Indian authorities have made the decision to ban the screening of BBC documentary, ‘India’s Daughter’, which was due to be broadcast on 8th March, International Women’s Day.
The documentary recounts the story of the brutal gang rape that shook the country in December 2012, when a young woman lost her life at the hands of her rapists. The BBC released information about an interview conducted with one of the rapists, who has told the filmmakers that women who go out at night have only themselves to blame if they are raped. Mukesh Singh, one of the six men who raped the 23-year-old Jyoti Singh, is quoted saying: “A girl is far more responsible for rape than a man.”
Singh’s interview with the BBC’s Leslee Udwin was conducted from Tihar Jail in New Delhi, where Singh is appealing his death sentence for the gang rape. His comments showed no remorse for what he did, but instead, he insisted that had his victim not resisted, she would not be dead.
Singh said: “When being raped, she shouldn’t fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they’d have dropped her off after ‘doing her’, and only hit the boy.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw1ycEFRUKI&list
His words sparked massive outrage within the country, as well as around the world. Many came forward to criticise the fact that not enough is being done to change the mindset of many men in the country.
Mukesh said in the interview: “A decent girl won’t roam around at 9 o’clock at night. Boys and girls are not equal. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20 per cent of girls are good.”
Mukesh Singh’s lawyers, who are defending the gang rapists in court, expressed similar views about women.
Defence barrister AP Singh said: “If my daughter or sister engaged in pre-marital activities and disgraced herself and allowed herself to lose face and character by doing such things, I would most certainly take this sort of sister or daughter to my farmhouse and, in front of my entire family, I would put petrol on her and set her alight.”
Television channels in India have now been advised not to broadcast the film and Home Minister Rajnath Singh has accused the BBC filmmakers of violating the conditions under which they had been granted permission for the interview with Mukesh.
The parliamentary affairs minister, M Venkaiah Naidu also said that they would looking into seeing whether the film can be stopped from being screened outside the country as well.
Leslee Udwin, director of the BBC documentary, has made a plea to Prime Minister Modi “to deal with this unceremonious silencing of the film” in India.
“India should be embracing this film – not blocking it with a kneejerk hysteria without even seeing it. This was an opportunity for India to continue to show the world how much has changed since this heinous crime. Sadly… the banning of the film will see India isolated in the eyes of the world. It’s a counterproductive move.”
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