I was born in Bangalore but I now reside in Bengaluru. The re-naming of the city had precious little impact on me because Bangalore has always been Bengaluru in Kannada and regardless of how many signboards change, I’ll always call my home city Bangalore. Old habits die hard and what’s in a name anyway, right? Wrong.

On February 1, 2015, the Censor Board for Film Certification (CBFC) raised the same question – and more than a few eyebrows – when musician Mihir Joshi tweeted this:

Twitter, true to form, reacted with an outpouring of #Bombay and heaped scorn on the CBFC for the decision. Coming, as it did, in the wake of the recent CBFC regime change following the Messenger of God saga that saw then CBFC chairperson Leela Samson resign, Twitter’s “secular brigade” wasted no time railing against the recently-appointed CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani, who’s believed to be close to the Modi government.

But for all the outrage aimed at the new CBFC chairperson, the fact of the matter is that the decision to censor the name “Bombay” was taken by the Samson-led CBFC. In fact, Joshi tweeted out the CBFC certificate that declares the album, Mumbai Blues, fit for “unrestricted public exhibition”, albeit after muting the word “Bombay”.

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Joshi told Newslaundry that while the song itself was released way back in May, 2014, its music video was finally submitted for CBFC certification in November by his record label, Times Music. The certificate eventually issued by the CBFC dates back to December 5, 2012 when Samson was still the chairperson of the board so laying the blame for this particular decision at the doorstep of Nihalani is unjustified.

Joshi says that his record label made him aware of the CBFC directive well over a month ago, however, his desire to have the song certified for television led him to comply with the directive.

While some could point at this decision as reason enough for Joshi to not have any complaints now, he says that the real gravity of the CBFC’s directive struck him when he finally saw his song on television. “Not only did they mute the word, which first of all had nothing to do with the message of the song, but they even blurred out the accompanying lyric,” said Joshi.

While some reports mention that Joshi will not be contesting the CBFC decision, making him seem more slacktivist than activist, Joshi has told Newslaundry that after speaking to fellow artists and considering the matter, he has directed his record label to write to the CBFC asking for an explanation as to why the word had to be removed.

Based on the response, he will ask the CBFC to recertify the song so that, hopefully, an uncensored version can be telecast. “What about Bombay Velvet?” he asked, referring to a Bollywood film slated for a release this year. “Will the CBFC write back telling them to just call it ‘Velvet’?”

Newslaundry attempted to contact both members of the Examining Committee named on the certificate to see why they had expressly asked for the word to be removed, but to no avail. We were told by the CBFC that Neelima Naik was not a permanent member of the Examining Committee and hence not in a position to comment, while repeated calls to Deepak Tandel’s office went unanswered.

While the decision was taken by a Samson-led CBFC, the current regime also needs to introspect. In no way, shape or form can one comprehend how the former name of a city falls under the ambit of Section 5b(1) of the Cinematograph Act, which lays out the ambit for the CBFC’s decisions. The oversensitivity or over-reaching of the CBFC is at odds with the image of India as a modern, 21^st-century country. If the board’s only function continues to be pointless nitpicking then perhaps it’s time that we do away with the CBFC altogether or amend the Cinematograph Act, making it less ambiguous so that the board in the future follows the letter of the law rather than their extreme and oftentimes inexplicable interpretations of it.

This is not the first time that the use of the word Bombay in popular cinema or culture has created a controversy. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Raj Thackeray, had objected to the film Wake Up Sid for using the word “Bombay” instead of “Mumbai”. The movie Bombay Talkies, though, that released in 2013 was cleared by the board without any objection to the film title and saw no controversy or protests. Clearly even the CBFC doesn’t seem to understand their own logic.It’s no wonder then that the rest of the country doesn’t either.