 "Udta Punjab producer Anurag Kashyap looks on at a press conference organized by Indian Film and Television Directors Association (IFTDA) in Mumbai")
On Wednesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielded party leader and Skill Development Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy for its routine media briefing. Rudy tried his best to dodge questions on censorship of Hindi movie ‘Udta Punjab’, until a reporter asked in near frustration: “Whether Rudy, since he had studied at the Panjab University, believed that the state had a drug problem?”
Rudy’s reply was revealing. He conceded that he did study at the Punjab University and had a good knowledge of Punjab. “I don’t think there is any (drug) problem,” Rudy deadpanned.
In his position, Rudy couldn’t have probably said anything else. Any acceptance that there was indeed a problem would have meant putting in the dock Punjab’s Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP alliance government of more than nine years, particularly in an election year.
Any such comment might have earned him the ire of not only the SAD, but also his party’s senior leadership for maligning an ally’s reputation. Ministers in Parkash Singh Badal government who are related to his son, Deputy CM Sukhbir, have been accused of helping the drug trade. Punjab is due for elections by February 2017 and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has made the drug issue one of its major elections planks.
But a drug problem of gargantuan proportions does plague Punjab. One only needs to flip through the pages of Punjabi and Hindi newspapers published from the state to become aware of this. Newspapers daily carry dozens of advertisements from government agencies, including the police, appealing youth to say no to drugs and advertise rehabilitation clinics.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi was criticized some years ago for having stated that 70% of the youth in Punjab were drug addicts. The sources of his statistics might have been suspect but it indicated the seriousness of the problem.
In this backdrop, Pahlaj Nihalani-led Censor Board wanting as many as 89 cuts for ‘Udta Punjab’ does indicate the decision has more than merely cinematic considerations. Nihalani has even alleged that the film has been funded by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). However, this cannot, even if it were to be true, become a basis for censoring parts of a movie.
It isn’t clear whether Nihalani is acting on the advice of people in the government or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) or going beyond his brief to prove his loyalty. But Nihalani’s public statements do bring disrepute to both the government as well the chair of the Censor Board chief.
The choice of Nihalani as the Censor Board chief and of Gajendra Chauhan as the chief of the Films and Television Institute of India (FTII) also reflects the massive talent crunch which had faced Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley in deciding the heads for the two outfits. The BJP, and the larger Sangh Parivar, has few friends among the film fraternity of India and fast losing the ones that it did.
On Wednesday, filmmaker Ashoke Pandit, a long time supporter of the BJP on the issue of Kashmiri Pandits and nationalism, sat with the actors and filmmakers of 'Udta Punjab' to criticize the Censor Board.
