No country for Comedy!?

So as it turns out, our government is quite concerned for us, the citizens of India. So much so, that it is ready to be play our knight in shining armour, and protect us from the evils of the world, more specifically, an evil that goes by the name of entertainment, that comes packaged disarmingly in the form of seemingly harmless channels called 'comedy central'. Such is their dedication, that the smallest finger raised at our nation's so called modesty, morality and family values is twisted till it conforms to our demands. So Comedy Central India found itself banned by the Ministry for Information and Broadcasting for ten days last week  on the basis of  scenes from episodes of Stand Up Club and Popcorn TV  (aired way back in Au-Sept 2012) “offensive” and “derogatory to women.”. Now I have not come across anywhere that the ministry was acting on complaints from the general viewing public or a PIL. So I have to assume that it was acting on its own discretion. As is often the case nowadays, the judiciary had to step in and restore some sort of sanity, when the Delhi High Court stayed the ban after three days, after Viacom18 Media filed an appeal challenging the ministry's notification. 

In its notification against the channel, the ministry Referred to various provisions in India's Cable Television Networks Rules set in 1994, saying that one of the rules provides that no program can be broadcast "which denigrates women through the depiction in any manner of the figure of a woman, her form or body or any part thereof in such a way as to have the effect of being indecent, or derogatory to women, or is likely to deprave, corrupt or injure the public morality or morals." [from The Hollywood Reporter]. If this rule has to be strictly followed in its true essence, it would immediately bring all the music channels, movie channels  and even the general entertainment Hindi channels under its purview, and eligible for a ban. Because the last time I checked, the so-called item songs, or even many of the non-item songs as well as the regressive soap operas which are to be found with every click of the remote, do exactly that - denigrate women. What is laughable is that these observations were made with respect to a stand up comedy show on the said channel, when the stand up comedy chows on Indian channels are a hundred times more derogatory, vulgar and offensive, not only to women, but humanity in general. And as I write this, a Hindi movie called Jab tak hain jaan is playing on the TV on a major movie channel in prime time slot, and Anushka Sharma is nonchalantly calling SRK (the lead actors) "asshole". Similarly, the trailers for most contemporary films or even general TV shows use these 'a' words and their brethren, or even thinly veiled references to the 'f' word without ruffling any feathers.Ironically, the English language general entertainment and movie channels here tread a fine line, as they air western shows, which are apparently responsible for 'morally corrupting the younger generation' and 'ruining the Indian culture'. on these channels, the programming is so heavily censored, that more often than not, it takes away a great deal from the content. Even words that can be found in the science books of a 6th grade student are either muted out form the dialog or starred out in the subtitles. one hour shows are cut so heavily that half of the air time is filled by advertisements. 

The point I am trying to make is, why the double standards in moral policing? Not that I want to counter unjustifiable censorship with more of the same thing, but why is it that the local programming can walk away with virtually anything (well not always, considering the whole Dirty Picture on Sony TV episode) like the teacher's pet student, while channels airing international programming have to walk on fire to prove themselves as worthy of being on air on Indian TV? No doubt India is a fragile society, built like a Lego house, of diverse pieces and it requires a certain level of austerity to keep the whole structure from collapsing. But isn't it time that the Government stops babysitting its citizens, telling people what's good for them and what's not, and let them figure it out on their own for once? Did they seriously think that a couple of programs on a niche channel having a limited viewership even within the English-language programming viewers were worth endangering the democratic principles of this country and the freedom of expression and speech?