Opinion: Famous, but wanting to be forgotten

The fight by an Indian reality television star to get websites to erase his driving under the influence arrest recalls a larger movement to be forgotten.

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

When Ashutosh Kaushik was young and famous, he did something stupid and risky he says he regrets. In June 2009, he was arrested in Mumbai for riding a motorbike under the influence of alcohol. He served a day in jail, paid a small fine, had his driver's license suspended.

It sounds like the kind of crime and punishment that may occur many times a day without much notice in a nation of more than a billion people, but it got a lot of attention because Ashutosh Kaushik was the winner on two Indian reality shows - "MTV Roadies" and "Bigg Boss." He was a celebrity, famous for being famous.

More than 12 years later, Ashutosh Kaushik is married and has had roles in a few Hindi films, including "Zila Ghaziabad" and "Shortcut Romeo." He says his life and career is still hampered by the persistent public presence on the internet of a foolish, dangerous thing he did when he was young and besotted by his own celebrity.

I got everything I wanted so early in life, he told the BBC this week. I was inexperienced and made a mistake, and I was punished for it. But I'm 42 now, and I feel I'm still paying the price. I've lost out on work, he said. I've been rejected for marriage several times. And every time I move, my neighbors look at me strangely. Fame can shine a harsh light.

Ashutosh Kaushik isn't asking for cash damages from any platform where you can find the news about his drunken motorbike ride in 2009, but he says he would like that story, photos and video removed from those sites. A court sentences an accused, it's for a term, he told the BBC. So the digital punishment should also have a time limit. He's asking an Indian high court to recognize what's called in some countries, including the European Union, the right to be forgotten - to ask to have personal information about you removed from internet sites. Those companies say they just post what's publicly available.

The right to be forgotten is not the law in India or the U.S., but it's hard to hear the phrase and not wonder about some foolish thing almost any of us have done while young, or not so young, and would like to forget and by which we would not want our lives to be judged. Ashutosh Kaushik wanted to be famous when he was young. Now he longs to be anonymous again.

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