Now it is a song

Intolerance raises its head again

The Supreme Court has stayed the criminal proceedings begun against Priya Prakash Varrier, whose wink during a song in a Malayalam film, Oru Adaar Love, has made her enormously popular overnight. A group of people in Hyderabad filed a first information report against Ms Varrier, claiming that the song, “Manikya Malaraya Poovi”, was offensive and violated the sentiments of a particular community. The court has forbidden all states from registering any more FIRs on the matter and has asked the Telangana government to take notice of Ms Varrier’s affidavit requesting protection from the FIRs.

But even before the matter went to court, the chief minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, strongly objected to the intolerance that tries to deter “independent thinking”. The unceasing attacks against any form of creative expression that has even a hint of religion, community, clan, history, and is somehow related to enjoyment or the expectation of enjoyment suggest that a culture of grim oppression and silencing is fighting to be born. It is not yet fully here; Mr Vijayan and others like him are with equal constancy wielding cudgels against the efforts to defeat freedom of thought and expression, but this war has to be fought more generally and without pause. Otherwise, the forces of oppression may still win. The Telegraph, February 23