It is annoying, to say the least, to have one’s moral decisions as an adult made by a minister. And more so when the government this minister is part of swears by none other than “progressive” democratic principles. To call the information and broadcasting minister overzealous is almost an understatement. He has been quite relentlessly busy, as a minister, trying to rectify the nation’s taste, morality and capacity for reverence. Mr Priya Ranjan Das Munshi’s latest intervention has resulted in the banning of a television channel for obscenity. The ban was publicly proclaimed by the minister at a press conference. Mr Das Munshi’s ministry has taken offence to the bad taste and indecency of a programme that attempted to bring together the world’s sexiest commercials. This sexiness was more a matter of innuendo than exposed skin, but it was deemed potent enough to “affect public morality”. Nothing can be more unpleasant, and demeaning, to sensible adulthood than bureaucratic self-righteousness. Anybody riding a moral high horse is not a lot of fun, but ministers look particularly obnoxious on these animals.

A few days ago, Mr Das Munshi wanted to strike down two TV channels for showing an internet footage making fun of the Father of the Nation. But after the channels were made to apologize, the minister decided to enact the Mahatma’s principles of forgiveness by not pursuing the matter any further. Earlier, Mr Das Munshi had wanted to block a number of India-hating blogs after the latest Mumbai blasts. He had problems with the heterodoxy of The Da Vinci Code as well. And had the prime minister not intervened, “file notings” would have been kept out of the purview of the amended Right to Information Act, making it a far less effective weapon for protecting democratic transparency. Mr Das Munshi’s will to suppress risks dragging a mature democracy back to some sort of collective puberty.