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Are govt or Hindutva groups blocking Patwardhan's website?
Saturday, 7 March 2015 - 6:05am IST | Place: Mumbai | Agency: dna | From the print edition
by Dhaval Kulkarni
Raising questions about censorship at the behest of the state, film-maker Anand Patwardhan, who is known for his documentaries on religious fundamentalism, has alleged that his website has been blocked "unofficially" by the government or by pro-Hindutva non-state actors.
dna Research & Archives
Raising questions about censorship at the behest of the state, film-maker Anand Patwardhan, who is known for his documentaries on religious fundamentalism, has alleged that his website has been blocked "unofficially" by the government or by pro-Hindutva non-state actors.
dna's attempt to access his website, www.patwardhan.com, was met with a message saying: "Oops! Google Chrome could not find patwardhan.com." The website has Patwardhan's articles, information about his films and their trailers and his recent talk in Delhi against the Union government.
He said his two months-old speech in Delhi against the Narendra Modi-led government could have been the reason why his website was blocked.
Patwardhan alleged this was a part of a chain of similar attempts which comprised the killings of rationalist and anti-superstition crusader Dr Narendra Dabholkar and Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Govind Pansare.
Patwardhan is known for his documentary films such as 'Jai Bhim Comrade' (On the killing of Dalits in police firing at Ramabai Nagar in Ghatkopar) and 'Ram Ke Naam,' (on Hindutva assertion and the demolition of the Babri Masjid), which have earned him the ire of the Hindu right.
In 2013, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists had allegedly attacked Film and Television Institute of India students in Pune after the screening of 'Jai Bhim Comrade'. The ILS Law College in Pune had cancelled the screening of 'Ram Ke Naam' in 2014 after alleged pressure from right-wing groups.
"There are two possibilities, either it has been blocked unofficially by the government (or) on the government's orders or the Hindutvawadis (in the software sector)... have done this," Patwardhan told dna. "My films have been passed by the censors and have been given the 'U' certificate. I have been given national awards. They have no right to stop this," he added.
"If they had blocked it officially, they would have had to announce it. This has been blocked unofficially," charged Patwardhan, adding that the official route may have been bypassed as the government had no reasons to offer as justification. He also noted that a slight tinkering with the browser's settings was sufficient to bypass the block and access the website.
"There was nothing illegal on my website, my position against the government is clear, I have never hidden anything," he said. Patwardhan said that the video clips of the talk had been uploaded on the video sharing website vimeo.com, which had been blocked by the government. But the subsequent public outcry had forced the government to roll back the ban.
Patwardhan said that he had not informed the police about the alleged blocking. "Who is running the government? What is the use of telling the police?... Why should (I) go to the police. Will the police, who could not unearth who killed Dabholkar and who killed Pansare, help me?" he said.
Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Madhav Bhandari lashed out at Patwardhan, asking him to provide evidence. "Instead of making baseless allegations, he must provide the police with evidence and help them (in investigations). If he does not want to do this, then he must not indulge in false propaganda. These days... Communists and Leftists are engaged in their patent game of misinformation. For the sake of society, they must stop," he added.
A cyber expert who has worked with the state government said that there were two ways in which a website could be blocked-- by the government's instructions to the internet service provider (ISP) or when a company or government decided to ban access to a website on its own data servers.
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