The shocking moral decrepitude being transmitted through the airwaves cannot be taken lightly anymore. In Rajya Sabha on Thursday, Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan termed the language used by the radio jockeys of private FM channels ?really objectionable?, ?very bad?, ?not palatable?. Worst of all, they lacked a proper reverence for MPs, mimicking them audaciously. Even as Kerala?s mimicry artistes rose up in protest, I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted a clarification. Mimicry and jokes may be allowed but ?vulgarity? and ?double meaning? would be looked into. Those constitute a ?serious matter?, he had said earlier, possibly a job for the electronic media monitoring centre.
So, is an Orwellian state body now to parse the airwaves for irony and metaphor, pouncing on radio jockeys for not meaning what they say? Or was Javadekar speaking of the slightly riper double entendre, where a word or phrase might have two meanings, one PG and one ?indelicate?, as the OED puts it? In which case, the electronic media monitoring centre may run the risk of reading sexual innuendo where none is intended. As for vulgarity, the government should take a cue from the Supreme Court, which recently rejected a plea to stay the release of the film, PK. The petitioners had felt that the movie posters, featuring a nude Aamir Khan with a strategically placed boom box, promoted obscenity. ?If you don?t like, then don?t watch the movie,? the court said.Vulgarity is most often a matter of taste and sensitivity, and audiences have the choice to tune out. The state deciding what is appropriate infantilises a mature, discriminating public.
Besides, wasn?t the prime minister just lamenting the lack of humour in Parliament, what with ministers cowering under media scrutiny? Look who?s watching now.
