Sir — This refers to the article, “Free speech brigade silent on Indu Sarkar” (August 1) by A Surya Prakash. Madhur Bhandarkar’s Indu Sarkar deserves to be seen to know how easily democracy can be muted and also the autocracy of the Central Board of Film Certification, when it ordered Suman Ghosh, director of the documentary, The Argumentative Indian to ‘beep’ out four words namely — ‘Gujarat’, ‘cow’, ‘Hindutva view of India’ and ‘Hindu India’.
The Censor board’s action is indeed an attempt to mute our fundamental right “the right to freedom of speech and expression”, which is guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. Freedom of expression is central to democracy and we must resist any attempt to bring back the days of Emergency that India had to suffer. As George Washington once said, “If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”