Its officially been a 'ban and beep' week in India

The News Minute | March 5, 2015 | 7:15 pm ISTIt has indeed been a ban-beepweek in India. Lets rewind the clock a few days to a nice Sunday that some people in Maharashtra probably spent eating beef (Too soon?) while most of the country sat at home oblivious that there was even a documentary called India's Daughter.The first ban of the week was- Beef! Nearly 19 years after it was passed in the Maharashtra Assembly , a bill prohibiting cow slaughter received the President’s nod thus rendering Maharashtra beefless.While red meat lovers will have to make do with other substitutes, the bill itself is quite interesting since it allows for the slaughter of water buffaloes.The very next day, the Patna High Court banned the release of Bollywood film "Dirty Politics" over some objectionable scenes with a division bench of the court ordering the concerned authorities not to release the film till the objectionable scenes were removed.The court has also issued a notice to the Central Board of Film Certification in this connection and the film which was slated to release on Friday, March 6 has been postponed.Then the situation came back to Southern India, after the Karnataka government came out with new rules for tourism events.Titled “Guidelines to be followed when organized national or international music festivals or any other tourism related event”, the notification lists 28 rules to be followed. The rules listed by the Gazette notification which The News Minute has a copy of will apply all over Karnataka, except Bengaluru urban district.“If foreign tourists are participating in the programme permitted by the tourism department, their personal details must be collected,” the order adds.The order also stipulates that such events must be concluded by 10 pm.Another rule towards the end of the list says that when permission is granted, it must be stipulated that the organizers must video graph the event and collect an acknowledgement from the department after they have submitted the footage. The department also prohibits smoking, alcohol consumption, consumption of banned substances in public places at programmes permitted by the tourism department. Should such activities be brought to light, legal action would be initiated.Parallel to this ran the entire controversy surrounding the 'India's Daughter' documentary by the BBC.Not even a day after home minister Rajnath Singh directed BBC to ensure that “India’s daughter’, a documentary made by British filmmaker Leslee Udwin on the 2012 gang rape was not broadcast or carried on any social media platform, the channel has gone ahead and broadcast the documentary.An FIR was filed and Rajnath Singh said that a notice has been sent to BBC 4. The Indian government has also claimed that it would ensure that it will remove the documentary from YouTube. *cough* torrent *cough* Meanwhile, the news of Censor Board beeping out the word 'lesbian' in the movie Dum Laga ke Haisha also broke out. Since most people had already finished with their quota of outrage as far as the CBFC was concerned, this one went a bit unnoticed.  Read - Have you watched 'India's Daughter'? I did And then came a new ban, this time the evil BDSM movie 'Fifty Shades of Grey' has been banned by Indian censors even after it was edited to tone down sex scenes and remove all nudity.Though the reason is still a matter of speculation, it is likely concerning its sexual content. (Kamasutra ring a bell?)Indian censors refused to approve the film adapted from the book, it added that Universal Pictures could appeal the decision.TweetFollow @thenewsminute