Controlling movies and not drugs!

Udta Punjab is not the first film that has faced the wrath of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and the makers of the film had to move to the court of law. The difference this time is that each step by CBFC chief Pehlaj Nehlani is political in nature, has no rational basis and violates the basic constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression, with the court of the law also giving a rap on the knuckles.

The chief sounded bizarre when he said, “I’ve heard Anurag Kashyap has taken money from AAP to show Punjab in bad light”. The plot line of the film is anchored in Punjab’s widespread drug addiction. A problem that is been there, closely put under scrutiny by foreign media first and later by the media in India. The political leadership has been adopting an ostrich like approach.

CBFC wanted “Punjab” expunged from the title, removed from the movie along with other names of the cities of Punjab so that the drama could be seen as taking place anywhere in the country, not specifically in Punjab giving enough indication that CBFC was acting to the tunes of the political bosses. The perception became reality when Chief of CBFC said, Yes, I am a chamcha (acolyte) of Narendra Modi as Anurag Kashyap said. I am proud to be, a Modi Chamcha . Should I be a chamcha of the Italian Prime Minister instead? Pehlaj Nehlani seemed not only a sycophant and by making a reference to “Italian” he obviously tried taking an anti-Congress jibe just like ranks of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been indulging in.

The strong stance taken by CBFC chief was not difficult to guess. Assembly elections in Punjab are less than a year away, and the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which leads a coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party, is feeling jittery for having done nothing whatsoever to stop the drug menace and now is facing the wrath of the media and the common man for being hand in gloves with the peddlers. Some reports even cite that SAD leaders provide patronage to the whole setup of manufacturing and peddling of the drugs.

More than the movie, a greater damage has been done to the ruling party by the CBFC. An attempt by CBFC to curb the freedom of speech has only resulted in more and more Indians joining the debate, more media houses going to Punjab and carrying out investigative stories and exposing the involvement of the authorities, political parties, and ineffectiveness of the drug rehabilitation center. The case so exposed by a leading daily from Chandigarh shows that for total of 2082 cases that were registered, in most of the cases the mode operandi of the convicts was the same! Even the filling of the FRI was not realistic and a job of “cut” & “paste” was being done. None of the leads were pursued to nab the bigger kingpins.

The Bombay High Court reduced the 89 cuts as proposed by CBFC to just 1, and went on to set certain records straight by telling the CBFC what it is supposed to do as per the law. The court noted that the CBFC is not empowered by the law to censor films, as the word censor is not included in the Cinematograph Act. Censor in common parlance means to certify a movie. Therefore, if by law the board is empowered to make changes, cuts, or deletions, this power of the CBFC must be consistently in consonance with the provisions of the Constitution and the Supreme Court directions, the High Court said.

The observations by High Court should serve as a wakeup call to the political parties and the CBFC. CBFC should set its role as per that prescribed in the law, and its attempt to act on the behalf of political party shows CBFC in a bad light.

Instead of looking at the film as a step to malign Punjab’s image, the government must work on the problem on ground. By getting few scenes deleted from the film through CBFC, the government cannot downplay the problem. With media around the world talking about the drug problem in Punjab, the most important thing is the problem is acknowledged by the government, and once it has been acknowledged, the intent to solve the problem can set in. The ruling party, the CBFC should know that they need not have power over a film; they need to control the drug menace in Punjab.