Samson & Co. rebels without a cause: Jaitley

NEW DELHI: Union minister for information and broadcasting Arun Jaitley has called former Censor Board chief Leela Samson “a non-functional chairperson” and described other members quitting their posts as “rebels without a cause” even as the tally of such resignations reached 13 on Saturday.
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“The UPA government had politicized the Censor Board...It is regrettable that the UPA appointees have decided to politicize routine issue… 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,” Jaitley posted on his Facebook page with the headline, ‘Rebels without a cause’.
The overall tally of board members who have submitted their resignations reached 13 after nine members wrote a letter to I&B ministry submitting their resignations. The letter accuses the government of appointing people of questionable credentials in the advisory panel and starving the board of funds.
The members are: academic Ira Bhaskar, AICC secretary (Hindi dept) Pankaj Sharma, film TV journo Rajeev Masand, Lora Prabhu, Mamang Dai, Sekharbabu Kancherla, filmmaker Shaji Karun, film critic Shubhra Gupta and T G Thyagarajan.
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Film writer Anjum Rajabali confirmed that he had resigned back in June 2014. Theatre personality M K Raina too had resigned last year though he received a membership renewal card a few days ago. Sources said actor Arundhati Nag and TV producer Nikhil Alva have also tendered their resignations. In all, 13 out 23 member censor board have put in their papers. The term of all the members had expired in May 2014, and they were being given extensions by months from time to time.

Leela Samson. (TOI file photo by A Prathap)
The letter says that the events leading to the resignation of Samson were “merely the proverbial last straw.” It alleges that “in spite of sending numerous recommendations and appeals, and having several meetings with the secretaries and senior officials of the ministry, and even one with an earlier minister, not a single positive step has been taken by the ministry.” Samson, a reputed Bharatnatyam dancer, was made the chairperson of the Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC) in 2011.
“We had also sent a letter to the then I&B Minister in December 2013 making several recommendations that would strengthen CBFC as an institution …None of the recommendations that we made in that letter have been taken on board, and there has been no engagement with us on crucial issues that we were raising,” the letter says.
“The Advisory Panel continues to be filled up with people of questionable credentials appointed directly by the ministry, without taking the board’s recommendations into account. No funds have been released for conducting orientation workshops for the panel members. Officers from other departments, who have no understanding or experience in cinema are appointed as officials,” it says.
“Furthermore, there are several positions in the regional offices that do not have regular appointments. There has been no Board meeting for the last one year for us to discuss developments and make recommendations, as we were told that there are no funds to organize it! It seems that the CBFC Board is not required at all,” the letter says.
Replying to the allegations, minister of state for I&B ministry, Rajyavardhan Rathore said the original letter sent by the members is dated December 2013 and had been addressed to the previous UPA minister. Ironically the CBFC members did not resign during the entire UPA term. It does not grace them to raise these issues when we are in the process of reconstituting the Board. We are also working on the recommendations of the Mudgal committee report.”
Raina had an interesting view on the subject. “It is not UPA vs BJP. The real question is: is bureaucracy killing the Censor Board?” he asked.