“India’s Daughter”: Blanket Ban An Attack On The Freedom Of Expression
By All India Democratic Women's Association
05 March, 2015
Countercurrents.org
All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) strongly opposes the blanket ban on the documentary titled “India’s Daughter” made by BBC 4. This is a knee jerk reaction that constitutes an attack on the freedom of expression. Furthermore the film reveals the reality of the brutality of rape without sensationalizing it. 'The statement made by one of the convicts in the film, is to say the least, shocking, heinous and condemnable. This is the attitude that was reflected in the crime this person and others committed and for which they have been penalized by life imprisonment. But it cannot be denied that this is the dominant patriarchal attitude on rape in our country and has been voiced at many different levels of society and even sometimes by influential people within and outside Parliament.
AIDWA further states that the correct course of action for the government is to file an FIR and take prompt action against the defence lawyers in the Nirbhaya case, Shri M.L Sharma & Shri A P Singh, for making hateful and derogatory speeches and inciting violence against women in the BBC documentary and on national television. Instead of needlessly banning films in an undemocratic fashion, the Government would do better to proactively pursue the pending case in the Supreme Court, where shockingly even such a high profile case has gone unheard even once for over a year. AIDWA also demands that the Government address structural causes for increasing violence against women and adopts policies that increase public provisioning of transport, street lighting, sanitation, employment, etc.
Malini Bhattacharya Jagmati Sangwan
(President) (General Secretary)
ALL INDIA DEMOCRATIC WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION
NO. 2253- E, SHADI KHAMPUR, NEW RANJIT NAGAR,
NEW DELHI-110008
PH: 011-25700476, 25709565
Email : [email protected]
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