Posts from — August 2006

The honourable Bombay High Court, in its infinite wisdom, has decreed that U/A movies are suitable for ‘unrestricted public viewing’.

About whether the films under U/A certification can be treated as ‘unrestricted public viewing’, the court yesterday observed that the films under U and U/A certification are the same class of films-open for “unrestricted public exhibition”. The only difference is U/A is with a word of caution to parents (proviso) or guardians of children to decide whether the child should be permitted to see the film or not.
[source: Cybernoon.com. For a brief explanation of Indian film censor ratings, click here.]

That’s fine. But the above clarification by the court states very explicitly that the parents/guardians of children should decide whether the child should be permitted to see the film. Doesn’t that make the parents responsible for the content their children are exposed to on television? So if a parent has to decide whether the child can watch a particular movie on TV, surely he/she can make a similar judgement in case of an Adult movie. Why are the parents deemed fit to make one decision but not the other? The court’s pronouncement does not explain this. Or if it does, can someone please enlighten me?

In my opinion, the entire issue boils down to parental control over their children’s viewing habits. It’s an important part of parental duties towards their children to ensure that the kids are not exposed to undesirable influences in their formative years i.e. until they are mature enough to understand the consequences of the decisions they take. Parents cannot shy away from this responsibility and expect the government/courts to do it for them. And the government/courts should not take on such responsibility as it has a bad habit of creating unwarranted precedents.

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At first, Mulayam Singh Yadav said the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was not active in Uttar Pradesh and gave it a clean chit.

Mr. Yadav said the Ayodhya and Varanasi incidents were purely terrorist acts and the Special Task Force of the U.P. police had found no evidence of SIMI’s involvement in them. On the suspected involvement of SIMI in the Mumbai blasts, he said it was a matter for investigation.

The Chief Minister’s brother and PWD Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav said SIMI was not a terrorist organisation. Only those organisations and outfits that were found to be involved in terrorist activities should be banned.

Yeah right!!

As expected, Mulayam’s comments resulted in a huge uproar throughout the country, coming as they did right after the Mumbai blasts. So what does Mulayam do?

He feigned innocence and denied making any remarks about SIMI.

Now, with UP state assembly elections due early next year, Mulayam Singh Yadav seems to have felt the need to appease his Muslim vote-bank. So disregarding his own denial of his claims of SIMI’s innocence, Mulayam has once again started making claims of SIMI’s innocence.

Ruling out the involvement of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in recent terrorist attacks in the state, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh on Wednesday alleged that the BJP was responsible for the advent of the menace in the country.

SIMI’s role has not been detected in blasts in Varanasi and the Shramjevi Express and in the Ayodhya terrorist attacks, Mulayam said at a discussion in the legislative assembly…

I can’t seem to decide whether I should laugh or cry at this atrocious flip-flopping attitude! … not to mention the blatant vote-bank politics!!

And he adds…

Terming the BJP as the “mother of terrorism,” the Chief Minister said there was no terrorism in the country before the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya and held the saffron party responsible for its advent.
[emphasis mine]

Whoa!! … beat that!! I want to respond to that, but words just fail me!!

Oh by the way, Mulayam also hopes to go on a saree distribution spree to rake in female votes in the assembly polls.

Apparently, Osama Bin Laden had a huge crush on Whitney Houston and wanted to bump off her husband, Bobby Brown!

More censorship. We just can’t seem to get enough of it these days, it seems!

After having come through blog blockade, RTI Act dilution, art gag, the next medium to bear the brunt of censorship is television.

Cable operators, in at least Mumbai, have arbitrarily pulled all private channels off air without any prior notice! As of now as far as I know, only DD National, DD Sahyadri, DD Bharati and Janmat are on air. All other channels have been blocked out.
The following message is being scrolled on a black background on some of the channels.

IN TERMS OF BOMBAY HIGH COURT ORDER 21st DECEMBER 2005 CERTAIN CHANNELS WHICH ARE ALLEGEDLY CARRYING ADULT CONTENT WHICH ARE NOT TO BE SHOWN INCABLENET HAS SOUGHT CLARIFICATIONS FROM THE COURT WHICH IS PENDING. TILL THEN THESE CHANNELS ARE NOT SHOWN. INCONVENIENCE GIVEN IS REGRETTED. [sic]

What?!! Adult content on cartoon channels, news channels, Discovery, National Geographic, sports channels?!!

Basically, any attempt to deny me the right to gain information from any of these channels for viewing which I am paying money, is a gross suppression of my freedoms. I don’t care who is at fault here… the cable operators, the High Court or the government. This is ridiculous… utterly, pathetically ridiculous!!

Just a few days ago, I was complaining to a friend how the IB Ministry had forced music channels to run scrolling messages that made the music channels admit that they were showing ‘objectionable’ content and they would not do so in the future. Kinda reminded me of school where teachers used to ask troublemakers in the class to write things like “I will not talk in the class” a 100 times in their notebooks!

Incidentally, I wonder why the cable operators are still carrying the government-owned DD channels on air?!

Update: You can follow this story at the BloggersCollective and India Uncut.

Update 2: It is now fairly clear that the cable blackout is a form of protest by the Mumbai MSOs (Multi-system Operators) through the local cable operators, against the police action against them, in the form of raids. The Bombay High Court order dated 21st Dec 2005 had prohibited the cable operators and service providers from showing any material unsuitable for unrestricted public viewing.

As per the order, which takes immediate effect, cable operators will have to block any film on any channel certified as ‘A’ or for a particular class or profession by the Central Board of Film Certification. In effect, only films with a ?U? (unrestricted viewing) certificate can be beamed into people’s homes.

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When I woke up this morning, to reports of the saline sea-water turning sweet at Mahim, just behind the dargah of Haji Makhdum Baba and just a few hundred metres from the Bandra influent-effluent pumping station, the first thought in my mind was that the people who were flocking to the sea-shore to partake the ‘miraculous’ water might as well dip a glass in the commode at their homes and gulp down that water!

That way they would get water thats closer in taste and quality to the Mahim sea-water without leaving their homes and without getting sand in their shoes and on their clothes!

People dump colas because of miniscule pesticide quantities and yet gulp down sea-water that looks, smells and tastes like shit… literally!!… not to mention chemicals and sewage!! It happens only in India! ;)