Country of contradictions

We are in doubt.....are we truly a free country?....A music band comprising of girls was started.Soon after that their lives were threatened. Now they have stopped singing.This is not a small thing. Our freedom of expression is being controlled. A good art exhibition was held in the city of Bangalore in India; protesters try to shut it down as it bothers their religious feelings.Following this objectionable paintings were removed. Police now,invigilate the exhibition.Is such policing necessary in a free country? If a writer writes a great novel, he is persecuted by his own community; there is threat to his life. If a painter paints an extremely good painting, he is exiled because his painting is hurting the religious sentiments of the people. If there is good movie released (cleared by the censor board),its screening is postponed.Soon  religious leaders intervene and cut away sensitive scenes, they are not the "censor board". How could they do that? A good writer (whose comment is torn out of context) is in the middle of controversy regarding reserved category and corruption in India. His comments are disagreeable to the political class.An accomplished movie star is offered citizenship in a foreign country;he is asked if he want to leave for a foreign country where his ancestors had lived. This is his home country, why would he want to leave?
What is all this? Are we not a democracy? Can people not write, paint, sing, comment, and act as they please. Some word or some music will not be liked by a few persons; that does not mean we cannot have the right to expression.People can have sensitivities to anything and everything.  Nobody can say anything anymore. We are free yet we are tense on what restriction would come next. And we stop ourselves from talking about what we feel.This does not feel right.