Out of focus

State interference in culture is self-defeating

More than its content and messaging, the controversy around The Kerala Story, an unexpected box office hit in parts of India, highlights the problematic policy of state interference in cultural affairs in a democracy as deeply multicultural and argumentative as India. These interventions have taken two forms: Either an outright ban as the chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, has decreed or tacit political encouragement via entertainment tax breaks on cinema tickets as the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have done. Both represent extreme responses that sit uncomfortably with the constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression, on the one hand, and the arm’s length relationship that political leaders should ideally establish with cultural affairs. As veteran actor Shabana Azmi pointed out, since the film had been cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification, which comes under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the question of banning it becomes moot.

Ms Banerjee, who described the film as a “distorted story” that sought to “humiliate” a section of the people, said the ban was driven by potential law and order problems that might arise if the film was screened. Certainly, there has been considerable controversy over the veracity of the film’s plot, which portrays the experience of three women from Kerala who joined the Islamic State and purports to be “inspired by true events”. Ms Banerjee’s fear of law and order problems may be valid, given the rising communal polarisation in a state where 27 per cent of the population is Muslim. But the wiser course would have been to provide enhanced security arrangements at theatres that screen the film or leave the decision to the theatres themselves. In Tamil Nadu, for instance, the Tamil Nadu Theatre and Multiplex Owners’ Association opted to stop screening the film as a “precautionary measure” to protect their properties against potential law and order problems. Interestingly, the state at the epicentre of the drama, Kerala, has not banned the movie. Though the state government has criticised it, the Kerala High Court refused to ban it, citing its real-life inspiration.

On the other hand, the tacit and overt support from some BJP states and the Prime Minister, ahead of a contentious state election at that, is also flawed. Promotion via tax breaks and praise for the content of the film from authoritative political voices tend to send polarising subliminal messages. These moves also lend credence to a production whose credibility has been questioned. Most egregiously, the film claimed that the three stories depicted in the film represented the stories of “32,000” women in Kerala, suggesting that the problem of Islamic terrorism was endemic in the state. This statement had to be withdrawn after being found to be demonstrably wrong by a fact-checking website. The Centre’s own terrorism-combating apparatus has stated that it has arrested 168 people in connection with terror attacks inspired by Islamic State ideology. Promotion via tax breaks became a standard feature with the release of The Kashmir Files, which sought to depict the brutalities inflicted by terrorists on Kashmiri Pandits, and was released last year. At the time Haryana, Gujarat, UP, and Goa offered entertainment tax waivers for the film. Deploying fiscal support to fulfil a politico-cultural agenda is not a sign of a mature democracy.