BJP set on collision course with EC
over Kargil documentaries
Josy Joseph in New Delhi
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led caretaker government at the Centre is set on a collision course with the Election Commission over its order banning the screening of documentaries relating to the Kargil conflict on Doordarshan and in cinema halls across the country until the poll process is over.
Highly places sources told rediff.com that the government is "seriously debating" a move to go ahead with the screening of Jawan Tujhe Salaam, produced by the Films Division.
This documentary was to be screened at cinema halls all over the country as a tribute to the soldiers who fought in Kargil.
Sometime back it was screened on Doordarshan. It contains several shots showing Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Defence Minister George Fernandes mingling with jawans in the scenic Kargil mountains.
Meanwhile, fearing that the proposal to go ahead with the screening may draw the army into an unsavoury controversy, senior officers claimed they had nothing to do with the making of the documentary. "It was not made with our co-operation, and we have nothing to do with it," a senior army officer emphasised.
A senior official of the Films Division, however, told rediff.com that footage for the documentary was recorded by a crew from its Bombay office who had accompanied journalists to Kargil and was escorted by the army, thus implying the latter's tacit permission.
The documentary features songs rendered by Asha Bhonsale and Mahendra Kapoor.
If Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan finally decides to release the documentary against the commission's order, it could well be the most serious confrontation yet between the EC and the ruling front. Ever since the notification of the polls, the commission has objected to several decisions of the caretaker government.
In fact, Prime Minister Vajpayee addressing a press conference in Trivandrum today said some of the curbs on electioneering imposed by the EC had created problems for his party. He, however, hastened to add that he would not like to say the commission on the whole was hostile.
On August 19, the information and broadcasting ministry had decided to release the documentary the next day to various cinema halls citing the Supreme Court direction to "all theatres to compulsorily screen Films Division documentaries and news reels in keeping with the relevant provisions of the Cinematography Act, 1952".
But in the afternoon of August 19 itself, the EC ordered that the documentary should not be screened till the evening of October 3.
The EC felt that the screening of the film would not be in ''consonance with the code of conduct at this juncture" as Kargil is a "major issue in political debate at the moment".
Reacting to this, BJP spokesman Arun Jaitley said on Friday that the commission "does not have the right to decide what is the subject to be discussed in an election".
Jaitley asserted that the EC "should not become an ombudsman of political ideologies" and added that it has "slightly overstepped its jurisdiction".
The spokesman said the situation cannot be such that the BJP's opponents are allowed to raise ''[the issue] of Kargil and we are not allowed to reply".
He said the EC order was addressed to the government and it was up to the government to respond.
The EC in its order called on political parties and candidates not to "comment on and criticise" the Kargil conflict since that would impinge on the reputation for neutrality of the Indian armed forces. The commission had specifically pointed out to the defence ministry that it should keep in mind the fact that Minister Fernandes is a major political figure and a likely candidate in the Lok Sabha election.
The commission appealed to all political parties to "maintain the well-known high standards of the fairness of Indian elections".
"Now that the President and prime minister have paid tribute to the jawans and given recognition in the shape of gallantry awards, in our long-established democracy, it is necessary that the defence forces step back out of the limelight and allow the political system of India to argue it out before their masters -- the people," the commission said.
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