PUBLISH THE RULES FOR STATE-RUN CULTURAL SPACES IN DELHI, SAYS FORMER SPECIAL CHIEF SECRETARY

Face2News/Chandigarh

Every State Government that runs a Bhawan or Resident Commission in New Delhi should publish a written policy for its exhibition and cultural spaces, framed strictly within the grounds the Constitution permits, said KBS Sidhu, IAS (retd.), former Special Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab, and Convener of the Shiromani Punjab Forum.

His call follows the removal of 75 of 105 photographs from No Idea Is Final, a photography exhibition by Raihan Vadra at Bikaner House, New Delhi, on 21 October. The photographs were taken down hours before the opening, after the venue described them as “too political”. The exhibition was scheduled to remain open until 25 October.

“Article 19(1)(a) guarantees every citizen freedom of speech and expression. Article 19(2) allows that freedom to be restricted on eight grounds only, and ‘too political’ is not one of them,” Mr Sidhu said. “A State-owned venue is bound by the Constitution like any other arm of the State. It may set reasonable rules, but it must publish them in advance and apply them equally to every exhibitor. A decision taken by telephone, hours before an opening, meets neither test.”

Mr Sidhu said his concern lay with neither the politics surrounding the exhibitor’s family nor the contest among all political parties to court young, first-time voters. “Strip away the politics, and what remains is a citizen’s fundamental right. That right belongs equally to every young artist, whatever their surname or their subject.”

Mr Sidhu urged the Government of Rajasthan to publish the order under which the photographs were removed, together with its reasons. He also called on all State Governments, Punjab included, to review the booking terms of their Delhi Bhawans so that no artist, of any background or viewpoint, faces a last-minute restriction without a written, reasoned decision.

Content that incites violence, promotes enmity between communities, or is obscene is already an offence under criminal law, he noted, and it is for the police to act on it, on record and subject to the courts.