[Reader-list] DD-1 to telecast Anand Patwardhan

[Moslem Ali Quraishy]

Finally !
DD-1 to  telecast Anand Patwardhan's
"Father, Son and Holy  War" on this Sunday, October  8th at 10 a.m. (All
India     \
telecast)


 At 10 am on Sunday morning, October 8, 2006 an 11 year old battle will    
 \
finally come to an end. Anand Patwardhan's 1995 documentary "Father, Son
and      \
Holy War" on the connection between communal violence and the male psyche 
had     \
won two National and several international awards. But when he submitted it
     \
for telecast, Doordarshan rejected it. Patwardhan took the matter to the
Bombay     \
 High Court and  in 2001 the court ordered DD to telecast the film but DD  
   \
chose to appeal the matter in the Supreme Court. The SC asked DD to review
the      \
film. DD's own preview panel approved the telecast but Prasar Bharati, then
     \
dominated by BJP appointees, stepped in and rejected the film. Patwardhan
moved     \
 the High Court again and won a fresh order to telecast in 2004. Prasar
Bharati     \
 once again went to the Supreme Court in appeal. Finally on 25 August 2006 
    \
Justice Lakshmanan and Justice Panta of the Supreme Court upheld  the High 
   \
Court order to telecast the film without cuts within 8
 weeks of  the judgement.

Noting that several times in the past DD had  rejected Patwardhan's     \
documentaries until the judiciary forced them to be  telecast, the
Honourable     \
Justices went so far as to pass strictures  against DD and Prasar Bharati  
  \
reprimanding the broadcaster for finding  "flimsy excuses" time and again
not     \
to telecast Patwardhan's films.
When asked what DD found so hard to swallow in his films, Patwardhan  said:
"When a government and its bureaucrats become averse to the  slightest sign
of     \
criticism, it signals a lack of self-confidence. America today  is passing 
   \
through a similar phase and resorting to outright censorship to cover  up
its     \
war crimes in Iraq. In India the BJP openly stifled the secular voice 
while     \
the Congress merely gave it lip service. Luckily for people like me the 
Indian     \
Constitution has proven to be much more robust. It is this that gives us 
some     \
hope for the preservation of our secular democracy."

Patwardhan  thanked his lawyers P.A.Sebastian, Prashant Bhushan and Nitya  
  \
Ramakrishnan for  consistently taking up the cause of civil liberties and
human     \
rights and  expressed the hope that Prasar Bharati would no longer force
people     \
like him to  go to court.
"Father, Son and Holy War" is a two hour documentary that  was shot from
the     \
mid 80's to the mid 90's and covers a wide spectrum of events,  from the
Sati     \
in Deorala in 1987 to the Bombay riots and subsequent bomb blasts  in     \
1992-1993. It is a critique of the male bias that permeates the dominant   
  \
religions of the world, with specific reference to Hinduism and Islam in
India,     \
 and a critique of ruthless politicians who use the communal divide to
further      \
their own ends.

In 2004 the film was included by Dox Magazine  (Europe) amongst the 50     \
memorable documentaries in world cinema. Information on  this film and
other     \
works by Anand is available from the website www.patwardhan.com

Thanking  You
Regards

Shashi Mehta (09819188806), Simantini Dhuru  (09820528030)

Contact for Anand Patwardhan (09819882244) anandpat at gmail.com      \
www.patwardhan.com