Punjabbi Munda
FULL MEMBER
- Jan 11, 2011
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WASHINGTON: The Indian government, ever sensitive to the slightest aggravation -- real or unintended -- to its nationals, particularly minorities, will write to the American television network NBC objecting to a spoof that purportedly hurt Sikh sentiments.
Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi has directed the Indian Embassy in Washington to lodge a protest with NBC over a skit on Jay Leno's Tonight Show in which the comedian used the backdrop of the Sikhs' holiest shrine in Amritsar to make fun of presidential contender Mitt Romney.
In the skit, Leno mocks Romney's wealth by showing the Golden Temple as one of his summer vacation homes.
Some Sikhs took offense at the spoof and began an online petition saying Leno has been guilty of derogatory comments on Sikhs before and that his ''racist comments need to be stopped right here.'' But major Sikh organizations - notably United Sikhs and Sikh Coalition - which have campaigned strenously to promote awareness of the religion, and achieved considerable success in protecting their religious rights, did not take any immediate note of the purported offense.
However, the minister, in keeping with the broad outlook of Indian governments to protect real and contrived minority sensitivities rather than speak for freedom of expression, said the skit, which he had not seen, ''was quite unfortunate and quite objectionable.''
"Freedom does not mean hurting the sentiments of others... This is not acceptable to us and we take a very strong objection for such a display,'' Ravi said in a chat with journalists. Leno, his network rival David Letterman, and other late-night comedians routinely make fun of just about everyone, not just minorities, as part of a stand-up/ slapstick tradition.
But in an ongoing ferment in India far removed from its own liberal traditions, Ravi also defended the government's sensitivities on the Salman Rushdie episode at the Jaipur Literary Festival. ''We don't care what you (liberals) think...the government's responsibility is to maintain order and prevent a communal situation," he said in a brief reference to the controversy.
The so-called liberals who Ravi twitted say New Delhi is all-too-ready to roll over and pander to objections from minority interests, and as a result, India is increasingly becoming illiberal and intolerant like neighboring Pakistan. On Twitter, a bastion of liberal expression, most comments derided India's position. ''British protected Rushdie against Iran's fatwa to kill him. Out State abdicated its responsibility to protect him,'' tweeted @SORBONNE75.
"Land of the permanently outraged,'' tweeted Sadanand Dhume, at resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, referring to India's huffy protest over the Leno joke, one of hundreds he dispenses weekly.
Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi has directed the Indian Embassy in Washington to lodge a protest with NBC over a skit on Jay Leno's Tonight Show in which the comedian used the backdrop of the Sikhs' holiest shrine in Amritsar to make fun of presidential contender Mitt Romney.
In the skit, Leno mocks Romney's wealth by showing the Golden Temple as one of his summer vacation homes.
Some Sikhs took offense at the spoof and began an online petition saying Leno has been guilty of derogatory comments on Sikhs before and that his ''racist comments need to be stopped right here.'' But major Sikh organizations - notably United Sikhs and Sikh Coalition - which have campaigned strenously to promote awareness of the religion, and achieved considerable success in protecting their religious rights, did not take any immediate note of the purported offense.
However, the minister, in keeping with the broad outlook of Indian governments to protect real and contrived minority sensitivities rather than speak for freedom of expression, said the skit, which he had not seen, ''was quite unfortunate and quite objectionable.''
"Freedom does not mean hurting the sentiments of others... This is not acceptable to us and we take a very strong objection for such a display,'' Ravi said in a chat with journalists. Leno, his network rival David Letterman, and other late-night comedians routinely make fun of just about everyone, not just minorities, as part of a stand-up/ slapstick tradition.
But in an ongoing ferment in India far removed from its own liberal traditions, Ravi also defended the government's sensitivities on the Salman Rushdie episode at the Jaipur Literary Festival. ''We don't care what you (liberals) think...the government's responsibility is to maintain order and prevent a communal situation," he said in a brief reference to the controversy.
The so-called liberals who Ravi twitted say New Delhi is all-too-ready to roll over and pander to objections from minority interests, and as a result, India is increasingly becoming illiberal and intolerant like neighboring Pakistan. On Twitter, a bastion of liberal expression, most comments derided India's position. ''British protected Rushdie against Iran's fatwa to kill him. Out State abdicated its responsibility to protect him,'' tweeted @SORBONNE75.
"Land of the permanently outraged,'' tweeted Sadanand Dhume, at resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, referring to India's huffy protest over the Leno joke, one of hundreds he dispenses weekly.
