Men’s rights organizations in
India, under the platform of Save Indian Family (SIF), collectively,
categorically and severely condemn the ban on Kamal Hassan’s movie –
Vishwaroopam.
SIF, the umbrella organization of
men’s rights organizations in India, working towards creating awareness of
men’s problems, supporting distressed and victimized men, demanding gender
neutral laws, protesting against misuse of anti-male laws, has termed the
current ban on the movie Vishwaroopam as yet another form of legal terrorism in
India, where democracy and right to free speech are becoming emblems of
mockery.
SIF and its allied NGOs like Save
Indian Family Foundation (Bangalore), Save Family Foundation (Delhi), Men’s
Rights Association (Pune) to name a few, have a completely neutral stand on the
content of the movie.
They neither support nor
oppose the movie and its content and make a categorical statement of not taking
sides with any party involved in the Vishwaroopam controversy.
1. Having
said that, it is appalling to see the failure of the Indian Judicial System in
this particular case, as the think tank of SIF believes that the primary onus
for the movie goes to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and if the
protestors have an issue, if any, they must address it with the CBFC instead of
filing case on the movie maker.
2. It’s
the onus and responsibility of the CBFC to determine which movies are viewable
and which aren’t and what is the audience for a particular movie and if the
CBFC has given the go-ahead to a particular movie, SIF sees no point in
dragging Kamal Hassan into this controversy.
3. SIF
is also wary of the fact that partisan social double standards are coming up.
If the claim of the protestors is that Muslims have been projected badly in the
movie (if it has been done so), and hence they have a right to file a case
against the movie, then where do these so-called socially active organizations
vanish, when day in and day out, men are projected badly in almost every other
movie.
Due to such bad portrayal of men
in movies, society has become insensitive to “Violence against Men”, as
a result of which, violence and crime against men never become social issues.
Added to this, such portrayal of men creates an atmosphere of gagging against
men which suppresses their problems and concerns.
One such movie is the movie
called “Provoked” wherein a murder by a woman is justified. Another such
movie is “Saat Khoon Maaf” wherein once again a criminal minded woman is
projected as a victim and her blood thirst is justified by vilifying men and
projecting them in bad light. These types of movies create a social atmosphere
which makes it acceptable for a woman to murder a man and later claim that she
did it to escape his “torture”.
SIF alleges that when no one is
bothered to raise voice against such movies which openly target the entire clan
of men, why we are creating an exception for Vishwaroopam?
It’s because of such movies as
above that men have been turned into “silent beasts of burden” when they
are treated as FREE ATM MACHINES and UNPAID BODYGUARDS, in
families and societies.Many a men who aren’t able to sustain the harassment and
pressure succumb to it and commit suicide. This is directly evident from the
suicide statistics published by the Ministry of Home Affairs as shown below.
We see that every year almost
80,000 men commit suicide compared to 40,000 women. So, while men aren’t double
in terms of population when compared to women, but almost double the number of
men do commit suicide. But because men are disposable entities, large scale
suicides by men have never become a social concern let alone a social problem.
And married men form the largest chunk of suicide victims as we see below,
In the year 2011, 62433
husbands committed suicides compared to 32582 wives. A cursory glance at
the previous years, establishes the trend.
Year
|
Husband Suicides
|
Wife Suicides
|
2010
|
61453
|
31754
|
2009
|
58192
|
31300
|
2008
|
57639
|
30224
|
2007
|
57593
|
30064
|
2006
|
55452
|
29869
|
2005
|
52483
|
28188
|
Source: http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/main.htm
The Honorable Supreme Court of
India had termed misuse of Section 498A (Dowry Law) as “Legal Terrorism”
as it was a clear case of state sponsored extortion of innocent men and their
families.
SIF feels the way Kamal Hassan in
being treated; this is yet another form of legal terrorism wherein the Govt.
has failed to action against violent protests. If the protestors had so much of
an issue against the movie they could have either filed a case against the CBFC
for allowing the movie to be screened or they could have simply refrained from
watching the movie i.e. boycotting the movie and announcing the same using
media.
Men’s rights activists had
demonstrated a very peaceful style of protest against the latest Aamir Khan
starrer “Talaash” which they boycotted from watching and announced the
same in media. The boycott call received widespread media attention, yet there
was no violence and the protest was registered and message was conveyed.
SIF also feels that the Indian
Judiciary is equally at wrongs by admitting every controversial case when it
claims that it is overburdened. If, the judiciary is really overburdened, there
must be a strong mechanism to filter cases and not listen to every case. So, it
clearly means that either judiciary is not overburdened or it likes it to be
that way. Both the situations are extremely grim as it harms the ordinary
litigants who have to spend years and decades in courts to get justice.
Today, Kamal Hassan is talking
about leaving the country, tomorrow; many such men will leave the country as
legal terrorism goes on unabated in this country where democracy and free
speech are emblems of mockery.
SIF would like to conclude the
press release with a final set of demands as follows:
1. Gender neutral laws to be made.2. The Govt. and law makers must ensure that legal terrorism is stopped in this country so that innocent people are not harassed.3. National Commission for Men is formed.4. Men Welfare Ministry is formed.5. Adequate steps are taken to safeguard people from false, frivolous and vexatious litigation with the following lines being enshrined in the laws,Notwithstanding anything contained in thelaws, whosoever makes any false and frivolous or vexatious complaint shall, on conviction, be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but which may extend to five years and with fine which shall not be less than twenty-five thousand rupees but which may extend to two lakh rupees.
Join SIF Team to Stop this legal terrorism of India and demand to replace the word Husband/wife to Spouse and Men/women to Person to related LAW or policy like all over world follow instead of making assumption that all Women born in Raja Harish Chandra family ( never lie) and all Men born in Criminal family.
