The script for her new film water carried some unsavoury remarks that were hardly called for, but after the protests from the people of Varanasi, the script has been again vetted and given clearance. But it is necessary to record the venom with which the protestors were attacked in editorial columns that goes to show the face of secularism in all its glory. The paper said that the protestors against the film should have been jailed. Only, they should behave like the middle class elite and protest gently. It obviously has not occurred to defenders of freedom of expression that they too have a responsibility towards ameliorating the conditions of Varanasi widows by studying and highlighting their plight instead of daily featuring nubile teenagers in a state of semi-undress and assorted fashion models even more dubiously dressed.
Intellectual arrogance is all.
It would be interesting to find out exactly how many articles on the subject have been published by national media in the last five years. The editorial apart, which was not specifically devoted to the Water episode, the paper published a Middle by one Poonam Saxena that showed resentment against the Varanasi goons. But after expressing the sense of outrage, Ms Saxena wondered whether the anger of the crowds might have been due to the fact that Deepa Mehta is regarded as an 'outsider' out to make a fast buck by showing anti-Indian cultural themes to the West. First it made its standard secular attack on the trouble-mongers in Varanasi. At this point a valid question needs to be asked.