2015: A year of bans

It wouldn’t be misplaced to call 2015 the year of bans with the slew of restrictions that the government resorted to and here is a review of some of the most outrageous ones:

BBC’s India’s Daughter

Release of the documentary "India's Daughter" was prohibited in the country and the Centre also asked video-sharing website YouTube to remove all links to the documentary. Police said the ban was imposed as comments in the film by one of those convicted of the crime created an atmosphere of "fear and tension" and risked fuelling public anger.

Censor board's 'sanskar'

With the sansakari James Bond image going viral, nothing more needs to be explained. The censorship of a kissing scene in the latest James Bond movie Spectre and the short term ban on cuss words that was later revoked clearly showed that bans are not just the government’s forte.

Maggi

India’s favourite food Maggi had to endure five months of obscurity after it was shunted out of the stands by FSSAI saying it was "unsafe and hazardous" for consumption after finding lead beyond permissible limits. The company had soon withdrawn the noodles brand from the market and took a hit of Rs 450 crore, including destroying over 30,000 tonnes of the instant noodles since June. The noodles though, made a grand come back with reports claiming that SnapDeal sold over 60,000 packets of Maggi in ten minutes during its re-launch.

Porn

Late July, the Department of Information Technology passed a directive notifying Internet Service Providers across India to block access to over 800 pornographic websites, stating that the government was concerned about the impact of openly available porn on “users like children, housewives and people who may get offended”. But following the widespread criticism that followed, the government decided to tone down its concern, and decided to block only those sites that hosted child pornography.

Beef

It was a difficult time for meat lovers this year especially in Mumbai after the Maharashtra government banned beef in the state and the BMC banned meat in the city during the Jain festival of Prayushan. The bill banning the cow slaughter in Maharashtra, pending for the last several years, finally received the President's assent earlier in March. The Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Bill, 1995, passed during the previous Shiv Sena-BJP regime, was pending for approval for 19 years. According to the new rules, the punishment for the sale of beef or possession of it could lead to 5 years imprisonment with an additional fine of Rs 10,000.

Foreign invitees

Karnataka government put in place a rule earlier in the year that now makes it necessary to have police surveillance in parties, which have foreign invitees.