BJP ruled Rajasthan hounds out filmmaker for documentary on Gujarat police encounters

The Statesman
March 14, 2008

BJP hounds out filmmaker

Binoy Valsan

JAIPUR, March 14: The focused agenda of the BJP and its affiliated outfits to shroud the entire truth behind the infamous Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter in Gujarat from the public eye was once again pushed onto the forefront when they forced a former journalist and documentary maker, Mr Shubradeep Chakravorty to abandon the screening of his documentary based on Gujarat police encounters, **Encountered on saffron agenda?** and leave the state yesterday.

Ironically the venue of the special screening was the Pink City Press Club but its office bearers buckled under the pressure exerted by the state government through the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and refused to screen the documentary at the last minute. The names of some of the prominent BJP leaders from Rajasthan who had a played a major role in orchestrating the Sohrabuddin encounter reportedly crops up in the documentary which deals with trauma of the kith and kin of the victims who are leading a tainted life after being labeled as relatives of anti-nationals and terrorists.
Speaking to The Statesman** from New Delhi, Mr Chakravorty expressed his angst and surprise over the turn of events which according to him also had a number of local journalists and policemen conniving to prevent the screening and whisk him away from the city on the pretext of maintaining communal and social harmony in Jaipur.
"The Pink City Press Club office bearers were very helpful in the beginning but then suddenly they turned hostile and told me they could not allow the screening since they felt my documentary was too controversial. They even gave me lame excuses like the press club was standing on land leased out from the state government," said Mr Chakravorty.

After being refused permission to screen his documentary at the Pink City Press Club, Mr Chakravorty was left with no option but to shift the venue to Muslim Musafirkhana here in the city. However a few supporters of BJP's minority morcha gate crashed at the venue, shouting slogans against the filmmaker and tried to create a law and order situation, forcing the police to turn up immediately and detain him. He was however later released and was asked to leave the state.

"It was really shameful that an organisation like the press club also chose to support the political forces in curbing my freedom of expression. The young journalist from a leading Jaipur Hindi daily who had helped me to organise the screening has been asked to put in his papers by the management today," he added.