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Stop the Bullies!

Are we a police State? Or are we about to become one?

Let me give you a few worrisome examples of how you and I are allowing our rights as free citizens to be trampled upon. By an obnoxious, prissy, interventionist, bullying state that wants to seize for itself what does not rightfully belong to it and, in fact, never did. But, for some curious reason, we are allowing it to get away with this.

For years, the economy was its favourite hunting ground. Instead of allowing individual and corporate enterprise to freely grow and flourish, as it has done in most parts of the world, the State set up a complex license and permit raj that put as back by 45 years and made India one of the world's most corrupt nations. We gained nothing by this. What is worse, we lost out terribly on talent and if Narasimha Rao had not come along to initiate structural reforms, we would have been bankrupt by now.

At the same time, NRI entrepreneurs like Laxmi Mittal and Swraj Paul have built huge empires from scratch and become role models of the world. While many young garage entrepreneurs in the US have built hugely successful virtual empires on the net and become instant millionaires. These Indians are creating wealth for other nations while India, because of our spastic economic policies, has ended up with a staggering list of sick and lame PSUs.

Yet the fools who framed these policies are still touted as builders of modern India. They have hijacked pages after pages in our textbooks and we are still proudly going around and telling the world how big our steel plants are, how wonderful our state run airlines and railways are, how amazing our work force is. How we have the world's fifth largest technical talent base. But this is all hogwash. Anyone who is enterprising (and has the nerves) has fled India and gone to self realise in some other part of the world, where the state is less intrusive, the tax laws are more realistic, where talent and initiative are treated with respect, not jumped on with hobnailed boots.

Those who stayed back found themselves trapped in a Byzantine maze of crackpot laws. Created with the sole purpose of harassing and intimidating those with enterprise. As a result, three generations have suffered while those who created these obscene laws have become richer and more powerful. Their Swiss bank accounts have swelled. Their nephews and cousins have landed better and better jobs in a furiously growing civil service that has given India nothing but has grabbed for itself an amazing amount of power and pelf.

It is a miracle that, despite all this, we have stayed afloat as a nation.

When Narasimha Rao brought in Manmohan Singh to initiate the process of liberalisation, it was this entrenched cabal of freeloaders who plotted and planned and put up the highest resistance to change. They did not want freedom. They did not want equal opportunity to be available to all Indians. All they were interested in was protecting their own turf. So they insisted that the sick, subsidised, shortchanged economy that was India must continue.

It was crony socialism of the worst kind.

And it worked in tandem with the populist rhetoric that profit was bad, private enterprise must be reined in, the State must continue its predominant role in deciding what India must make and market. While the whole world was, of course, moving in precisely the opposite direction and even communist nations like China and Russia were selling off their crown jewels. Realising that in a competitive global environment the State had no business running businesses. This was the job of private enterprises. The state need to encourage them, not browbeat them. With sick, depraved laws like FERA and COFEPOSA.

This means, in simple terms, restoring to the Indian people their right to do business freely and fearlessly, without worrying about what law they were breaking at which stage. Particularly when most of the laws imposed out here made no sense. What was deemed illegal in India was perfectly legit everywhere else. What was criminally punishable here was not even deemed an irregularity anywhere.

Luckily, our leaders have figured this out in the nineties. They have seen how technology has rendered all artificial barriers obsolete. With e-commerce all set to redefine global business, even if the state wants it cannot stop Checkpoint Charlie from crumbling down.

That is why the state is now trying to muscle its way into other areas. Culture, for instance. The sudden ban on Pradeep Dalvi's play on Nathuram Godse is a typical example. The Congress made a nuisance of itself in Parliament, claiming that the play denegrated the Mahatma. None of their MPs had seen it. Yet they insisted it be banned. Why? Only to embarrass the government. It is the greatest disservice to the memory of Gandhi. To silence the voice of his assassin. For Godse was no ordinary criminal. His motive for killing Gandhi was avowedly political and, in his pursuit of his convictions, he gave his life. To now silence him is to make him a martyr. Politicians do not understand this. That, in their idiocy, they are desecrating the memory of the very man whom they are trying to protect.

Now they have taken it one step further. With Abhimanyu, Pravin Shantaram's play. It was, reportedly, shown to the police bosses! Why? Because its protagonist is a police officer. But that was not all. These officers were then invited to give their comments on the play and, based on their comments, the playwright has been reportedly asked to make changes in the dialogue!

From when did police officers get the right to pre-censor plays? Who gave them this right? Under what law? How dare the State intervene in matters of culture and invite them to comment on a play written about them? Luckily, it got a standing ovation from them. But suppose it was a play totally hostile to the police, suppose it exposed their criminal nexus, their unabashed corruption, their evil empire of power, their encounters with the underworld, their rotten record of custodial deaths? Would they have passed it?

The answer is no. The police is not likely to pass a play criticising them. But does the State invite eunuchs to see a film about eunuchs and decide whether it should be passed or not? Does the State invite doctors to see a play about doctors before deciding whether it should be banned or not? Does the State invite mafia dons to watch a film about the underworld to decide whether it should be passed or not? So how come the police is so special?

If the play was unfair to them they could have gone to the courts. Like everyone else. Why are they treated so specially? Is it because the State and the law enforcers are in cahoots? Or is it because we are slowly moving towards a society where the Dirty Harrys are carving out larger and larger terrain for themselves. Tomorrow, Gaddar will be silenced because his poems protest against police atrocities. The Dalits will be banned because their poems are protesting about the injustices against them. Journalists will be forced to submit their reports on custodial deaths to the police for clearance before they are published!

These are very dangerous signs.

Just as it is a dangerous sign that rock signers are censored for the lyrics they sing. Who are these culture cops? Who gave them the authority to decide what the people of Mumbai can hear, watch, read, rock to? Who gave them the right to intervene in your and my rights as a free citizen of India? Under what law do they censor plays, songs, public performances? Today, it is theatre and music. Tomorrow, it will be books and magazines. Next they will put up net nannies to stop us visiting Internet sites where you and I want to go.

Are you going to sit back and let this happen? If the answer is no, step up your protest. Insist on your rights. Let no one frighten you.

A month ago, at another concert, Marc Robinson kissed Sophia in public to make his point. That no culture cop can stop him kissing whoever he wants. Vishal Dadlani of Pentagram shouted the F word 16 times at the Independence Rock concert while singing a song against the Ku Klux Klan. To prove the point that no culture cop can stop the voice of protest. Cyrus Gorimar, the Brahma drummer, took off his shirt onstage. To make the point that no one can decide what we will wear. This is your India. Let no one tell you what to do, what not to do. Only the courts have that right.

Not the State. Not the police. And certainly not these stupid culture cops.

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Pritish Nandy