If Shilpa Shetty had encountered indecent behaviour on an Indian TV channel, she (along with the programme) would have been AXN-ed by I&B Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi on the first day. If AXN was axed for indecency, should Simon Cowell be taken off air for calling a contestant on the latest edition of American Idol “one of those creatures in the jungle with massive eyes’’? And if we are offended by Cowell’s remark, outraged by gratuitous insults to the colour of Shetty’s skin, enough to burn effigies (as BBC Radio reported), then should we also burn down the factories that produce Fair and Lovely cream?

By the same token, if Dasmunshi thinks World’s Sexiest Commercials on AXN are unfit for consumption by the human eye and soul, then so are hundreds of film “item’’ numbers featuring actors like Aishwarya or Bipasha. And what of the bones of little dead children from Nithari? Are those wholesome viewing?

Tell you what, if we must play Mr Disapproving Scissorhands, let’s simply snip off the cable wire and rid ourselves of this obscenity called TV altogether.

Whether or not Jade Goody’s “racist’’ behaviour towards Shilpa, earns TV show Big Brother an unceremonious eviction is irrelevant. What we should wonder about is the criterion by which evictions/bans are judged and decided. It appears as though Channel 4 is taking a decision on the same basis that governs the show — by the numbers of protest ‘votes’. Then suppose 38,000 or whatever the current figure may be, had not voiced their disapproval, would that have made Jade Goody’s behaviour acceptable?

... contd.