Who’ll stop this Frankenstein?

While the journalist fraternity human rights organisations and political Opposition have not stopped cheering since factchecker Mohammed Zubair was granted bail by the Supreme Court this week the incident has once again put the spotlight on extraconstitutional censure in the countryIn Zubairrsquos case the apex court not only offered him protection in all the seven cases foisted against him but also transferred all his cases to Delhi from Uttar Pradesh rejecting the UP governmentrsquos request that Zubair be ldquostopped from putting out tweetsrdquoThough India has had a long and ugly tradition of extraconstitutional censure by both state and nonstate actors Zubairrsquos legal counsel advocate Vrinda Grover feels his case stands out not only because of who he is but because of what he does ldquoInformation and misinformation today travel at lightning speed and various agendas and propaganda depend on this continuous generation and consumption of information This is why a lsquofact checkerrsquo becomes so essential to the flow of information in a modern democracyrdquo she says adding ldquoZubair and others including journalists play the critical role of alerting citizens to fake news false propaganda which regrettably is often deployed to mislead public discourse and manipulate public opinion To incarcerate Zubair is not just to gag one manrsquos voice but to silence democracyrdquoA file photograph of a protester blackening a mask of writer Salman Rushdie condemning his stay in Mumbai in January 2004 Rushdie was alleged to have made remarks against Prophet Mohammed in The Satanic Verses PicGetty ImagesSouth Mumbai social historianactivist and veteran journalist Abde Mannan Yusuf traces how ldquothis Frankensteinrdquo was permitted to flourish since Independence ldquoproducing haloed holy cows by our legislatures law enforcement organisations and even the thinking populacerdquo ldquoAs a result attacks on freedom of expression became increasingly direct brazen and in your facerdquo the septuagenarian saysHe laments ldquoFor a country positioning itself as a superpower awaiting rightful position at the international high table such boorish stone age stances can only attract sniggers from the international communityrdquo Yusuf cites UN chief Antonio Guterresrsquo spokesperson Steacutephane Dujarricrsquos reaction who recently while responding to a specific question on Zubairrsquos arrest at her daily news briefing in the United States had said ldquo Journalists should not be jailed for what they write what they tweet and what they say And that goes for anywhere in the world including in this roomrdquoYusuf admits feeling let down when otherwise verbose powersthatbe quietly consent to such lawlessness ldquoIn Zubairrsquos case This is a brazen witch hunt emboldened by the current political climate Every time groupsindividuals got away with earlier misdemeanourrsquos they upped their viciousness in the next attack That is what has brought us to this juncture We must choose whether we want to be remembered for the Mars expedition proudly featured on our new R2000 note or for incarcerating free thought stirring up communal tensions and polarising to win electionsrdquoProtesters burn an effigy of Nupur Sharma during a demonstration in West Bengal demanding the BJP leaderrsquos arrest PicGetty ImagesGrover underlines the role of a complicit police force and lower judiciary in helping facilitate an ecosystem for extraconstitutional censure ldquoThe police force has regrettably almost always taken the cue from its political masters and this has only intensified over the last few years targeting independentminded dissenting citizens thus jeopardising personal libertiesrdquo she says while pointing out why the role of the lower judiciary becomes extremely crucial In our legal scheme the Magistrate is the first line of defence of civil liberties and the Code of Criminal Procedure entrusts the Magistratersquos court the authority to determine the fate of a personrsquos liberty guaranteed under Article 21 ldquoUnfortunately the pattern we have been seeing for some time now is that lower courts routinely remand arrested persons into custody without any incisive scrutiny of allegations The law requires the Magistrate to form an opinion on whether the allegations are lsquowellfoundedrsquo before proceeding to assess if there is any needdesirability to remand an accused to custody But the entire exercise has almost turned into a formality and this allows the police to get a free pass in cases of motivated arrestsrdquoAccording to Yusuf the template that is being adopted by all and sundry today has its roots in newly Independent India Back in 1947 Indian poet Majrooh Sultanpuri was imprisoned in Arthur Road Jail by the thenBombay Presidencyrsquos CM Morarji Desai for writing a poem where he referred to Jawaharlal Nehru as ldquoa lackey of the Commonwealthrdquo ldquoSultanpuri was instructed by Desai to recant and apologise but the poet chose to accept a twoyear prison term insteadrdquo says YusufJournalist and BJP spokesperson Prem Shukla says the noose tightened further during Nehrursquos first tenure as PM ldquoBoth Madras Chronicle whose Marxist editorial policy was critical of Nehrursquos economics and Organiser which targeted Nehru for his politics of minority appeasement faced censure The very first amendment to the Constitution 19a was brought about because of thatrdquo says ShuklaAbde Mannan Yusuf social historian activist and veteran journalist Anand Patwardhan filmmaker Vrinda GroverBack in the day several authors also discovered their works outlawedmdashofficially and even clandestinely The Ramayana 1954 a parody by the IndoIrish Aubrey Menen was forbidden as the content had been deemed inappropriate in certain placesLate novelistplaywright Kiran Nagarkarrsquos Bedtime Stories 1978 where the Pandavas and the Kauravas are contrasted had it worse ldquoI was unable to stage any performances The censor board in Maharashtra requested an astounding 78 cutsrdquo Nagarkar had chuckled while talking to this writer barely a month before his demise By the time theatre professionals critics and academics forced the government to change its mind the Shiv Sena had already spotted a soft target and a chance to use its trademark disruption to drive away actors This saw Bedtime Stories subject to an extraconstitutional prohibition for 17 long yearsThe venerable playwright Vijay Tendulkar also experienced the wrath of such prohibitions for his renowned Ghashiram Kotwal an allegory of Shiv Senarsquos politics as well as his biting indictment of marriage and caste in Sakharam BinderPlaywright Pradeep Dalvi had to knock on the courtrsquos doors to ensure that his play Mee Nathuram Godse Boltoy ran without any disruption ldquoBoth sides used my play to grind their political axes During shows audiences screamed slogans and vile abuse against Gandhi It came to a point when some antiGandhi groups only came to disrupt the play They would clap and whistle during the scene where Gandhi is shot It got so repulsive I had to go to courtrdquo late Dalvi had told this writer in an earlier interviewSalman Rushdiersquos The Moorrsquos Last Sigh where a character named Raman Fielding resembled Sena supremo Bal Thackeray and Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie which India banned after Singapore were other victims of authoritarian overreachmdasheven after the governmentrsquos subsequent informal ban was overturned by the Supreme Court bookshops in Maharashtra refused to stock Rushide out of fear of vandals from the SenaSeveral writings of exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin have also been outlawed in West Bengal Ram Swaruprsquos book Understanding Islam Through Hadis was outlawed ldquofor inciting communal striferdquo American historian James Lainersquos Shivaji Hindu King in Islamic India and translation of the 300yearold poetry Sivabharata The Epic of Shivaji also suffered a similar fateItrsquos too recent to forget how India drove out her own Picasso Maqbool Fida Husain for his work which some farright groups found offensive Husain who was forced to obtain Qatari citizenship died brokenhearted in London in 2011 Artist Anjolie Ela Menon who was a close friend of the painter has expressed regret about how Husain was treated ldquoHis critics never did comprehend him or his work to begin with Tragically certain wouldbe writers and performers collaborated with fringe organisations to continuously attack him and compel him to flee the countryrdquoIn 1975 Gulzarrsquos political drama Aandhi came in the line of fire The film was outlawed by the Indira Gandhiled Congress government as the lead actressrsquo character was allegedly modelled on the PM Aandhi wasnrsquot released until 1977 when the Janata Party took office The same administration also outlawed the political satire Kissa Kursi Ka 1977 which dealt with the Emergency The Shah Commission that investigated the excesses of the Emergency found Sanjay Gandhi and the thenIampB minister VC Shukla guilty of destroying the filmrsquos prints Shukla incidentally forbade Kishore Kumar songs from playing on All India Radio after the singer declined to perform at an Indira Gandhi rallyThis became a norm with movies Shiv Sena coerced director Mani Ratnam into altering how Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray was portrayed in Bombay which was set against the 199293 riots Be it Fanaa banned in Gujarat as Aamir Khan supported Narmada Bachao movement Ae Dil Hai Mushkil Raj Thackerayrsquos MNS issued an ultimatum for casting Pakistani actor Fawad Khan or the Tamil Mersal which the BJP objected to because lead actor Vijay made fun of the new tax system and the Digital India initiative films have become the easiest targets todayDocumentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan of Bombay Our City Father Son Holy War War and Peace and Jai Bhim Comrade fame says the state now outsources censorship to nonstate actors ldquoAll the state needs to do is facilitate a sociolegal ecosystem which lets the lumpen on the street go out and do its dirty work without fear of being hauled or getting away with nothing more than symbolic action The current dispensation even rewards them with seats in Parliament A signal is being sent out that targeting Muslims is okay Unlike Dalits whose votes they need they have chosen to completely leave out Muslims even while deciding candidatesrdquoWhile commiserating with Zubair Patwardhan says ldquoThere are several like Siddique Kappan Teesta Setalvad Sanjiv Bhat and others being held captive by the vindictive governmentrdquoHe seems to echo essayist and Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy who has previously said she sees ldquono end to the conflicts in India that result from the countryrsquos taboos which can lead to the lynching shooting burning and mass murder of fellow humansrdquoBJPrsquos Prem Shukla pins the blame on ldquoselective outragerdquo He cites the Nupur Sharma case ldquoTasleem Rahmani Chairman of the Muslim Political Council of India provoked Nupur by first saying offensive things about Hindu Gods Though the BJP which the Opposition likes to call antiMuslim is in power why is there not a single case anywhere against himrdquoTJ Joseph lecturer at the Mahatma Gandhi Universityaffiliated Newman College Thodupuzha whose hand was amputated at the wrist back in 2014 due to blasphemy allegations made by members of the Popular Front of India feels there should be no tolerance for extraconstitutional punishment ldquoNo one should have to go through what I went through that too for a nonissue I hadnrsquot made fun of the Prophet While the 13 accused got away with minor charges I lost my hand my job my family suffered and we were made to feel like pariahsrdquoDidnrsquot the founding mothers and fathers of this land foresee a time when all four arms of the government would fail and large swathes of mainstream media would become their cheerleaders Grover smiles and quotes Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar ldquoHowever good a Constitution may be if those implementing it are not good it will prove to be bad However bad a Constitution may be if those implementing it are good it will prove to be goodrdquoAccording to her the founders who shaped the Constitution drafted a charter of rights and freedoms for persons and citizens and arranged the division of powers between different organs ldquoThe Constitution is a dynamic document and new and varied freedoms and rights have been conceptualised and affirmed over the decades as citizens have asserted diverse causes before courts and ParliamentrdquoShukla feels that popular bloggingmicroblogging sites have now taken articulation of opinion out of the hands of a select few ldquoThis throws up several challenges and we will have to find a way of working around thoserdquoGrover however warns that there are still many socially economically and politically marginalised groups and discriminated communities that the present model of governance keeps impoverished ldquoThis systemic and crippling injustice needs redressal Activist citizens and human rights defenders play a central role in countering this injustice and discrimination Not surprisingly they are increasingly targeted by the staterdquoShe laments that the statersquos chosen weapon is now the law which carries not just a sheen of legality but an inherent legitimacy ldquoThe criminal law machinery has been weaponised to incarcerate and silence activists dissenting courageous and assertive citizens What is of grave concern and very disturbing to see is that the court at times views this activist citizen with suspicion rather than follow the dictum of the Constitution which through the preambular goals and Chapter III places limits checks and curbs on the powers of the staterdquo