NEW DELHI, 15 October 2004 — The Congress government sacked the chief of the film censor board, allegedly charging he has Hindu right-wing leanings, reports said yesterday. Censor board chief Anupam Kher, a prominent Bollywood actor, was dismissed after he refused to step down and has been replaced by former Bollywood actress Sharmila Tagore.
The government said Kher had been replaced as he was unable to do justice to his job because of his preoccupation with film and theater, the reports said.
But Kher said he had been told he was being dismissed because of pressure from leftists within the government, in which the Congress is allied with communists.
“It is height of highhandedness,” said Kher. “I do not need this job. I am doing very well as an actor. But there comes a time in life when you need to stand up and fight injustice.” Kher has sent a legal notice to Marxist leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet yesterday asking him to withdraw allegation that he is an RSS man or face legal action.
“The Information and Broadcasting Secretary, Navin B. Chawla, called me on Tuesday and asked me to step down because of a demand to this effect from the Left parties,” Kher was quoted as saying by the Hindu newspaper. “When I told him that I would not oblige, he said he would get back to me...,” Kher said.
The Hindu report also cited an article in which Surjeet identified Kher as having Hindu right-wing leanings.
Arun Jaitley, general secretary of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that was voted out of power in May, described Kher’s removal as act of “vendetta.”
Other reports said Kher had been in the spotlight for not clearing a documentary entitled “Final Solution” on violent Hindu-Muslim riots in the western state of Gujarat two years ago.
National and international rights groups have blamed the state administration headed by the BJP for turning a blind eye to the riots in which more than 2,000 people — mostly Muslims — were killed.
