politics of sentiments

Many eyebrows were raised when I wrote a line on Facebook in favour of Slut Walk - a protest march by women to tell the world that they can dress up the way they want and their dress is no excuse for a man to molest her.

My friends lectured me on culture and talked highly of our Indian heritage. They said the Slut Walk was against the Indian culture.

I am surprised that none of those people have uttered even a single line against Delhi Beli - the new movie of Amir Khan. I wonder if they find the content of the movie in sync with the Indian culture!!!

The reviews rated the movie quite highly (maybe people do not dare citicise Amir Khan as for them he symbolises intellectualism!).

Apart from mentioning that the movie is full of swear words, no body said anything else about it. Then there was a little brouhaha on a particular song. But none spoke about the rest of the garbage this film has served to its audience.

I went to watch the movie after reading the reviews. I had the impression that the movie might be about some issue (as Amir Khan is known to have been raising issues) or it would be pure fun movie.

I came out of the cinema hall sick and disgusted. I had taken a friend of mine who did not understand Hindi and it was his first Hindi movie. In some scenes I just kept mum as I didn't know where to look - leave aside translation.

The movie was full of vulgarity, obscenity, cheapness, and of course, swear words (which at places seemed out of place and unnecessary).

Oral sex was not only talked in cheap and vulgar terms but was also shown. The director did not mind showing a man touching a woman's body in a demeaning way.

The movie was literally full of shit. The scenes, which could have been amusing if they were shown once or twice, became sick as the director went overboard with them and repeated them end number of times.

I wonder how the Film Censor Board viewed the movie and what it saw in it and how it got passed without picking up its scissors.

However, now the same Censor Board is raising objections on a Arakshan - a film by Prakash Jha. The film talks of reservation policy of India.

``The film talks about the ramifications of the reservation policy and the commercialisation of education as seen through the experience of a particular group of people,'' in Prakash Jha's words.

However, since it might hurt the political interests of a few, the National Commission for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes has issued a notice to the Central Board of Film Certification. The Commission has demanded to have a preview of the film.

``We want to see whether the film is suitable for screening or not,'' the Commission's explanation.

Fine!

Two different treatments to two different genre of films.

The whole scenario makes one thing clear....

If something is damaging for the political parties it will go through lot of screenings and all checks and boundaries but no one will give a damn if something is hurting the society.

Talk of real diseases Mr Health Minister and not of people's sexualtiy

The India health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad says homosexuality is a disease and it is unnatural.

Also, Chapter XVI, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code criminalises homosexual activity.

More - a few years back, the government of India - fighting a case against toning down of Section 377 of Indian Penal Code to help prevent spread of HIV/AIDS among the homosexuals - filed an affidavit in the court. The affidavit read - ``Homosexuality is a social vice. Descriminalisation of homosexuality may cause breach of peace. If it is allowed, evils of AIDS and HIV would further spread and harm people leading to big health hazards. It would degrade moral values of the society.''

The case had been filed by a group of some human rights activists - who had pleaded the court that ``homosexual act among consenting adults should not be treated as a criminal activity''.

Even the then Director General of NACO (National AIDS Control Organisation) Sujatha Rao had stated in one of the international conferences - "Section 377 places a huge constraint on Government's HIV/AIDS programme. By criminalising any behaviour, we increase the chances of it going underground.''

Her statement was buttressed by famous Indian writer Vikram Seth and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

A senior advocate in the Supreme Court, Anil Divan, too, in one of his articles, had quoted the American Psychological Association - ``Despite historical views of homosexuality, it is no longer viewed by mental health professionals as a `disease' or `disorder'. But obviously, neither it is simply a matter of deliberate personal selection. Homosexual orientation may well form part of the very fibre of an individual's personality.

And then Even the Delhi High Court in 2009 had observed -- "Moral indignation, howsoever strong, is not a valid basis for overriding individuals' fundamental rights of dignity and privacy. In our scheme of things Constitutional morality must outweigh the argument of public morality, even if it be the majoritarian view." Going even further, the court had found that Section 377 went against the Indian tradition and guiding political principle of inclusiveness.

"The big question is : Shouldn't we be allowed to pursue our sexual preferences in our own way rather than being dictated by the government or being governed by the law???

In matters of sex, the stress should be on ``consenting adults''. Any sexual act becomes a criminal activity if it takes place without the consent of the both involved - irrespective whether these two are men or women or man woman both.

Besides, more important point is - should or should not a country --

which despite all developments and scientific achievements still tops in maternal mortality, infant mortality, where women delivering their babies on the footsteps or in the corridors of hospitals is common (it does not become a matter of national concern as no minister discusses that), where immunisation of children to save them from deadly diseases is considerably low and many children die of common preventable diseases, whichis still fighting to eradicate polio, where majority of growing girl and expecting mothers suffer from acute anaemia, where a person dies of diabetes every ten second, where the number of people suffering from mental problems is remarkably high, where the number of Alzheimer disease is increasing --

should such a country concentrate on such a trivial and personal matter as its people's sexuality rather than making all our efforts to improve the pathetic health scenario of the nation ???