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Comment by ubersync | Hacker News Reader

One positive step, but a long long way to go. Just yesterday a cop snatched my phone because I had recorded his colleagues driving without seatbelts on (which is a traffic offence in India). He told me (lied) what I was doing is illegal. This is just an example of how messed up the whole system here is. What can you expect from a country where one in three elected representatives have criminal cases pending against them. [0]

0 http://m.timesofindia.com/home/news/Every-third-newly-electe...

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This ruling is a positive step, but India still has its notorious law criminalizing the offending of religious feelings[0], and, as far as I know, import of The Satanic Verses is still banned.

Police falsely claiming that photographing or recording them on the job is illegal is a recurring problem in the US, too.

[0]http://blog.newhumanist.org.uk/2012/07/sanal-edamarukus-situ...

I have often wondered if you can respond to a blasphemy charge, with a blasphemy charge, as long as the first charge is from a different group than your own, on the basis that a demand to abide by the principles of a different faith than your own is clearly a blasphemous request.

The law isn't against blasphemy, it's against offending religious sentiments and is deliberately vague. You'd have to prove that the group claiming to be offended is not offended.

Stupid, but India has a long history of religious violence, so perhaps its a case of pragmatism over principle as a justification.

There are efforts at an international level to stifle religious expression as well. This is championed by Islamic states to prevent any criticism of Islam. This is a growing global threat to freedom of expression and it often finds its way into online censorship.

Even better. I just need to be religiously offended by the very idea that mocking other people's gods could be religiously offensive, given they are obviously not gods and therefore incapable of inciting offense according to my faith (any suggestion otherwise being clearly very offensive), so then any charge of religious offense is then automatically religiously offensive to me.

I was born too late to directly remember this, but here’s a recap of the controversy: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/booksandarts/si...

Here is a popular Islamist criticism of the work: http://www.islamicentre.org/articles/rush.htm It is rife with sloppy thinking, like “how can the book not be intended as an insult if the author knew people would be upset,” which is of course an insane argument. Hell, the both the Bible and the Qu'ran contain verses which upset me, but I don’t go around saying Mohommed or ancient Rabbis intended to insult me…

Lastly, the January 1989 NYT review of The Satanic Verses contains many great insights, accessible to Westerners, into double meanings in the book. Also, spoilers. https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/04/18/specials/rushdie-vers...

(By the way, I’m reading it now — 10% in and no depiction of the Prophet yet [edit: apparently there never will quite be, except in the way Brian in The Life of Brian is kind-of-but-not-really Jesus] — just Rushdie’s trademark highly enjoyable and witty writing)

On the way to the airport in Mumbai we were flagged over by a cop and he told us that having luggage on the roof of the car was "illegal" and he issued us a 200 rupee "fine" for it.

If we had been running late we might have missed our flight because that jackass wanted to shake us down for a couple of dollars. I love India but the amount of corruption is really depressing.

At least he had an excuse.

New Year's Even 2011, I was driving back home around 12:20 AM. Pulled over since I got a got a phone call from my parents. Was talking to them when a couple of cops on bikes stopped by and asked for my papers.

I gave them whatever they needed. Nothing was out of order.

Then one of the cops blatantly asked me for some cash. I said I had everything was in order. His reply? "Sir, thoda cash do na. Naya saal hai. Daru peeni hai" ("Sir, it's new year's eve. Give me some cash, we want to get drunk")

I would rather pay the honest guy who's just being a beggar than the douchebag fishing for borderline legitimate reasons to charge illegitimate fines from law-abiding citizens.

Both are abusing their authority, though.

That cop was definitely not being a beggar...

He's not a beggar when he can use state sanction violence against you with impunity. He's just a lazy fraud.

I think this is a problem in every 3rd world country. At least India is making positive steps.

Is it surprising that these sorts of things occur frequently in societies where the incentives for low-level corruption are huge, and the practical consequences are low? I'm not sure how reforming the constitution can directly reduce the occurrence of police shakedowns, after all, it's already completely illegal, but nobody with the power cares to enforce that law.

It sounds like the chances of having a criminal case pending against you is pretty high given your description of how easy it is to be accused of doing something illegal.

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