Free expression

FTV has apologised and the government has condescended. The government Friday revoked the ban on FTV six days before the two-month period suspension of the channel for beaming salacious images of skimpily-clad models. The channel apologised and assured that "such error" will not be repeated in the future. FTV has assured the government that there would be no future violation of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 or the Advertising and Programme Codes. The government revoked the...

Considering the heat that was generated over the sight of Katrina Kaif's legs at the Ajmer shrine, one would have have expected a dress code to be implemented in a matter of days. But a good seven months later, the move seems to have been as fickle as was the controversy that had been whipped up. From a PTI creed in Daily News & Analysis: [ Link] The Nazim Khawaji Moinuddhin Chishti Ahammed Raza on Saturday clarified no final decision has been taken on a dress code for the 'ziareens'( devotees)...

Now there was this man from Madhyamgram (West Bengal) who drove out his wife because hsi did not like her choice of the salwaar-kameez. The Telegraph reports: Calcutta High Court on Tuesday heard an anticipatory bail plea moved by 30-year-old Dibyendu (Chatterjee), of Madhyamgram, who apprehended arrest in connection with a complaint lodged by Rupali with Maniktala police station. The woman had accused Dibyendu of mentally torturing her for regularly wearing a salwar-kameez. Trouble started six...

On Wednesday, three large posters critical of nudity in art works came up in Raopura, Vadodara, in the wake of the MS University Fine Arts Faculty fracas. All the posters were put up anonymously, and contained citations from the Bible, and the Hitopadesh, and were obliquely were critical of nudity in art. At the same time, an online petition to addressed to the Gujarat Governor has begun to do the rounds on the internet by a recently formed Association of Academics and Citizens for University...

The Supreme Court has stayed all legal proceedings in obscenity cases initiated against actress Shilpa Shetty in courts in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh in connection with the public kiss by Richard Gere during an AIDS awareness function on April 15 in New Delhi. A bench headed by Justice KG Balakrishnan also issued notices to various complainants on her petition seeking transfer of all the cases related to the controversy to Mumbai. Seeking quashing of criminal cases registered against her in...

Arts student Chandra Mohan jailed on charges that his paintings hurt Hindu and Christian sentiments was granted bail today. The 22-year-old Hyderabad artist is a final year student of Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU), Vadodara. Chandra Mohan, was on a fellowship from a Hyderabad -based art gallery to pursue his Master's in print making University. He is a bachelor in fine arts from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University.

When the protests against the Mohammed cartoons were raging last year, many European publishers had asserted that the freedom of expression precludes the right to insult. The arguments were clouded in a situation where not being seen as anti-Islamic was taken to be the politically correct stand to take. So, irrespective of what you believed was right or wrong, you had to tow the line of political correctness and denounce the Mohammed cartoons. The point here is not about the cartoons, but that...

Updates (not in any particular order): MSU V-C seals Fine Arts dept: (May 11) Taking moral policing to a new level, Vice-Chancellor of the prestigious Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU), Manoj Soni, today ordered the fine arts department to be sealed after defiant students put up an exhibition of Indian erotica to protest the arrest of one of their fellow classmates on Wednesday. The fine arts department, known the world over as a cradle for art expression, has never seen interference from any...

This incident is an ironic way, a combination of some of the incidents documented on this blog — protests against obscene paintings, arrest warrants, vandalism, et al. On Wednesday, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists stormed into the exhibition hall of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Vadodara's MS University and vandalised the paintings by a final year student. The student, Chandra Mohan, who had displayed his paintings for critical evaluation by his teachers for...

The Supreme Court Tuesday stayed an order by a Haridwar court directing the Mumbai police to attach his property. A bench headed by Justice BN Agrawal also issued notice to advocate Arvind Shrivastava, who had complained about the alleged obscene depiction of Hindu goddesses in Husain's paintings, on the artist's petition seeking the transfer of the matter from Haridwar to Delhi. The court of Special Judicial Magistrate KS Shukla in Haridwar had ordered police to attach Husain's property in...