Last week’s firestorm over a comment by the Indian ambassador to the US had a laughable predictability to it. Our honourable members of parliament let out a howl of outrage when the media reported that Ronen Sen had apparently talked about people running around like “headless chicken” over the nuclear deal. Sen is no doubt mightily irritated by efforts in Delhi to scupper the Indo-US deal. However, the career diplomat wasted no time in issuing an abject apology and clarifying that the comment was directed not at MPs but at some of his friends in the media. But once outraged, India’s elected representatives stay outraged. So the Right and the Left, the Opposition and UPA partners, came together to call for Sen’s head.
Were we surprised that our MPs reacted so virulently? And that they chose to take what was at worst an undiplomatic outburst and treat it as a huge slur on their dignity? Not really. For taking umbrage seems to have become a national pastime these days. The Ronen Sen kerfuffle is only the latest in a long procession of incidents where Indians have been quick to perceive an insult to their national dignity, honour and virtue. The slightest jibe, the merest ridicule, or — horror of horrors — the suggestion that our womenfolk are any less pure than driven snow, and off go our umbrage-takers.
Earlier this year, the government threatened to ban a video-sharing site, “YouTube”, for featuring a clip where a US-based stand-up comedian appeared dressed like Gandhi and did a spot of pole dancing. The information and broadcasting minister took it as “an assault on the dignity of the Father of the Nation”, Indian TV channels that dared to show the footage were rebuked severely and there were protests in several parts of the country.
Little good
Last year, MPs raised a furore when Greg Chappell remarked that they were “paid to criticize”. There was again the famous Richard Gere-Shilpa Shetty kiss that evoked a tsunami of protest because the act, apparently, was obscene and besmirched the virtue of Indian womanhood.
The high-minded guardians of our national honour need to understand that our dignity is not so fragile as to crack under a tasteless video clip here or a vaguely rude comment there. They need to stop taking themselves so seriously. This constant outcry over trivial offences smacks too much of a State that is drunk on its sense of self-importance. It points to a sinister intolerance of criticism and of diverse viewpoints — both hallmarks of democracy and free speech.
One casualty of this has been political satire. The country has hardly any to speak of, unless one counts the aseptic puppet show that passes for political lampoon on NDTV’s Double Take. The fear of the honour police is so pervasive that most of our comics are reduced to cross-eyed buffoonery, or at best some clever mimicry of celebrities. By and large, they give politics a wide berth.
The trouble is that it is not just the right wing zealots who go on a rampage if a political icon is portrayed less than shiningly. The so-called progressives are equally intolerant of irreverence. In the US, the shock jocks, or radio talk show hosts who dish out a constant stream of xenophobia and insults to everyone under the sun, are an unpleasant lot, no doubt. But the point is that they are free to express their views. Sometimes they go too far, as a CBS talk show host recently did with an outrageously racist remark and got sacked as a result. But, on the whole, people do not get unduly exercised over the extreme views choking the airwaves.
One would not advocate the same degree of laissez faire in caste- and communally-sensitive India. But it is time politicians and their committed band of serial protesters let go of their absurd touchiness. There is too much mischief in this, and too little good.
