Our country holds its head high by claiming about being world’s largest democracy and setting an example for free and secular life for the people. But come closer to the nation and look at the ground reality, the scene is completely different. There is zero democracy in this so-called big democracy. Recently, the noted author Jeet Tayil reportedly said “Between censorship and self-censorship in India, there is a “very tiny space left for art, for it to be reproduced and for it to live”.
India has become the hub for ‘thought/cultural terrorism’. For every little thing, someone or the other pops up and says it is hurting their sentiments and without a second thought the authorities slap a ban or stop the activity. A classic example for that is the turmoil that Kamal Haasan has been facing due to the ban on his heavy budget flick ‘Vishwaroopam’. The ban of his film in Tamil Nadu had a compound effect on neighbouring states.
Ideally and legally, once the censor board clears a film there is no right for any state government to ban the film but TN government did, can that be called as democracy? To add to the woes, the court is advising Kamal to ‘negotiate’ with the grieved parties, is it democracy? While Kamal is doing whatever he can at his place, things are no different in Andhra Pradesh. Here, it is the politicians who are outright gangraping the word democracy.
The best instances of that are honorable Karimnagar MP Ponnam Prabhakar calling his own party man and MP Vundavalli Arun Kumar a ‘prostitute’. Another higher level of democracy killing comes from the TRS president KCR who has downright lashed against India calling it a ‘worthless democracy’ and even abusing Pandit Nehru as ‘useless’. Where is this country heading? What type of leaders is ruling us? What sort of a democracy is this? It is a shame to be part of such an administration.
(Venkat can be reached at [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)
