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 | Bad vibes: Let PSU bosses decide Our Correspondent In a country where ultra-Victorian morality pervades, a little imagination on the part of public sector Hindustan Latex Ltd (HLL) has, not unexpectedly, raised the heckles of moralisers and prudes. Leading the charge against the so-called vibrator condom Crezendo is Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Madhya Pradesh PWD and IT minister Kailash Vijayavargiya. While approving condoms as a birth control measure, he fumes at an add-on feature which, he feels, makes Crezendo a sex toy. He has taken the campaign to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In his letter to the Prime Minister, he wrote: "The vibrating ring sex-toy has been launched by Hindustan Latex Ltd under your government's ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Despite a ban on the sale of sex toys in the country, this one is being sold in the open market. Your intervention in the matter has become necessary since all concerned departments under the UPA government have failed in their jobs." The MP Minister said though the HLL condom has been promoted as a vibrating ring condom, the vibrating ring which is the 'sex toy' is being supplied separately along with the condoms. Consensus may be evading Presidential elections, but all politicians are unanimous on prudery-mongering. So, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) demands that the MP government ban the condom. "It is bound to have a harmful effect, especially on youngsters," said State CPM secretary Bahadur Singh Dhakad. At the heart of the controversy is the issue of the role government: should it be moral guardian of citizens? If yes, then the objections raised by MP politicians are valid. But then they raise a host of other questions: To what extent, the morals of citizens should be protected? Can our political masters prescribe a code of good life? Should they also proscribe practices that can be considered baneful? Can there ever be a consensus on the prescription and the proscription? It is quite obvious that in a vibrant democracy there can never be a broad agreement on what constitutes good life; in fact, such an agreement would be inconsistent with the imperatives of an open society. Only totalitarian and theocratic nations—the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Saudi Arabia—can have impose proscriptions; and they can do that only because they are (were) not democracies. So, the alternative is: government should keep away from moral policing. So, the MP leaders would do better to address the issues of governance more earnestly. Let the public sector bosses take care of their businesses; let them have some autonomy. By the way, this is a pledge all parties—from the Congress and the BJP to the CPM—make regularly. Posted on : 6/29/2007 Mail this article to your friend |