Ban on film is wrong, lift it

The popular response to the airing of the BBC-produced documentary India’s Daughter is the best evidence that the ban imposed on it by the government through a court order was wrong in principle and substance.

The BBC has telecast it, though not in India, but it has been widely seen in the country on YouTube and elsewhere. Most of those who saw it have felt that it makes a sensitive portrayal of gender violence in India focussing on the 2012 Delhi rape case.

The Delhi police had claimed that it would create a law and order problem. It did not. The government had said it would show the country in a poor light. It is the ban that has actually shown the country in a poor light. There is nothing in the documentary that justifies the punitive action against it.

Even the father of the victim of the horrendous gang rape, has asked: “What is wrong in showing a mirror to society? Banning the documentary is not the solution to the problem of violence against women in everyday lives’’. 

The filmmaker Leslee Udwin interviewed one of the convicts, Mukesh Singh, who is seen as completely unrepentant and blaming the victim for the rape, and also his lawyers, who are seen supporting him.

There is no glorification of the criminal. His views actually come out as all the more repugnant in the overall context of the film, which takes a bigger view and probes the society which breeds such criminals. It exposes the still prevalent retrograde patriarchal mindset which is often expressed by politicians, police and other authorities and even judges.

This is the attitude that is at the source of crimes against women and the film exposes it. It is this expose that has touched a raw nerve and led the government to ban it. But it is by confronting this demon in the mind that the society can deal with it, not by running away from it, shooting the messenger and pretending not to listen to the message. 

The ban is not just unnecessary and unjustified but is offending and undemocratic. It goes against the people’s right to know and the right to expression in a free society. The government should have actually supported the BBC’s programme. It should realise its folly now and take steps to lift the ban.

It should allow the film to be aired by all channels in the country in public interest. That will create awareness about the need to fight crimes against women first in the minds of people, before it is fought on the streets and in offices and homes. It is best that we address the issue of crimes against women openly.

There is nothing wrong in even naming the victim, as in the documentary. There should not be a cover-up, and the law should even be amended for this purpose.