Opinion Cut it out

The arrest on corruption charges of Rakesh Kumar, CEO of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), raises intriguing questions. Why was he there at all, since he is a railway personnel manager? And why does the film industry, one of India’s great success stories, suffer censorship by a government office operating under the guise of a certifying agency? Citing the extraordinary emotive power of moving pictures, the Supreme Court has ruled that “censorship by prior restraint” is “not only desirable but necessary” (S. Rangarajan etc vs P. Jagjivan Ram). But that was in 1989, before the internet went mainstream and forced the world to think anew about communications and censorship. Today, a board of certification, which is actually a censor, is an anachronism.

Certification should be just that: a labelling taxonomy which tells viewers what they’re likely to see. It should be no more invasive than the system of coloured dots on food packaging and restaurant menus, which allows vegetarians to steer clear of dishes they would rather not touch. If they feel out of place, consumers are free to move on to the next restaurant or cinema theatre. The right to prevent screening seems brutish in modern times, and haggling over cuts is vulgar. And it is fairly absurd for a government that hopes to slim down to continue policing moving pictures. Certification should be handed over to an industry body, or an autonomous entity equidistant from industry and government, in which the interests of filmmakers and their audiences are primarily represented, rather than those of government.

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Kumar was arrested for seeking speed money. If speed of decision-making were mandatory rather than discretionary, it would not remain a priced commodity. Transparency would also reduce the latitude for discretion in seeking cuts. Taking certification out of the architecture of government would help, but the biggest, baddest censor would still be out there: the politics of hurt sentiments. The Mumbai industry routinely accommodates political interests. Last year, Kamal Haasan had to threaten to go into exile when Vishwaroopam was banned from theatres despite CBFC clearance. A statutory body that is so easily brushed aside by politics cannot protect the right to expression which it is supposed to police.