An All India protest screening in support of Nakul Singh Sahni's documentary 'Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai 'is being organized in Delhi on August 25, 2015 at 5 pm at Gandhi Peace Foundation, 221-23 Deen Dayal Upadhayay Marg, New Delhi -110002.
Please reach in good numbers, spread the news and defeat the fascist forces.
The nearest Metro station for GPF is ITO on Badarpur –ITO metro line (Violet line).
For more detail please check our facebook page Cinema of Resistance.
In solidarity,
Sanjay Joshi
National Convener, Cinema of Resistance
9811577426, [email protected]
Kasturi
Convener, Kolkata, Cinema of Resistance
9163736863, [email protected]
Countrywide Protest Screenings in solidarity with voices of truth from Muzaffarnagar and Nakul Singh Sawhney's film 'Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai..'
On August 1st 2015 members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad exhibiting habitual hooliganism forcefully stopped the screening of Nakul Singh Sawhney-directed documentary, ‘Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai..’ at Delhi's Kirori Mal College. Videos witnessing this incidence of violent disruption of the screening can be seen in Facebook, Twitter and other social media.
‘Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai…’ is a documentary film that quite courageously reveals the conspiracy of the ruling class political parties which deliberated communal massacres to grab political power by-hook-or-by-crook, in their opportunist alliance with the new lumpen capitalist and feudal forces in the society during August-September 2013 in Uttar Pradesh. This documentary is significant in the times when the media, co-opted by the crony capitalist corporate forces, has turned into a fabrication machine than being the fourth pillar of democracy supposed to project truth and reality.
Narendra Dabholkar, veteran activist who fought vigorously against superstitions was brutally murdered in 2013. Artists of Kabir Kala Manch were put behind bars because their songs were considered seditious! In 2015, comrade Govind Pansare who ferociously blew away communal iconization of Shivaji, was assassinated in the daylight. Teesta Setalwad and Sanjeev Bhatt are continuously being framed and cornered by the state machinery. The same city of Pune where the innocent Mohsin Sheikh was lynched for wearing markers of his faith, also witnessed disruptions during the screening of documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan’s iconic film, ‘Ram ke Nam’. While the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle faced a ban at IIT Madras; Tamil writer Murugan had to declare the ‘writer’ in him ‘dead’ under fascist pressures. Without any evidence an intellectual and teacher like G. N. Saibaba was incarcerated in Nagpur jail in precarious health conditions. FTII students struggling for their democratic rights were arrested at midnight and every force is used to try and crush their movement. Debaranjan Sarangi, a filmmaker and human rights activist from Odisha was framed with false charges. And on the other side killers associated with the Ranveer Sena and Bajrang Dal - who boasted of massacres on camera - were let go scot-free and let out on bail respectively. What do all these country-wide incidences suggest?
It appears that there has been a torrent of such incidences as mentioned above. Many a time we don’t even get the information of prevalence of such repressions in different corners in India. It is possible to bring them in light only by building strong and united resistance against these dark times. This is precisely the reason why Cinema of Resistance does not look at incidence of muting 'Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai..' at Kirori Mal as an isolated incidence, rather it is observed as a dangerously fascist tendency that strangles the democratic spirit. Strong, committed resistance even by putting our lives at stake is the only possible mechanism to impede this trend. We take immense pleasure to share with you that this appeal of ours to respond by arranging countrywide protest screenings was welcomed from various corners of the country and till this date we are informed that this protest will be organized in 22 states, 50 cities/towns and with more than 60 screenings.
We appeal to all progressive and democratic spirited citizens, artists, and intellectuals, to expose fascist forces in this country by joining hands in this campaign of protest-screening of Nakul Singh Sawhney’s film ‘Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai…’ on August 25th, 2015.
