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Commentary/Vir Sanghvi

All that stuff about respect for Indian women and
protection of Indian culture is complete nonsense

Sushmita Sen Which brings me to the immediate provocation for this column: The Miss World contest.

I would not normally waste your time by discussing this non-issue -- after all if the whole country celebrates when Aishwarya Rai wins in Sun City, how can we complain if the same contest is held in Bangalore? But the opposition to Miss World seems to me to be a symbol of something more serious; a sickness, if you can call it that, in our society.

Clearly, the protesters have no record of objecting as strenuously to other beauty contests. If the objection is that such competitions violate the chastity of Indian maidenhood, then the proper contests to picket is Miss India or Miss Bangalore. That's when Indian girls are put on parade. Miss World will have only one Indian contestant; the rest will be foreigners.

So, all that stuff about respect for Indian women and protection of Indian culture is complete nonsense. A country that hails Sushmita and Aishwarya as role models can't now get self-righteous about the global contests that raised them to these heights.

Why then are the protesters doing it?

Two reasons. One: for the publicity. Nobody had heard of most of these people before they discovered this issue. And those who had a certain local notoriety (i e, the fellow who keeps trashing the KFC outlet) now hope to get international exposure.

If they had picketed the Miss Bangalore show, nobody would have cared. But this is an international extravaganza. And besides, Amitabh Bachchan is involved. As everybody -- from Shatrughan Sinha to V P Singh has discovered -- there's no surer way of staying in the headlines than by taking potshots at Bachchan.

But it is the second reason that concerns me more. The threat to disrupt the Miss World show is a manifestation of a growing illiberal and intolerant trend in our society.

The logic is: I don't like it, so I'll deny everybody else the right to like it.

Whether it is the ban on The Satanic Verses, the campaign against Mani Ratnam's Bombay or the uproar over Husain's paintings, the symptoms are the same. We are in danger of turning into a society where people measure their clout by their ability to deny other people their freedoms.

Amitabh Bachchan The opponents of Miss World have a right to their views -- even if I think that many of them are cynical self-publicists. And they have the right to move the courts or to use other legal means to oppose the contest.

But they have no right to disrupt it; no right to threaten to cause chaos; and no right to terrorise those attending the pageant.

Unfortunately, we have become a soft state in which nobody stands up for other people's rights. Not only do the vandals get away with it but they also become national figures in the process.

Miss World, with its parade of bimbettes all of whom say that they will use their breasts to promote world peace, may not seem like a big deal. But the principles involved are crucial.

And if we can't stand up for little freedoms, we might as well kiss the big ones goodbye.

Back Vir Sanghvi
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