By saying Padmavati filmmaker is as wrong as those wanting to behead him, Adityanath echoes BJP's disregard for law
Threats of beheading, mutilation and violence over something as benign as Padmavati, a film based on a fictional work of poetry exemplify the direction in which India is headed. That the supposed vulgar depiction of a fictional cultural icon can rattle the Hindutva cause and cause members of the ruling party to issue death threats to a filmmaker and actors, is indicative of the deeply troubling times we are living in.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film Padmavati — written in the backdrop of a historical war and based on “Padmavat”, an epic poem penned by the 16th century Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi — has seen more than its fair share of controversy.
Earlier in 2017, when it was still being shot, the film’s sets were vandalised and Bhansali assaulted by the right-wing Hindu group Rajput Karni Sena.
More recently, the film has been witness to more drama than the silver screen can pack: a delay in its release, members of the ruling party (BJP) condemning its very idea without having watched the film, overenthusiastic Hindu fundamentalists threatening to mutilate the leading actress Deepika Padukone's body in a supposed tit-for-tat — they want to chop her nose off, just like Lakshman did to Surpanakha in Ramayana — and even a couple of bounties.
While Thakur Abhishek Som, the national president of Akhil Bharatiya Kshatriya Yuva Mahasabha, announced a bounty of Rs 5 crore on the heads of Bhansali and Deepika Padukone for "wrongfully portraying" queen Padmini, the Haryana BJP media spokesperson – Suraj Pal Amu – has offered to pay Rs 10 crore to anyone who "beheads" Padukone and Bhansali.
The BJP blessing
While some have found it easy to dismiss the threats of violence, criminal intimidation, acts of assault and vandalism as the handiwork of extreme-right fringe elements, downplaying the severity of the problem itself, one can't help but ignore how BJP seniors have reacted to it.
Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje wrote to the information and broadcasting ministry urging that Padmavati must not be released without including the changes demanded by various protesting groups. She also added: “The Constitution also provides that fundamental rights be controlled, on the basis of reason, in case of law and order (situation), morality, and when sentiments of citizens are hurt.”
Note that this is the chief minister speaking of suppressing the fundamental rights of citizens for assuaging the whims of pressure groups who threaten to resort to violence.
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's response to the controversy has been no better. Speaking to a delegation of Rajput leaders, he said the film distorted facts. “The insult will not be tolerated,” he proclaimed, adding that the film would not be screened in his state even if it received a CBFC certificate.
What is to be noted here is that a chief minister chooses to ignore his own party members who are indulging in criminal intimidation, and attempts to appease the Hindu votebank in his state.
It is also worth noting that while Thakur Abhishek Som, who had announced a reward of Rs 5 crore bounty on Bhansali and Padukone’s heads, has been arrested by Meerut police and booked under section 115 (abetment of offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life) and section 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the IPC, the Haryana BJP did no more than serving a show cause notice to its chief media coordinator Suraj Pal Amu seeking explanation for his statement about beheading Bhansali and Padukone.
And even as a man from Gurgaon filed an FIR against him on November 21, for the bounty he offered, an unfazed Amu said: “The youth and warrior caste of this country have the strength to set every cinema on fire".
Perhaps the most appalling of reactions came from Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. The CM speaking to CNN-News 18, said that the ban on Padmavati would continue in UP. He also added that if “those seeking head of Bhansali are wrong, then Bhansali is also wrong”.
The UP chief minister seems to have no qualms about conflating one’s freedom to express through art with violence and wilful intimidation. By falsely equating a filmmaker’s creative freedom to that of a Hindu extremist demanding the death (by mutilation) of the said filmmaker, Adityanath has set a disturbing precedent that flies in the face of logic.
These bursts of intolerance not only provide a good distraction from multiple issues plaguing the ruling party in its third year, but also serve the purpose of solidifying their ideological stance – one that has Hindutva at its core.
In this instance, the BJP’s message is loud and clear: Speak our language, recite our history and toe the line. Otherwise there is hell to pay.