With all the internal bickering going on, it is but natural for Indians to view their Supreme Court in rather dim light. But can governments, both at the federal level and in the states, do the same thing? Empirical evidence suggests the executive is also taking the apex court lightly. In a very convoluted way, the prophecy of Justice Jasti Chelameshwar that “democracy will be in danger” is threatening to come true.
The evidence is provided by chief ministers of four states ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who say they will not be in a position to let the film Padmaavat be screened in their respective states for fear of protests and violence from a group of misguided, misinformed people.
This when the highest court in the country has ruled there should not be any let or hindrance to the multi-billion-rupee film’s release all over India.
The court ruling followed the approval given by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) after a very careful study of the film which is about a fictional queen of erstwhile Rajasthan during the early 14th century. It is based on Padmaavat, a work by 16th century poet Malik Mohamed Jayasi of Uttar Pradesh.
The CBFC drafted the services of a special advisory panel of eminent historians for expert opinion. Eventually the board advised the film’s makers to modify a few scenes and rename it from the original Padmaavati to Padmaavat so as to conform to the fictional nature of the story.
But the agitators were not satisfied. They claimed the changes were only cosmetic in nature and the film continued to be derogatory of their fictional queen. Nothing short of wholesale ban would satisfy them. Apart from the huge sum of money spent, for Sanjay Leela Bhansali, director-producer of the film, it is a work of art that took months and years of hard, nerve-wracking toil. He cannot let it go unseen by an audience he knew appreciated his work.
It did not take much for Bhansali to convince the Supreme Court which ordered the film’s release on the advertised date of January 25. The court was explicit in its order that all governments in states where it is released must make sure that adequate security was provided for the audience and cinema halls. Time and again the court has observed that the freedom of expression is a most sacred right that cannot be violated except in the rarest of rare cases of national security.
But the lumpen elements, members of an amorphous grouping called Shri Karni Sena, are not bothered about Supreme Court ruling and such. Side by side with the court’s ruling, Bhansali had extended an invitation to the leaders of this group to watch the film and if they still felt it is derogatory to their cultural heritage, he was willing carry out further changes. “As a reply to Bhansali, I am going to burn this letter,” was how Karni Sena founder Lokendra Singh Kalvi responded. So much for his culture.
The Sena, which possibly has a few thousand members, is threatening violence. As a preamble some 40 people went on the rampage in Bihar’s capital Patna destroying posters and hoardings of the film. A cinema hall in the Delhi suburb of Faridabad in Haryana was vandalised by a group of about 20 people. Violent incidents have been reported from Gujarat and UP. Threatening messages were sent to Harish Salve, the senior lawyer who argued the case for Bhansali in the Supreme Court.
CBFC chairman Prasoon Joshi was threatened with death if he dared to enter Rajasthan.
All this is the handiwork of few dozen hoodlums but the governments of the four aforementioned states are running scared. They maintain they are helpless in the face of such intransigence. Simply put these governments have declared their incompetence to govern. That these four states are frontline showcases of the BJP naturally mean the finger has to be pointed at Prime Minister Modi and his party chief Amit Shah. Modi’s famed 56-inch chest and Shah’s celebrated organisational skills are cringing and cowering against the Sena’s war cry.
The state governments wanted the Supreme Court to review its decision, but the top court said nothing doing. The ball is firmly planted in the states’ court. They have the twin job of upholding the freedom of expression and at the same time maintaining law and order. Giving up one for the other is not a choice they have at their disposal.
If eventually the film gets released in these states and there is violence, the respective governors should not waste any time in recommending the dismissals of these governments to the president. But the problem is these are BJP governments and the governors are all handpicked by the same party.
The governors are under oath to protect the Constitution. Their roles will be called to question if they fail in their duty. Along with that will reverberate Justice Chelameshwar warning at a recent press conference about democracy being in danger in India. Because, if an elected government cannot carry out the orders of the highest court, that too to control just a handful of hooligans, chaos will not be far to seek. Modi’s grand economic and social plans for India will make no headway if he turns a blind eye to these happenings.
Kejriwal learning on the job
I feel there should be no politics in matters of welfare of the people. If you want to do politics, do it before elections. Campaign and abuse before elections; but after a party wins, it becomes the duty of every party to work for society, the people and the country. After a government is formed, if people get in the way of the government’s work, then they are traitors.”
Golden words these. And guess who said it. None other than Arvind Kejriwal! He was speaking at a public meeting in the capital earlier this week.
It’s the same Kejriwal who, as chief minister of Delhi, covered himself with blankets on a cold January night in 2014 and went to sleep on the road near parliament house in protest against the federal government.
The same Kejriwal who threatened to flood Rajpath, the capital’s ceremonial boulevard, with hundreds of thousands of his supporters and disrupt India’s Republic Day celebrations.
The same Kejriwal, again as chief minister, who had publicly called India’s prime minister “a coward and a psychopath” in December of 2015.
The same Kejriwal who, on November 17, 2016, demanded Modi roll back his demonetisation move within three days as otherwise he would unleash chaos on the streets. The list is endless.
And now when President Ramnath Kovind has given his approval to the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) decision to disqualify 20 of his legislators and the prospect of an early assembly election is looming, when several of his senior leaders are threatening to desert him, when he is facing a plethora of criminal and civil cases with potential jail terms and heavy fines a very likely scenario, Kejriwal says those who try to disrupt government works are traitors!
Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is going to court against the ECI’s decision, but legal experts are of the view that nothing much will come of it. The 20 have been disqualified after the ECI found them to be holding ‘offices of profit’ in the form of parliament secretaries even while enjoying the pay and perks of legislators.
Kejriwal’s contention that other states like Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan also have MLAs as parliamentary secretaries does not wash because they had amended the law before making these appointments whereas Kejriwal first appointed and then amended the law which, in any case, was rejected by the then president Pranab Mukherjee. Also, Delhi is not a full-fledged state and, therefore, its legislature does not have powers that other states enjoy.
That said, his three years in office must have been a good learning curve for Kejriwal. He must have realised that critiquing from the outside is the easier part. It will do Kejriwal a world of good if he can remember his own words every time he gets the urge to hit out at his bete noire, Narendra Modi.
Delhi Diary
