Fictional defamation
A member of the Indian Congress party has filed a petition in the Madras High Court seeking a ban on the screening of the Tamil film Sivaji for “defaming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.”
In his petition, Satyamoorthy said a particular scene in the film had portrayed Gandhi and the Prime Minister in bad light. In the scene, when Rajnikanth, playing a US returned software engineer, approaches the villain Adikesavan for help in starting a free university, the latter is seen seated at a table which has a photograph of him standing between Sonia Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh. He is also portrayed as a Congressmen through his costumes in the film, he added.
According to the Congressman the photograph, shown four times in the film, gave the impression that the villain belonged to the Congress and that its leaders supported his activities of exploiting the public.
“Actor Rajnikanth, producer Saravanan and director Shankar have a common intention to attack the Congress party, which has produced great leaders like Jawaharalal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi,” he charged.
Contending that there was an attempt to lower the image of the Congress through the film, Sathyamoorthy said people could lose faith in the Congress and the government by such a portrayal.
Someone needs to explain the difference between reality and fiction to Satyamoorthy, who is doing far more to “lower the image of the Congress” and cause people to lose faith in both the party and the government than any film.
“The allegation of malafide against our party is clearly a misuse of the right to freedom of expression and other rights guaranteed in the Constitution,” he added.
No it isn’t.
Wednesday 11 Jul 2007 | Paul | India
