Padmavati row has exposed Modi's silence and failure of democracy

What has happened is shameful. A Meerut youth, Som, offered a bounty of Rs 5 crore to eliminate Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the filmmaker of Padmavati, and Deepika Padukone, who plays the role of Rajput queen Padmini. Suraj Pal Amu, a BJP leader from Haryana, congratulates Som and offers Rs 10 crore to behead them.

The BJP distances itself without condemnation. A little known Karni Sena justified manhandling Bhansali. Lokendra Singh Kalvi, the Sena founder, who has not seen but trashed the film, claims to be the 37th descendant from Padmavati’s line, and calls Deepika a "naachwali". Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat joins the attack.

Chorus grows

Smriti Irani could hardly be left out. The I&B minister obstructs release. The chorus increases: with vandalising in the streets, media, cinema halls and malls. Karni Sena’s Mahipal Singh Makrana declares: “Rajputs never raise their hands on women, but we will do to Deepika what Lakshman did to Surpanakha.” That is, cut off her nose. The powers that be are silent.

Is this India shining? Are conspiracies to behead two people in lieu of money and to cut off Deepika’s nose permissible criminal offences? Do we hear condemnation from the PM, Arun Jaitley, and law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad? Should they not insist that FIRs be lodged and CBI inquiries made into these ghastly threats?

Can people threaten to behead others go scot free? PM Modi travels a lot. If foreign leaders ask him “Is it true that film makers in India are thrashed and crores offered to behead film producers and actors?” what would he say? Will he lie, “No. These things don’t happen in India”.

Or would he say, “We are looking into it” and then report a month later: “Nothing happened. It was a storm in a tea cup”.

What has India become? Are Indian discourses on films, books and paintings made to destroy them, and the makers to be threatened with murder and mutilation, ransacking of property and disruption of exhibitions? India claims it is a peaceful democracy governed by the rule of law. Why has no action been taken against Som who offered Rs 5 crore to kill a film maker? What action has been taken against Suraj Pal Amu who increased the prize money to Rs 10 crore? Or to Mahipal Singh who threatened to cut off a nose?

My point is not about the rule of law as an abstract entity. We know that the rule of law fails when dealing with politicians supported by gangsters. I am on the pathology of those who rule us. Why is the PM quiet? Why is Jaitley, the great champion of free speech, silent? Why aren’t chief ministers in whose states the ruckus is happening speaking up?

SC disappoints

The truth is none in power takes a stance. And when the "liberals" protest, they are maligned as over-educated intellectuals alien to true India. The inevitable conclusion is that India as we know it is hostile to freedom of expression and democracy itself. Is there any point to an India whose response to democratic speech is stick and stones, with political and legal immunity to those who smash, trash, destroy and kill. The Padmavati incident shows Indian democracy has failed.

When the matter went to the Supreme Court, it applauded free speech in another matter. But for Padmavati, there was a loophole: “In our considered opinion, at such a stage, this court should not exercise their jurisdiction under the constitution as the Censor Board has to take its decision in an independent manner.”

Is this all the Supreme Court had to say about the criminal mayhem that has taken place. The Allahabad HC was no better. The further message should have been to admonish the mayhem and demand apologies for criminal threats.

Censorship

Three top journalists who saw the film praised it. Do you know how Saada Haq was released? A group of lawyers in the Supreme Court (including me) saw it and recommended its release with an A(dult) certification. Certification should be about audience protection and not censorship.

When it comes to films, India is the land of censorship. When I argued Black Friday before the Bombay HC, I offered that at every juncture, the film would say that it is a work of fiction. Eventually, the Supreme Court released the film, but it was too late. It would take an entire newspaper to list the censored films in our contemporary times. In Padmavati’s case, the Censor Board should insist that the film declares “it is a work of fiction and not intended to hurt to defame anyone”.

The most disturbing fact is that Padmavati is a work of fiction written in Awadhi by Muhammad Jayasi in 1540, centuries after Alauddin’s reign which ended around 1320. It went through many versions. Ramya Sreenivasan with The Many Lives of a Rajput Queen and others traced its many versions in India, including Bengal.

Nor does there appear anything that endangers the myth of the great Rajput Queen — if indeed she existed. At least see the movie, then criticise it peacefully. Have we gone mad? Or has our democracy failed? Or are elections all that matters to this nation?

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)

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