Madhur Bhandarkar’s ‘Indu Sarkar’ a much controversial film, was not well received by workers and leaders associated with the Congress party. A party which is piloted by the so-called ‘benefactor of freedom of expression’. Madhur Bhandarkar wounded by the backlash his film received took to Twitter to openly pass the buck onto the Congress supremo.
Dear @RahulGandhi ji here is a compilation of the harrowing experience I had when ur party workers tried to police & control my FOE during my film #InduSarkar I was hounded at various cities to 5 star hotel to the censor board office. I requested 4 ur support but u didn’t. pic.twitter.com/1y93DgVOXm
— Madhur Bhandarkar (@imbhandarkar) July 15, 2018
Almost exactly a year ago the Congress workers continued to protest against the screening of Madhur Bhandarkar’s Indu Sarkar as the movie hit the theatres last year in July. The twist here was that, on one hand, all the so-called elite members of the party were harping that the party was not against the release of the movie, and reiterating their most treasured jargon of respecting ones “freedom of expression”, while on the other, hand the party workers were all out protesting against the movie.
Madhur here recollects the harrowing experience he had when he was hounded by the Congress workers, and how the party supremo, Rahul Gandhi, did what he is best at, staying mute at the time when he’s supposed to post reactions, at times when this ‘freedom of expression’, which he proudly endorses, is being muffled and murdered by his own workers and leaders under bright daylight.
In the video, Madhur attached with his tweet, it can be clearly seen how the Congress workers are protesting against Madhur Bhandarkar, burning his effigy, shouting slogans of ‘Madhur Bhandarkar murdabad’ and hailing Indira Gandhi and the Congress.
Earlier too, Opindia had reported how the Congress hooligans had disrupted the screening of Madhur Bhandarkar’s ‘Indu Sarkar’ in various cities. The hollow talks of freedom of expression by these elite Congress leaders appeared to have no effect on their fellow Congress leaders and workers.
The film Indu Sarkar was a fiction based on the 19-month long Emergency imposed by former Prime Minister and Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother Indira Gandhi in 1970s. Despite Bhandarkar’s assurances that the film was not a biopic on Gandhi’s life, Congress workers and leaders came down heavily on him. Outraged by this, Madhur Bhandarkar had then taken on Twitter to call out Rahul Gandhi’s hypocrisy.
Talking about Rahul Gandhi and the stance he takes on ‘freedom of expression’, frequently twisting it how it suits him and his party, scientist and columnist Anand Ranganathan, who had earlier called out Shashi Tharoor and Congress’ hypocritical stand on freedom of expression, again took to Twitter to remind Congress President the number of times he stayed silent when freedom of expression was suppressed and murdered after he became politically active.
This was when recently, miffed at the portrayal of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the Netflix series ‘Sacred Games’ as ‘fattu’ (coward), a Congress leader from Kolkata filed a complaint against the makers of the show. Rahul Gandhi, who had previously lent his support to the JNU students calling for breaking up the country, again came out in support of freedom of expression for Sacred Games. Congress President came out in support of the online series and said it is the BJP and the RSS which believes that the freedom of expression must be policed and controlled, but he ( the Congress supremo) himself believes freedom of expression is a fundamental democratic right (only when he, once in a while chooses to come out of his slumber and comment).
