Shiv Sena's U-turn on censorship raises eyebrows

Ambarish Mishra / TNN / Jun 20, 2004, 01:11 IST

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MUMBAI: Shiv Sena leader Raj Thackeray wants the intelligentsia, the media and political parties to start a dialogue on the broad theme of creative freedom.

Shiv Sena's U-turn on censorship raises eyebrows

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">MUMBAI: Shiv Sena leader Raj Thackeray wants the intelligentsia, the media and political parties to start a dialogue on the broad theme of creative freedom. "Often, a book or a film clashes with our societal values.Agreed that political parties should not act as cultural sergeants, but artistes and writers too should learn to exercise their creative freedom with responsibility and sensitivity," he said. Thackeray said that in a country which has as many problems as India, you can''t rush ordinary citizens into raising their levels of aesthetic understanding. "Don''t forget that section of the media had backed Rajiv Gandhi''s ban on Satanic Verses''," he said. "I am an artiste myself. How can I endorse parallel censorship?" asked the noted cartoonist. Thackeray, who heads the Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena BVS), the Sena''s student wing, described the latest BVS crackdown on ''Girlfriend'' as "a spontaneous outburst of anger" which did not have party sanction. BVS activists had no plans to go on the rampage at Premiere, a cinema hall in Dadar which screened the controversial flick, he said. "We don''t want to exhibit violence to silence a writer or an artiste," said Thackeray. Is the Sena changing its stripes? Is the party eager to eschew its policy of parallel censorship which dates back to the 1960s? The change in the BVS''s policy seems recent. In December last year, Raj Thackeray chided his followers in Pune for attacking Sanskrit scholar Shrikant Bahulkar, whose treatise on Chhatrapati Shivaji was in the eye of a storm. Thackeray personally visited the scholar to apologise. Cultural policing has been the Sena''s brand equity. In February-March 1968, when the Sena''s anti-South Indian stir was at its peak, Sainiks forcibly stopped the screening of Chennai-made Hindi films such as ''Aadmi'' and ''Do Kaliyaan''. This was in retaliation to the DMK''s ban on Hindi films made in Mumbai, say party veterans. Mani Ratnam''s ''Bombay'', ''Ek Chhoti Si Love Story'' and Vijay Tendulkar''s controversial plays ''Ghasiram Kotwal'' and ''Sakharam Binder'' also featured on the Sena''s hit-list. Surprisingly, prominent filmmakers and playwrights found nothing wrong in arranging for a special show of the controversial work for Sena chief BalThackeray whose intervention was meant to "resolve" the matter. The Thackerays have an excellent equation with filmdom and the world of arts and theatre.</div> </div>

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