Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'A Cunning Election Strategy' that was published in Newsband

A Cunning Election Strategy

The producers of Padmavati have decided to ‘voluntarily’ defer its release. The conduct of politicians over the past few days has been cynical and deeply unmindful of the rule of law.

In February 1989, days after Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran had issued a fatwa against the novel The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie, his book had already been banned in India in October 1988, Rushdie had then written to the then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi that his Government had become unable or unwilling to resist pressure from more or less any extremist religious grouping.

The current row over Padmavati is a similar case. A number of Chief Ministers across north India rail against the film and threaten to disallow its screening. Once again the governments are unwilling to resist pressure from extremist groups such as the Karni Sena.

The issue here is no longer Padmavati, its artistic merit or the factuality. What is of real concern is the spectacle of state functionaries ignoring their constitutional responsibility in upholding free expression

Threatening anyone is illegal and immoral too at least in our nation. If anyone has any problem with anyone else, they are free to file a petition in the courts. Why the call for bloodshed? And selective outrage has become a common phenomenon in our nation. There are people who would sit silently in their cozy rooms when a particular sect is insulted and would cry foul when some other religion faces something similar. Irony is, these people are known as 'Secular' which according to a common dictionary, should mean not favoring or siding with any religion. Bad times are these when a particular propaganda is spread even if it's a fallacy. Our history is quite rich, but what we know about it is nothing next to it.

We should move a level up. Why are we busy and so much retrogressive about such trivial things? Are Politicians keen only in these sorts of things when their plate is already full with a lot many sensible and much needed responsibilities? If this remains the case, when roads are dilapidated, children are malnourished and are not getting proper education, politicians should forget history and think only of PRESENT and the very responsibility which they have got. Switching to sensational and ill valued matters is just running away from responsibilities by the politicians.

The up-rise against Padmavati is clearly sponsored by BJP leadership at the top followed by the Yes Men CMs of BJP ruled States. It is a cunning election strategy to polarize voters in the name of false pride.