Bhopal : Shubhradeep Chakravorty's documentary Not Allowed to be screened

Condemn the Assault on Freedom of Expression

Bhopal : Shubhradeep Chakravorty's documentary Not Allowed to be screened

The growing intolerance of the saffron outfits towards anything which does not meet their distorted worldview was on display once again. This time the target of their assault was Shubhradeep Chakravorty's recent documentary on encounter killings in Gujarat titled 'Encountered on Saffron Agenda'.

Shubhradeep, who is a New Delhi based documentary filmmaker, has made the much discussed 'Godhra Tak : The Terror Trail'. The recent documentary which was shot in seven states, is based on investigative documentation of few encounter killings in Gujarat in recent times. A significant commonality between all these encounters was that those killed in these encounters were said to have on a mission to kill the Chief Minister Narendra Modi who had allegedly organised the 2002 genocide of Muslims in the state after Godhra train burning incident.

Yuva Samvad, an organisation of Youth had organised the screeing of the documentary on 7 th February at AICUF Ashram, Bhopal. Shubhradeep was also present on the occasion to participate in the ensuing discussion.The screeing of the documentary was supposed to start at 7 p.m. but before it could happen a horde of Bajrand Dal activists numbering around 70 came to the venue and disrupted the show.

Police also refused to give any protection to the programme and in fact took the Delhi based director of the film along with an activist of Yuva Samvad to their control room. It compelled the organisers of the programme to call off the screening despite the fact that the film does not come under the 'banned' category. The Bajrang Dal activists also entered the office of the Ashram and threatened the authorities there. Police remained a mute spectator to the whole developments.

It is for everyone to see that this assault on freedom of expression was another sign of the growing fascist dominance in the state of Madhya Pradesh where unruly saffron crowd is calling all the shots and administration is acting as a mere spectator.

It is high time that every peace, justice loving person raise their voice in unison to condemn such acts and express our total solidarity with people who are struggling against such forces.


(For any further details about the incident contact yuvasamvad@gmail.com )