What a profound observation that the state has a right to ban books that may cause riots! In a country like India where freedoms have been whittled down from the 1970s - I did make mention of the fact that the 44th Amendment Act of 1978 threw out the Right to Property from the Indian Constitution. Recently, the building of the Narmada dam in India has seen thousands of tribals evicted from their meagre land possessions. They were entitled to compensation if the principle of eminent domain, a basic component of any democracy were followed. But they got nothing. And, when actor Amir Khan spoke out on their behalf, a fascist government in the state of Gujarat banned his movie as a result. The effects of Indian totalitarianism have been slow, and gradual, but definite.
The ban on the
Da Vinci code film is equally specious. As was the earlier Tamilnadu ban on the VAgina Monologues. None of them caused any riots. What will we see banned next? Cornwell's Historical piece "Hitler's Pope" about the Catholic church's support of the Nazis during World War -2? India remains a country that has banned more books and films in recent times than even Iran or Saudi Arabia. Books like "9 Hours to Rama" and it's film version, D H Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover" films like "Turkey Shoot" and many more remain banned in a country that touts itself as a democracy in the light of the Nazis.
And it has a defender in an apologist for the state's crimes against common citizenry. It took a semi literate thug like Ayatollah Khomeini and an equally thuggish crook like Rajiv Gandhi to ban Rushdie's books. It took a Rajiv and Indira Gandhi boot polisher like Priyaranjan Dasmunshi to instigate a ban on the Da Vinci code in a devious attempt
at cornering marginal Catholic votes while the Congress finds itself hammered for not non performance but for performing abysmally. It is this party and it's fossilised crony politicians who find public apologists like Biplab Pal.
If a state finds someone involved in rioting over a book, it's job is to stop the rioting. Freedom cannot be threatened by gutter elements. A state that sides with these lumpens is little more than an accessory to the thugs out to restrict freedom. And, who do we have defending this state of affairs? The defender of freedom who also defends the right of the state to side with the lumpenproletariat, Biplab Pal.
I rest my case,
Mehul Kamdar
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