FILE: Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley (Press Trust of India photo)
As nine more members of the Censor Board resigned protesting against alleged interference by the government, Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Arun Jaitley today firmly rejected the charges, saying the "NDA government maintains an arm's length distance" from the functioning of the panel.
"It is regrettable that the UPA appointees have decided to politicise routine issues," Mr Jaitley said in an article titled 'Rebels Without a Cause' posted on Facebook. The minister, who also holds the Finance portfolio, was alluding to Censor Board Chairperson Leela Samson and nine other members - appointed during the previous Congress-led government - who resigned amid a major row over clearance for the controversial film "
MSG - The Messenger of God", starring Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the chief of the religious sect Dera
Sacha Sauda.
Ms Samson had protested that the film was cleared for release despite the board finding it "not suitable for public viewing." She also alleged "coercion, corruption and interference" in the functioning of the Board, a statutory body under the I&B ministry. Her colleagues resigned, accusing the government of treating the Board in a "cavalier and dismissive manner".
"If there is any corruption, the UPA appointees have themselves to blame. I only wished that the fact of corruption had been communicated even once by the Chairperson of the Censor Board to me. The non-functional Chairperson never did so," Mr Jaitley said today, adding that her "charge that meetings of the Censor Board are not being held is a Self Condemnation".
Ms Samson had told NDTV that she "managed an organisation whose board didn't meet for nine months as there were no funds". But Mr Jaitley countered that charge saying "funds for the Censor Board have been returned to the Ministry as unspent by the Board."
Accusing the Congress of politicising the issue, the minister said that in 2004, the UPA government had dismissed the then Censor Board headed by eminent actor Anupam Kher merely on the ground that he had been appointed by the earlier government.
"The UPA government had politicised the Censor Board... We did not wish to do that," he said.