Samson's remark draws flak

Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairperson Leela Samson’s self-inflicting remark that “90 per cent of (the members) are uneducated and an embarrassment to us” has dragged the board into a plot that is certainly not cinematic.

Taking offence to the chairperson’s critical view, CBFC member Aseem Kaistha has hit back asking Samson to relinquish the post and offer a “public apology” to “partially correct the damage she has caused to the moral fibre of the 1000-member-strong Board”.

“Such behaviour is quite unbecoming of the post she carries. Leela Samson had never been known for transparency or clean administration. Before coming to the CBFC, she was president of Kalakshetra, from which post she was removed for reasons not fully known. But there had been newspaper reports that there had been a CAG report regarding gross financial irregularities in Kalakshetra during her tenure,” Kaistha stated.

Kaistha, Former general secretary of the Youth Congress, asked from where Samson got the curious figure of 90 per cent. “And what is her measure of illiteracy,” she asked.
Deccan Herald had reported Samson’s lament: “There are, no doubt, a few educated among them (board members) in every region, but 90 per cent of them are uneducated and an embarrassment to us. They cannot read nor write, cannot sign their names on the forms, leave alone read the script of the film they are watching or understand the responsibility that this empanelment entails.”

The Board chairperson’s letter containing critical comment about her own colleagues was a reply to a group of Mumbai-residents, who had complained to the CBFC on double entendre used in the Hindi film “Grand Masti” .