Censor Board resignations: Government should show concern, says Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress today kept up its attack on the government over the mass resignations from Censor Board and said that I&B minister Arun Jaitley cannot "hide inefficiency, corruption and maladministration within his ministry through a good turn of phrase".

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi also rejected Jaitley's statement in which he described the nine members who resigned as "rebels without a cause" and termed Leela Samson, who quit as the chief of the board, a "non-functional chairperson".

Singhvi said that the minister's "good turn of phrase appears misapplied" in this case.

"If 10 people, all of them very respected in their fields, headed by a chairperson who is widely respected... say there is grave maladministration, there is grave corruption, inefficiency... I think it behoves the government and the minister to look into it, to show care and concern rather than to indulge in a quick turn of phrase or in rejection or criticism," he said.

The remarks came a day after nine Censor Board members resigned from the body in protest against what they claimed was the "cavalier and dismissive manner" in which it is treated by the government.

Before that Samson, who headed the statutory body under the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, had resigned amidst the row over the clearance for screening to controversial film 'Messenger of God', featuring Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

The nine members -- Arundhati Nag, Ira Bhaskar, Lora Prabhu, Pankaj Sharma, Rajeev Masand, Sekharbabu Kancherla, Shaji Karun, Shubhra Gupta and T G Thyagarajan -- had submitted a letter saying they were resigning from the board.

In his response yesterday, Jaitley had accused Samson and the nine Censor Board members who have quit of politicising the issue of their resignation.

He had said that "the NDA government maintains an arm's length distance in all matters relating to film certification".