In “Sacred Games”, Netflix’s first Indian original series, a flinty Mumbai villain abuses Rajiv Gandhi, calling the late prime minister a fattu or “coward” in Hindi. The English subtitles translate it as “pussy”. A court will hear a plea today that demands cuts to such derogatory scenes and those which misrepresent historical events. As content distributed on the internet is not bound by India’s archaic censorship laws, “Sacred Games” gets away with nudity, graphic sex, gore and profanity. However, in television shows and cinema releases even words like “condom” and “intercourse” are bleeped. Calling freedom of expression a “fundamental right” that “must not be policed”, Rahul Gandhi, Rajiv’s son and president of the Congress party, made the right noises last month. He tweeted: “My father lived and died in the service of India. The views of a character on a fictional web series can never change that.” If only the censor board were so magnanimous.