The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : First the dress code, then l'affaire Kushboo

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 27, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

First the dress code, then l'affaire Kushboo

Sudhish Kamath

Women are the target in every case, says activist

Kushboo

CHENNAI: Two separate incidents in the city have turned the spotlight again on freedom of speech and expression, moral policing and invasion of privacy.

First, actress Kushboo sought to clarify that her comments on pre-marital sex published by a news magazine were based on findings of the magazine's survey on pre-marital sex, and said that she had been misunderstood.

Kushboo said she had commented on pre-marital sex as an unfortunate trend worldwide and had not said anything specifically to malign Tamil culture or women.

Rushing back to the city from Singapore, she regretted that the issue had been blown out of proportion.

The actress said she was sorry if anything she said had hurt the sentiments of the Tamil public.

Her clarification came after a section of women affiliated to the Tamil Protection Movement protested against the actress and burnt effigies of her.

Meanwhile, a women's wing functionary of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has filed a defamation complaint against Kushboo. According to the PMK's Central Chennai district women's wing secretary, Deepam Jayakumar, Kushboo's interview had caused anguish and mental agony to her and other women in the State. She said the remarks undermined the culture and civilization of Tamils and it derided the pride of the petitioner and other Tamil women.

The complainant wanted the actress to be summoned to court and punished for offences under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code. The petition, filed under Section 200 of the Code of Criminal Code, was submitted to the VI Metropolitan Magistrate at Egmore, Dharman, on Monday.

In another instance, party-goers were in for a rude shock when they woke up on Monday morning to find that Tamil dailies had splashed pictures of them with "distasteful captions."

The management of the hotel where the party was held expressed shock and a spokesperson said that when the hotel had complied with all rules laid down by the police, including shutting down before midnight and restricting entry to those below 21, the uninvited lensmen who gate-crashed the party had no right to invade the privacy of customers. "If a husband chooses to kiss his wife at a private party, who are we to interfere?" the spokesperson asked.

The two instances follow on the heels of the Anna University Vice-Chancellor's enforcement of a dress code, ostensibly to protect values.

"It is women who have been the target of moral policing in every case," a woman activist observed. "The Vice-chancellor wants to dictate what women should wear, political parties targeted Khushboo's comments for petty publicity and Tamil dailies that use a staple of sleaze from films today are talking about women and morality. Talk about hypocrisy."

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