India: Facing The Music!

India had been known as a great country with great traditions of great music. Since time immemorial music has always struck a chord in most of the hearts. Never before in history India had been made to face the music like it is being forced to do now!  You cannot be sure if Indian music has lost the traditions or the traditions deserted Indian music or we have lost the traditions or music or both!

Some people did not like one particular music band because all of the musicians there were girls and they forced the girls to call quits from music ushering in a crescendo of hurtful cacophony.

Some people did not like a particular movie and they forced the producer-director to impose cuts even after the film was officially certified for viewing ushering in a harmful web of politics.

Someone did not like the still existing harmony in the Indian society and tried to break it up forever ushering in a downpour of hatred and winning away all the intended supporters to his side. His counterpart, equally hateful of harmony, did the same thing his way ushering in an out-pour of hatred and winning away all who opposed the other one.

Someone talked of a flourishing and a modern developed country of the 21^st century trying to win young India over to him while someone belonging to the same group took the country back several centuries by reliving the hate filled memory of the distant past trying to win away all regressive souls to his side.

A momentously huge and historical religious congregation seamlessly gets transformed into a hysterical political pilgrimage of manipulations, mud-slinging, opportunism and divisiveness.

Everybody seems hell-bent on spreading negativity as lethally as possible throughout the country.  Nobody seems to be interested in doing the positive and the right thing at the right time. All want to score their victories on ruins. All seemingly positive efforts are getting drowned in this hailstorm of negativity. India whines.

Is this all because of 2014, the great Indian year of the General Elections coming closer? How close will be close enough for total destruction for the country and resounding victories for hate mongers? Well, ours not reason why, ours but to go facing the music!

Movie Vishwaroopam: A Frightening Case Of The De Facto Censors!

This has been just another example of the growing intolerance in the country against even creative expressions of various sorts. Let it be books, paintings, movies or music some groups or individuals may not like your work or even hate it so much that apart from blacklisting of your work you may have to be on the run for your dear life. We have talked earlier in these pages about the plight of MF Husains, Salman Rushdies and the like. Movie Vishwaroopam puts the focus yet again on this intolerance, more ominously Cultural Terrorism or Cultural Taliban-ism of India.

Originally in Tamil language, movie Vishwaroopam is written, co-produced and directed by Kamal Hassan, one of the finest cine actors ever produced in India. He also features as the main lead of the film. Vishwaroopam was scheduled to release in Kamal’s home state of Tamil Nadu on 25^thJanuary, 2013. But few people belonging to fundamentalist Muslim organizations did not like it and called it insulting to tenets of Islam. The state government of Tamil Nadu citing law and order issues banned the movie promptly. Law and order being a state subject the central government can hardly interfere in that and if that particular state government is outside of the ruling coalition at the centre the scenario is bound to be the worst.

Brilliant performer and ever sensitive artiste that he always is, Kamal Hassan could never accept this lightly and his immense hurt showed in everything he uttered and did subsequently. He petitioned in the high court, appealed to people, the film fraternity, and governments and also threatened to leave the country if the stalemate continued. The film fraternity including Bollywood prominently came to his support and several front-line Muslim actors and artistes who had seen the movie said that there was nothing objectionable for Muslims. The Hindi version Vishwaroop released on 1^st February in India and there were absolutely no problems anywhere. The movie has done good business and has got critical acclaim too. But the artiste had to show his work to his own people. Meanwhile the movie has become a raging national debate with the most vociferous being people who have not seen the film.

On Saturday, the 2^nd of February, Kamal Hassan started negotiations with the objecting Muslim groups. Finally he agreed to seven cuts on his movie and by Sunday decks were cleared for its release in Tamil Nadu, most probably on Thursday the 7^th February.

The most frightening part of the Vishwaroopam controversy is that the movie got censored again after it was viewed and unanimously cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) which has been the premiere censorship authority in India since 1951. The CBFC has also dismissed allegations from certain quarters that the censoring process was lacking in totality. Now an officially certified film got into trouble from certain objecting individuals and the producer-director has in fact agreed to cuts despite getting a clear certificate from the CBFC. This has raised crucial questions about the authority of the censor board and about how to deal with the de facto censors. Kamal Hassan too cannot be blamed squarely for agreeing to the unofficial cuts because he had his business and his home territory to be deeply concerned about.

Sensible people of the country must get their thinking-act together to ensure that the Vishwaroopam controversy does not become a frightening precedent. Intolerance or cultural terrorism must be stopped at any cost.

Crimes Against Women: Reports, Fast Track, Ordinance And Reality!

The horrific Delhi Gangrape was committed on the night of 16^th December, 2012 on a moving public bus and over the last one and half months some progress has indeed been made. We must call this as ‘progress’ for the simple reason that any new measure or laws on crimes against women in this male-dominated country has to be welcomed as a step in the right direction, because precious little has been done in this field for decades or even centuries. At this moment disappointment or disagreement over the new measures must not be politicized like in fight against corruption where various activist organizations politicized the issue so dividedly that the fight was almost lost.

Within one week the Justice JS Verma committee was appointed and in just about a month it had submitted the report suggesting sweeping changes including in marital rapes, sexual crimes by military personnel and special powers enjoyed by armed forces. The report though did not recommend death penalty for rapists and was silent on amending the juvenile justice system. In just around a week from the submission of this report the Government of India promulgated an Ordinance on rape laws in a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Sing, to be exact on Friday the 1^st of February, to fast-rack amendments to criminal laws. The Ordinance went beyond the Justice Verma report upholding death penalty for extreme cases and proposed to replace ‘rape’ by ‘sexual assaults’ to expand the definition of crimes against women trying to include voyeurism, stalking, inappropriate words or deeds and other crimes as suggested by the Verma Committee. The Ordinance though did not accept suggestions regarding marital rapes and armed forces special powers.

Women activists belonging to several organizations rejected Government’s Ordinance on the ground of its not accepting certain Verma recommendations what they termed crucial issues. But these same activists preferred to be silent when the Verma Committee did not address capital punishment or juvenile justice issue. Just because the ruling coalition is involved in issuing this Ordinance the activists should not cry opposition, instead they should welcome the other strong measures adopted for the first time in the country. The Young India must see to it that nobody politicizes and highjack the issue in these early hours. We had mentioned in the beginning about what happened to the anti-corruption movement due to rampant politics designed just to corner the Government.

Within ten days of hearing arguments over charges against five accused of the Delhi Gangrape the fast-track court in Delhi framed charges yesterday. The trial is set to begin from Monday. Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi visited the victim’s family last night in Delhi and spent over an hour with them assuring extreme punishment for all accused. The family reiterated the demand not to spare the juvenile accused that was reportedly the most brutal. 

The reality remains despite the progress, because you cannot change a legacy of centuries overnight. The Juvenile Justice Board declared the 6^th accused as minor based on that brute’s school certificates that suggested his age is still less than 18. He was capable of committing the worst possible adult crime and as per our laws he is likely to be kept in the remand home till he attains 18 years of age and then possibly released. As if the ‘minor’ brute has been put under a probationary period to be able to commit more ‘mature’ crimes later. The five accused too pleased not-guilty as per our laws fast or slow.

The country needs a fast-track cure for the gender bias most urgently.