As the minister waves about his stick, we need to ask ourselves: do we need him to do this? Do we need the government to tell us what we and our children can and cannot watch on our TV sets? Do we need it to watch over us when we go abroad? At the heart of the matter is this question: as a society and a democracy, are we adult enough? The I&B ministry’s

recent exertions speak of the puritanism that takes over ministers who take charge of it. But surely, they also say some terribly disrespectful things about us. They tell us that we cannot be trusted to choose and to discriminate, to self-regulate or simply switch the channel. They tell us that we need the state, police and the censor board to define ‘obscenity’. Or to bail us out of the bad situations we sometimes choose to land ourselves in.

It was equally telling when the government proposed a ban on smoking on TV and in film. At that time, many pointed out to the fact that such censorship does not exist even in countries where the anti-tobacco lobby was much stronger. Advocates of the ban might argue that it is precisely because civil society movements are not strong that the government must step in. But that is not the whole truth, or even part of it. The real reason why our government goes about imposing bans is this: because it can. Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi must be told that he cannot.