Film on Indira: Cong warns of legal action

NEW DELHI: The interest of biographers and filmmakers in the Gandhi family, which climaxed with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's renouncing of the PM's post after the 2004 victory, is refusing to end.
And there is a long queue of those claiming to give an "authorised" version of one family member or the other. AICC has had to flex the legal muscles again to deter a filmmaker who had announced a plan to make a film on Indira Gandhi.
This week, the party had to slap a legal notice to stop Krishna Shah of Movie Moghuls from announcing the film earlier this week. Shah had written to AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi about the film and was to announce the project in a press conference in the capital on March 12.
The notice, settled by AICC spokesperson and lawyer Abhishek Singhvi, contended that Shah had not obtained any consent from the family or Congress, and the proposed film would not be able to correctly portray the former party president and PM.
The scathing notice observed, "It is apparent that you are deliberately misconstruing and misinterpreting the factual matrix and trying to exploit the brief interactions with Rahul Gandhi through common acquaintances."
Threatening strong action if he went ahead with his project, the notice said, "I put you on notice that my client
shall strain every sinew and every resource to punish you with exemplary punishment, both criminal and civil, and shall pursue you relentlessly should you continue with your proposed press conference and venture."
The party also got Singhvi to send legal notices to some "Hindutva websites" to remove obscene statements about members of the Nehru-Gandhi family ��� from Jawaharlal Nehru and Feroz Gandhi to Rahul Gandhi.