The skin is a disease. About this the chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification, Anupam Kher, and the information and broadcasting ministry are in full agreement. The disease is catching: it probably drives people irresistibly to see and show more skin, to the scandalous detriment of their moral character. And the morals of adults and children of the nation now seem to be in the hands of unscrupulous television channel broadcasters, who apparently revel in shows displaying as much skin as possible. They are immoral enough not to answer any of the 200 to 250 letters written to them by the outraged chairman of the board, warning them of the ?offensive? content being shown. Such concern about damage to the moral character of the feckless populace among administrators and politicians is indeed touching. It was the subject of the most recent meeting between I&B ministry officials and representatives of the various TV channels together with members of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation. The idea of morals is so threatening that the broadcasters were compelled to swallow a severe telling-off by their moral betters in the ministry, who reminded them ominously of the content policing provisions in law.

The tide of moral virtue sweeps away all signs of simple, unadorned intelligence. The new I&B minister, Mr Jaipal Reddy, had said that moral policing is the job of society and not the government. This was heartening, after the proactive morality of Ms Sushma Swaraj and Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad, I&B ministers in the previous regime. But intelligence is evidently not a strong enough force, nor is the awareness of democratic principles and freedom of choice. While I&B officials have been enthused by the Bombay high court?s recently expressed worry about smut on TV, Anupam Kher, an appointee of the earlier government, has remained constant in his passionate desire to regulate what commoners can watch. Skin shows, particularly in music videos, dedicated channels and promotional spots, are most likely to provoke the law, the broadcasters have been told.

Voters have grown used to constant insults from those in power ? insults to their intelligence, to their freedom to decide for themselves and to guide their young, to choose their entertainment, to their ability to switch the TV off. But such insidious measures for mind control are no less dangerous than other, more obvious forms, of state tyranny. Or so it would have been had the effort not been so comic. It is not just the assumption of superiority ? the I&B ministry is there to protect those who might submit to their baser instincts ? but also the hope that minds can be kept under control in the age of globalization and the internet. And why is the skin the bearer of all morality?