by political sycophants.

[Mr. Khan certainly has a knack for creating controversy and my salutes to him for speaking up!]

While the freedom of sycophancy is alive and kicking, our fundamental right concerning freedom of speech has apparently died an unnoticed death. Though this post does not intend to discuss whether or not the Narmada Bachao Andolan activists and supporters are right in opposing the construction of a dam, it does intend to criticise those in power who accord freedom to a handful to silence vox populi.

The fact that some party members in Gujarat have just gone ahead and openly exhibited their tendencies towards hooliganism and the Gujarat government’s silence on this front only goes on to prove that these hooligans have blessings of the powers-that-be to carry out these ‘protests’, which can, at best, be called chamchagiri. Government sanctioned protests? Give me a break here!

First of all, their protests against the screening of Fanaa do not make sense. If the party workers are irked by Aamir Khan’s remarks against the Gujarat government, that’s all right. If you wanna get pissed, go right ahead and vent out – vocally that is. It’s a democratic country. But what makes them believe they have the right to decide whether or not the public watches a particular movie! These sycophants certainly have no right to make a hue and cry over a movie just because the movie stars an actor who said something about someone that they did not want to hear.

That brings me to the ongoing The Da Vinci controversy in India. Nagaland Government has gone right ahead and banned the movie as well as the book in the state. Rediff.com reported that “Nagaland government has issued an 'advisory' to all the cinema hall owners, video parlours and cable operators not to receive, distribute or screen the film in any form in Nagaland.

“Not only that, the Nagaland government has also decided to ban the Dan Brown novel in the state and appealed to all booksellers, stockiest, distributors, individual readers not to sell, buy, distribute or read the novel in the state.” [The full report]

Do these governments take all its citizens for juveniles? Do they think we are incapable of making our own decisions? Our school/college textbooks taught us about the Constitution of this great democracy guaranteeing its citizens some fundamental rights. What these textbooks did not tell us was nothing should be taken at face value. Now we know, now we know.

And did they say ‘India smiling’? Yeah, right! Like Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa smiling: I know something you don’t – that it’s all a damn farce!