[IMC Bombay] Statement condemning attack on Gopal Menon

[Harsh Kapoor]

PRESS RELEASE
Date: 12 July 2003
Contact:  "K.P. Sasi" <sasi36 at rediffmail.com

CONDEMN the spread of Fascism in India

Condemn the VHP attack on filmmaker Gopal Menon and his team.

In yet another bid to suppress basic citizens’ rights as well as 
freedom of expression, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Kerala 
state police have manhandled well-known documentary filmmaker Gopal 
Menon and his team in a public function at Kozhikode on Tuesday, July 
8.

Gopal Menon, who has made several films on human rights violations in 
India including 'Hey Ram-Genocide in the Land of Gandhi' (that 
documented the post-Godhra communal carnage in the State of Gujarat) 
was trying to record the vituperative public speech of VHP chief, 
Praveen Togadia, when the VHP activists and the police manhandled him.

Gopal Menon was accompanied by Viju Verma and Mustafa Deshamangalam, 
who were also subjected to manhandling.

As soon as the team reached the spot at the Muthalakkulam Maidan in 
Kozhikode where Praveen Togadia was addressing the crowd, Gopal Menon 
was identified by the VHP activists. With the help of the state 
police, VHP activists manhandled all three and then threw them out of 
the venue. The VHP activists threatened the filmmakers and asked the 
police not to allow them again inside the maidan. The police 
threatened to arrest them if they failed to leave immediately.

The filmmakers argued that since the event was a public meeting, they 
had every right to attend and also film the function. But neither the 
organisers of the meeting nor the police paid any heed to basic 
ethics of media freedom or citizen rights.

The police force was evidently acting hand in glove with the VHP, 
giving protection to Togadia all through his Kerala tour aimed at 
fomenting communal hatred and violence. This was a clear instance of 
the official machinery of the State that is supposedly committed to 
secular principles being hijacked by a communal outfit like the VHP 
for its nefarious ends.
The attack on Gopal Menon is a sequel to concerted attempts by the 
VHP, RSS and BJP activists last year to disrupt screenings of several 
documentary films across the state and the State police to foist 
cases against the organisers of such film screenings.

The latest open tirade against the minority communities by none other 
than the Chief Minister of Kerala, Mr. A.K. Antony, amply proves that 
the State has already been hijacked by the VHP-BJP-RSS combine which 
is making a concerted bid to spread fascism in Kerala.

We feel that it's high time we stand up united to uphold basic 
citizen rights against the plans by the State as well as the fascist 
forces to divide the people on communal lines.
We feel that it's high time the socially-conscious citizens of the 
country joined hands to uphold the rights of expression of truth and 
reality against poisonous statements of communal politicians.
We condemn the efforts of the VHP and its ilk to spread violence and 
hatred that would lead to further bloodshed. Let's see to it that the 
fascist 'Gujarat experiment' is not repeated anywhere.

Signed/-

M.T. Vasudevan NairPaul Zachariah
Medha PatkarAsghar Ali Engineer
Mahesh DattaniProf. Babu MathewThomas KocheriRam PunyaniCivic 
ChandranK.E.N KunhammedMukundan C MenonThis press release is 
available at the South Asia Citizens Web:
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex/2002/PRattackonGopalMenon.html