Sir — Pahlaj Nihalani’s appointment as the Chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification has become a laughing stock. The board recently demanded the removal of terms like ‘Hindu India’, ‘Gujarat’ and ‘cow’ from The Argumentative Indian, a documentary on Amartya Sen. The board, set up to protect the public from the excesses of potboiler cinema, now presumes to cull the thoughts of one of India’s foremost public intellectuals. It should be no surprise that Amartya Sen, one of the earliest critics of the Government’s alternative vision of India, should find himself at the receiving end of its authoritativeness. The board’s all-round effort to stifle thoughts is turning out to be slightly comic.