9 Censor Board members quit with Leela Samson

mangaloretoday.com

New Delhi, Jan 17: After Censor Board chief Leela Samson, nine more members of Censor Board resigned on Saturday amid a row over controversial film Messenger of God featuring Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

Arundhati Nag, Ira Bhaskar, Lora Prabhu, Pankaj Sharma, Rajeev Masand, Sekharbabu Kancherla, Shaji Karun, Shubhra Gupta and TG Thyagarajan have sent a joint resignation letter to Minister of State in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry Rajyavardhan Rathore.

In their resignation letter, written to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, the members say, "It is our firm position that given the cavalier and dismissive manner in which the CBFC is treated by the government, it is impossible to perform this duty with even a modicum of efficacy or autonomy.

 

We also object to the way in which the chairperson has been treated by the ministry which we feel has been humiliating for us all. This is not the way in which the head of an organisation ought to be treated, and it is certainly not one that is conducive to any productive relationship."

"The events that led to the chairperson Ms Leela Samson resigning from her position are merely the proverbial last straw. Since the time that we first occupied seats on the Board, we have been asking for some critical changes, which are imperative if the functioning of the CBFC has to be reformed. However, in spite of sending numerous recommendations and appeals, and having several meetings with the Secretaries and senior officials of the ministry, and even one with an earlier minister, not a single positive step has been taken by the ministry," they wrote in the letter.

Earlier, Censor Board chief Leela Samson resigned amidst reports that controversial film Messenger of God featuring Dera Sacha Sauda leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in lead role has been cleared by Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT). 

Samson had triggered a controversy after she levelled allegations of coercion and interference by the ministry and said she had decided to quit the censor board.

Her resignation came in the wake of FCAT clearing Ram Rahim Singh’s movie for release even though the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) had withheld it.

 

Arun Jaitley hits back at Censor Board members who resigned, calls them ’rebels without a cause’


In a scathing reply to members of the Censor Board who resigned citing non-functioning of the board including absence of regular meetings, Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley said it was not the duty of his ministry to convene meetings and they themselves are to be blamed for the present crisis.

"The charge that meetings of the censor board are not being held is a self-condemnation. The meetings are to be convened not by the minister or the secretary but by the chairperson. If the meetings are not being convened, it is for those responsible for non-functioning who must blame themselves," he said in a Facebook post on Saturday after 10 members of the Central Board of Film Certification , including chief Leela Samson , resigned alleging government’s interference in the board’s working and over the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal okaying the film Messenger of God despite objections from the board.

Jaitley termed the former members as "rebels without a cause".

"Along with my colleague Shri Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, I look after the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. At no point either of us have communicated with any member of the censor board or desired that any bureaucrat to do the same. If there is any corruption, the UPA appointees have themselves to blame. I only wished that the fact of corruption had been communicated even once by the Chairperson of the Censor Board to me," Jaitley, who is also the Finance Minister, said.