New Delhi: In a typical illustration of the long winding patriarchal Indian political discourse, the country's parliamentarians want to stop the “indecent portrayal of women”. Cut down to basics, Indian MPs now want sexy, pouting women off television, especially in advertisements which they believe reduces woman to a commodity. Ad film makers and broadcasters in India might just have to scurry and hunt down their chastity belts, what with the entire spectrum of the Indian political establishment geared to clamp down on them. The Indian Parliament was on Tuesday engaged on the issue of indecent portrayal of women in ads and several MPs were rooting for a complete ban on such ads. One MP even demanded that some sort of Censor Board be set up to scrutinize and certify all ad-films before they are allowed to be aired. India's Information and Broadcasting Minister, Ambika Soni told the agitated MPs that ‘self-regulation' was being given a chance to work. She however warned, that the government had powers and will not shy away from acting against rogue broadcasting companies, whenever the need arises. The minister also poked fun at some of the agitated MPs for their hypocrisy in raising the issue of indecent content in the media and sending strong protest letters to her whenever her ministry took action against errant media companies. According to Soni, India has as many as 15 laws dealing with content in the electronic and print media. Broadcasting companies had either dropped or changed ads in at least 85 of the 105 cases that the ministry had sent notices for in the last one year. In 15 cases, the government is engaged in court with the companies, she informed the MPs. Opposition MPs, particularly women members had closed ranks to criticize the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and demanded stricter codes for advertisements on television. Leader of the Opposition, Sushma Swaraj also suggested having a meeting of all political parties to discuss the issue, but Soni shot that down. The Minister said there was no need for such a conclave because she and the government had the matter within its grip. She said, the government had a ‘group of ministers' (GoM) in place to oversee different media issues and only after it completes its deliberations would it be prudent to bring the matter before all political parties for discussion. Wonder how senior Congress leader and union minister for science and technology Vilasrao Deshmukh will have to convince his daughter in law, the vivacious and sexy Genelia D'Souza, against acting in raunchy commercials. A couple of years back before she married Deshmukh's son and Bollywood actor Rietesh, Genelia, played a flirty and sexy character in a series of ‘Fast Track' accessories ads, where she seems to want everything from attention to making out with an in-flight pilot.
