'Shocked, dismayed': Activists slam Kerala Govt for accepting Centre’s ban on movies
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New Delhi: Public intellectuals including documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, activist Anand Teltumbde and journalist Josy Joseph came down heavily on Kerala government for accepting the Centre’s banning of six movies from the International Film Festival of Kerala’s roster, The Wire reported.
Earlier, the Pinarayi administration announced that it would screen all the banned movies defying the Centre’s initial censoring of 19 movies.
In a statement the intellectuals said that ‘Intolerance and censorship has been the hallmark of Modi rule’, adding ‘When the BJP-led central government of India refused permission to the CPM-led Kerala government’s international film festival to screen 19 films, which included Battleship Potemkin and several Palestinian films, [it] was no surprise.’
Later, the Centre allowed 13 of the 19 movies thus the Kerala government accepted the ban on remaining six.
‘Those of us who have always opposed censorship at film festivals welcomed this defiance against a centrally imposed political and artistic diktat…What shocked and dismayed us is that the Kerala government backtracked its defiance by agreeing to this ban on 6 films,’ the statement said.
Adding further the public intellectual said: ‘We the undersigned condemn this act of censorship by the Central government and the capitulation by the Kerala government. Apart from the issue of censorship, we appeal to the conscience of all Indians who stand up against genocide and genocide deniers’.
Alongside expressing shock and dismay at the Kerala government’s backtracking, they termed Resul Pookutty’s statement ‘shocking’.
The Oscar-winning artistic director of the Kerala festival openly and vehemently supported the ban while talking to the reporters.