The BBC show, which was due to be aired on Mar. 8, contains a new interview in which one of the convicted attackers says women “should just be silent and allow the rape.”
India has banned a documentary on the fatal gang-rape of a student in Delhi in 2012, an attack which sparked a huge and ongoing debate about women’s rights in the world’s biggest democracy. Officials made the announcement on Wednesday.
Women protest against alleged police negligence in investigating the rape in January. AP / Tsering Topgyal
Home affairs minister Rajnath Singh said the BBC show was banned partly because it featured an interview with one of the five people convicted of the attack, who made “highly derogatory” comments about women.
Rajnath Singh talks to journalists after leaving parliament on Monday Mohd Zakir/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Mukesh Singh was interviewed in jail for the documentary and made a string of incendiary comments that went viral this week, saying women were more to blame for their rapes than men, and women should not fight back during rapes.
The four convicted rapists, with Mukesh Singh on the far left. Uncredited / AP
His comments have provoked widespread disgust in India, but some people say simply banning the documentary ignores the true problem — poor attitudes toward women. Here is one of India’s most prominent journalists:
This senior women’s rights activist supported the ban and said the documentary was helping a rapist spread his views.
Interview with a rapist ? Promoting misogyny ?? What sort of reporting is this ? https://t.co/whk2ya5xdF
Leslee Udwin, the British film-maker who made the documentary, said she was “deeply saddened” by the ban, in a statement published by NDTV, the Indian television channel that was due to air the show in India. It will still air internationally on Mar. 8.
Udwin at a news conference in New Delhi on Tuesday. Anindito Mukherjee / Reuters
India’s home minister directed the city’s police to obtain a court injunction against the film on Tuesday night, Reuters reported. India’s information and broadcasting ministry on Tuesday also issued an advisory warning television channels not to show excerpts from the interview, which it said “appear to encourage and incite violence against women.”
The home minister has not only questioned the content of the interview — he has also ordered an enquiry into how Udwin got into Delhi’s Tihar jail. Udwin, who made the documentary for the BBC’s Storyville series, says the federal government and the jail gave her permission.
In the December 2012 attack, the 23-year-old student was gang-raped and tortured after boarding a minibus with a male friend. She later died of her injuries. Four adult men were found guilty of rape and murder and sentenced to the death. A teenager was found guilty of rape and murder and sentenced to three years in a juvenile detention center.
The four men are all appealing their sentences. Mukesh Singh says he was driving the bus during the attack but did not take part in the rape.
Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/shyamanthaasokan/india-has-banned-a-big-documentary-on-the-delhi-gang-rape