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ShareUnfortunately, before the matter comes up before the judiciary, the process involves other institutions, particularly the police. And the police dealing with these cases at the first instance are not IPS officers, but people at the local station which is a fairly junior level. Here you come across a problem which is essentially a cultural one. What are the qualifications of the person making the initial judgment about what is obscene and what isn't? What is his exposure to current standards of behaviour and morality in the society around him?
These thoughts occur to me from a case much in the news in the last few days involving a senior functionary of one of the city's well-known clubs and a lady member. The functionary is said to have sent her a 'pornographic' video clip by email, the woman complained and the police went out with a non-bailable warrant against him.
The reports do not mention the nature of the so-called pornographic clip. Apparently, it was a scene from a film called Original Sin starring Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas. Even without looking at the clip you know it cannot be pornographic. Sexy yes, erotic maybe, but most definitely not pornographic. That certainty is based on the simple knowledge that Jolie and Banderas are at the very top in Hollywood's acting community and are not some low grade blue film actors, so they will not do a scene which can remotely be considered pornographic in a court of law. Original Sin is also a mainstream Hollywood movie from one of its major studios (20th Century Fox), and these studios aren't in the business of making dirty movies with big stars.
But does the policeman registering the complaint know this? If he does why does he register the complaint under this particular section? If he does not know this, should he have the power to take a call under a section where the offence is non-bailable, so that the accused spends time in jail whether he is guilty or not?
Remember the wardrobe malfunction at a Mumbai fashion week? The strap of a model walking the ramp slipped, a breast was momentarily exposed (and quickly covered up by the girl). It was an acutely embarrassing moment for the model involved and decency (I use the word deliberately) dictated that the episode be quickly buried. Instead of which the police went into paroxysms of righteousness, as did politicians. Their 'investigations' involved looking at the video clip of the malfunction again and again. Recently, there were more such moral fulminations regarding the Akshaye Kumar and Twinkle Khanna episode at a fashion week.
Go for a moment beyond lower levels of police and politicians to our parliament and you would expect things to get better. But do they? Recently a special committee of Rajya Sabha members came out with the startling finding that sex education should not be part of the school curriculum because it would encourage promiscuity. Sex, apparently, is alien to Indian culture. You begin to wonder if all politicians are fuddy-duddies, whether they were ever young once, or are they all complete hypocrites?
The problem is that their moral posturing get embedded in the system and can cause great harm to generations to come all over the country who will remain dangerously ignorant of the facts of life; just as the moral police, whether at police stations or outside, can unwittingly cause emotional trauma and damage countless reputations with no chance of redressal.
