Memorandum submitted to the Union Home Minister protesting attack on Dilip Kumar’s house in Mumba
iMore than 200 artists and intellectuals, and representatives from about 30 organizations and political parties staged a dharna with placards and candles at the Home Minister L.K. Advani’s house, and submitted the following memorandum. The attack on Dilip Kumar’s residence in Mumbai is an affront to all civilized norms and a grievous blow to all creative freedoms. After having subverted the autonomy of the process of film certification, the Shiv Sena and its political allies have now assaulted an individual’s right to seek judicial redress. That the individual concerned has been awarded the nation’s highest honour for his contributions to film is now deemed unfit to intervene in a matter concerning the integrity of his craft makes it clear that the perpetrators have acted in deliberate malice. The Shiv Sena hooligans have also threatened to carry out similar intimidation through demonstrations at the residences of the co-petitioners Mahesh Bhatt and Javed Akhtar. Even the Supreme Court was denigrated through slogan-shouting. The guardians of the law have either repeatedly been in default of their fundamental duties, or connived in the assault on creative freedoms and civil liberties. |
We condemn the attack on one of our most respected film personalities which comes as part of a cycle of violence unleashed by the new moral police. We demand that the authorities desist from encouraging them and investigate the violence in word and deed. The license for hooliganism that this regime has provided to its favoured few should be immediately revoked, and cultural activity in all its dimensions should be given an assurance of the security that is its due. Signed, among others by: |