Mumbai: India is cutting "a very sorry figure" with open threats being made to artistes and people being attacked for voicing their opinions, Bombay High Court said on Thursday while referring to the film Padmavati and recent murders of rationalists.
A division bench cited the death threats faced by an actress (Deepika Padukone) over the film, which is alleged to have hurt Rajput sentiments, and director Sanjay Leela Bhansali's struggles to have the movie released.
It also pulled up the CBI and the Maharashtra CID, which are probing the murders of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar (in 2013) and Govind Pansare (in 2015), respectively, for their failure to make arrests.
"In this country, we have come to a situation where people cannot voice their opinions. Every time a person says he or she wants to voice their opinion, somebody or a fringe group says they would not allow it," the bench of Justices S.C. Dharmadhikari and Bharti Dangre said while hearing petitions moved by the Dabholkar and Pansare families seeking court supervision of the murder investigations.
"In which other country do you see threats given to artistes and performers? It is distressing to know that a person makes a feature film --- and several people work tirelessly towards it --- but is not able to release the film because of continued threats. What have we come to?"
Justice Dharmadhikari added: "Today, somebody says I will give a reward to anyone who kills an actress. Such open threats! People are taking pride in saying we will give reward to those who will kill an actress. And even chief ministers are saying they will not allow the release of the movie in their states."
A Haryana BJP politician has been quoted as offered a reward for beheading Deepika and a group claiming to represent Rajputs has threatened to chop off her nose and kill Bhansali.
The BJP chief ministers of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have promised to ban the movie in their states while Uttar Pradesh head of government Yogi Adityanath has advocated cuts and Bihar's Nitish Kumar sought a clarification from the filmmakers.
All this prompted the Supreme Court last week to ask "persons holding public office" not to comment on matters pending before the Central Board of Film Certification.
"What concerns us is India's image and reputation as a democratic country. We are the largest democracy. We cannot take pride in the happenings of such incidents day in and day out. We are cutting a very sorry figure," Justice Dharmadhikari said.
"Maharashtra and Karnataka are known for social reformers and thinkers, and with such incidents these states are cutting a sorry figure politically too."
Rationalist M.M. Kalburgi was murdered in Karnataka in 2015 and journalist Gauri Lankesh, a Sangh parivar critic, this year.
The court added that when such incidents occur in other countries, the suspects are caught, dead or alive, within hours.
"We cannot allow such serious matters to linger for years.... Has any senior official from the two agencies bothered to find out why the probe is not making any headway?" it asked.
"Hence, we feel that it is time to call upon the CBI and the CID to involve their superiors. If the senior officials do not wish to be summoned to court, they should meet with the counsels appearing in court and take stock of the situation."
The court directed a meeting among the Maharashtra home secretary, state police chief, CBI joint director, additional solicitor-general Anil Singh and counsel Ashok Mundargi, who appeared for the CID. It posted the next hearing to December 21. PTI
