Expressionist

We have received a letter from Ranjit Hoskote, Secretary-Treasurer, Drishti Media, Arts & Human Rights, Ahmedabad, on the Mumbai police stopping a screening of Sanjay Kak's documentary. We write to bring to your notice yet another violation of the freedom of expression in India. On Friday, 27 July 2007, a posse of policemen attached to the Dadar police station in Bombay broke into a private screening of Sanjay Kak's documentary, Jashn-e-Azaadi, and confiscated the DVD. The screening, which was...

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has banned the transmission and retransmission of the advertisements of Lux Cozy Underwear and Amul Macho Underwear because they are "indecent, vulgar and suggestive." It is a different thing altogether that the two ads had been cleared by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), the self-regulatory body of the advertising industry. The venerable I&B ministry has directed all television channels to be more "careful" in future in...

Policement in Noida are grossly incompetent and inefficient when it comes to prevent crimes against women, even if those are eve-teasing cases. But they are ruthlessly efficient when separating a boy from a girl. Three constables attacked a Delhi University student Wednesday last and bundled him into a Gypsy. All because he was seen talking to a girl. CNN-IBN reports: He was allegedly talking to a female friend at the Sector 55 market of Noida when the three cops approached him, bundled him into...

The Supreme Court has exempted former Star India CEO Rathikant Basu from personal appearance before a trial court looking into criminal proceedings initiated against him for allegedly showing obscene movies on its channel more than a decade ago. A bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, however, has refused to stay the proceedings. The criminal complaint was filed under Sections 239 and 294 of the Indian Penal code and Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act 1986 for aiding and...

You can find such juvenile statements only in the RSS mouthpiece The Organiser. And that too by former HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi. [ Link] Former Union HRD Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi viewed that sex education would transform the student-teacher relation into that of a man and a woman and it appears the government wants to import the western culture of sexual relations between students and teachers into India. He said introduction of sex education is what multinationals did to create...

Sharmila Tagore, our chief film censor, said in an interview with Reuters that state censorship was more transparent and preferable to street censorship enforced by angry mobs or political groups. Here are five recent films that did not have a smooth ride with India's censors — both official and self-appointed: Mumbai Aamchich was denied a certificate this year because the film board said it endorsed the idea that the city of Mumbai belongs only to people from Maharashtra and everybody else...

It's Pune again. But this time, it is the turn of the Islamists.A group of youths tore down posters of Hindi film Awarapan and carried out demonstrations at Victory theatre in Pune Camp, where the movie was screened on Saturday afternoon, claiming that the film has scenes hurting religious sentiments. Following the incident, the police provided security to 13 theatres in the city, where the film is being screened in this Maharashtra city. The culprits this time out were members of the Indian...

The suspended in-charge dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University, Shivaji Panikkar, was attacked by a group of unidentified persons near a school Friday in Ahmedabad where he had gone to inaugurate an exhibition. CNN-IBN reports: Pannikar, who was suspended for lending support to the student who was arrested over an alleged obscene painting, was attacked by unidentified persons in Ahmedabad on Friday. He and his driver were roughed up by a group of 20 people outside the gates of St Xavier...

Oh, its happened again. This time in Pune. Activists of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Yuva Morcha (BJYM) barged into a popular restaurant in Pune's Kalyaninagar on Saturday night to protest against the “pub culture”. The activists, carrying party flags, entered Soho’s hall where music was being played, shouted slogans and demanded that the restaurant be closed for running an illegal dance floor cum pub and for violating the 11.30 pm deadline. “The rich culture of the city is being sullied by the...

Twelve years ago, a New Delhi couple were booked for indulging in an "obscene act" in a public place. The male of the two died six years ago. And now the female concerned has finally been let off by the court. A case was registered against Seema and one Atma Prakash after they were found allegedly indulging in the obscene act at a DDA park in Uttam Nagar under police station Janakpuri here on June 17, 1995. A court acquitted Seema of the charges June 26, noting contradictions in statements of...