I&B Ministry’s Attempt to Block Jana Nayagan Attack on Tamil Culture: Rahul
New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday alleged that the Centre’s “attempt to block” Vijay starrer ‘Jana Nayagan’ was an attack on Tamil culture and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will never succeed in “suppressing the voice of the Tamil people”.
These remarks came a day after the producer of the Tamil film Jana Nayagan approached the Supreme Court challenging the interim order of the Madras High Court, which remained a single judge order to grant CBFC clearance to the film.
On January 9, the Madras High Court set aside the single judge order directing the CBFC to immediately issue a censor certificate to Jana Nayagan, leaving the fate of Vijay’s film, noted for its political overtones, uncertain.
In a post on X, Gandhi said, “I&B Ministry’s attempt to block ‘Jana Nayagan’ is an attack on Tamil culture.” he said. “Mr Modi, you will never succeed in suppressing the voice of the Tamil people,” said the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
KVN Productions LLP has challenged the order passed by the division bench of the high court last Friday, which stayed the single bench’s directive to the board to immediately issue the certificate of the film.
Vijay recently launched his political party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK). Jana Nayagan, which was widely promoted as Vijay’s last film before entering full-blown politics, was scheduled to release on Pongal, January 9.
However, the film faced last-minute hurdles after the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) did not issue certification on time. The division bench’s order on January 9 came hours after Justice PT Asha directed the CBFC to give clearance to Jana Nayagan and set aside the film board’s directive to refer the matter to a review committee.
The first bench, comprising Chief Justices MM Shrivastava and G Arul Murugan, granted interim stay against the single judge’s order on appeal filed by CBFC.
Earlier, allowing KVN Productions’ plea seeking a direction to the CBFC to issue the censorship certificate, Justice Asha said the chairman has no authority to refer the matter to the scrutiny committee once the board decides to issue the certificate.
The film board immediately chose to appeal the decision. Additional Solicitor General ARL Sundaresan and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing via video conferencing, summarized the grounds of objection before the division bench.
There was no objection whatsoever to the CBFC’s letter dated January 6, addressed to the producer of the film, stating that the matter had been referred to the revision committee. However, the single judge set aside the letter and gave the above order.
The division bench said the petition was filed on January 6 and the CBFC was not given adequate opportunity to respond. There will be a hearing, the bench added, ordering notice to the film’s producer and posting the matter to January 21.
