New Delhi---"Don't eat it, read it, see it, feel it," sings the Michael Jackson impersonator as she raps her way through a list of pleasures banned by India's conservative government before chorusing: "Just beep it!"
As the world's largest democracy, India has long been proud of its tradition of artistic, cultural and religious freedoms.
But a series of bans, ranging from eating beef to watching the "Fifty Shades of Grey" movie, has sparked accusations of a growing climate of intolerance under Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Critics say the bans show how "thin-skinned" their politicians have become in the Internet age where attempts to put a lid on offending material are likely to backfire.
The spoof of Jackson's classic "Beat It", which was made by the Indian comedy trio Enna Da Rascalas, has gone viral since being uploaded on YouTube last week, reflecting the backlash against blacklists.
Announcing a ban earlier this month on a British-made documentary about an infamous 2012 gang-rape in Delhi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the comments by one of the rapists could fuel public anger.
Days later, a government-appointed board of censors blocked the release of the erotic movie "Fifty Shades of Grey" in cinemas, despite being shown a toned-down version.
And a comedy "roast" show that featured several Bollywood stars has fallen foul of the authorities after being uploaded on the Internet and is now at the centre of an obscenity investigation over some of its sexually explicit jokes.
"For this government, it seems a ban becomes the quickest way to eliminate a problem," Shiv Visvanathan, a sociologist based in Haryana state, told AFP.
"Bans do not tolerate disorder but without debate and disorder, you can't have a free democracy. It is just making life complex."
Historians point out that the centre-left Congress party which has ruled India for most of the post-independence period has its own track record of bans, particularly during the 1975-77 "Emergency" under Indira Gandhi.
British author Salman Rushdie's 1988 book "The Satanic Verses" was for example banned here for allegedly insulting Islam.
But the last two decades has seen a general relaxation on the part of the watchdogs with TV channels able to air shows like "Sex and the City" that would have once been considered too racy.
Even the Rushdie novel "Midnight's Children" -- which is scathing about the Emergency -- was released in Indian cinemas in 2013, albeit without the nudity.
- 'Climate of intolerance' -
Shashi Tharoor, a best-selling author who is also a Congress lawmaker, says the cultural climate has definitely changed since Modi's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party came to power last May.
"Our mounting concern is that there is a climate of intolerance that has unfortunately been given free rein," Tharoor told AFP.
"Positions which had always struck the Indian mainstream as being fringe positions have suddenly become acceptable to the powers that lead."
The former diplomat made his name with "The Great Indian Novel", a satire that came out in 1989 and is based on the epic Sanskrit poem Mahabharata. Were it to be published today, Tharoor suspects it would be banned.
Acclaimed Tamil-language author Perumal Murugan quit writing altogether in January following protests by Hindu and caste groups who felt insulted by one of his books.
AFP
