Tourists will always be selfie-ish, let’em

It is not often that India gets to claim first dibs on a recent idea. But the reported EU move to curtail people taking selfies in front of ‘landmarks’ has India written all over it. A crackdown on the inclusion of buildings, monuments, installations or ‘copyrighted works in public spaces’ even if they are in the background — as they are wont to be, given that selfies are about the subject and not the object — will simply not work. If it is ever passed by the EU at all, that is.

The suggestion is particularly puzzling given that tourists (including from the EU) snigger about India’s antediluvian regulations forbidding photography in airports, railway stations, bridges and tunnels even as it is possible to zoom in on them from above using satellite-based map services.

The proposition that selfie-takers, rather than just commercial and professional photographers as is the norm even in India, should seek permission from authorities before clicking is clearly unworkable unless countless kiosks with the aforementioned officials are provided alongside every landmark. Most foolhardy of all, of course, is the idea that EU mandarins can swim against the (popular) tide of selfietaking that has swept the entire world, let alone tourist sites.

Hopefully their Indian counterparts will not be inspired to do likewise.