August 1, 2002	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 21,1423

NEW DELHI: Development of a nuclear bomb may be one of India’s proudest scientific achievements, but the country’s censor board wants to use its scissors on an award-winning documentary about the bomb’s effects.

The board, often accused by film critics of heavy-handedness, has demanded that veteran documentary-maker Anand Patwardhan make swinging cuts weeks after nuclear rivals India and Pakistan pulled back from the brink of war.

The movie grabbed the best film and international jury awards at the Mumbai International Film Festival this year, but the board’s approval is needed before it can be shown domestically.

The film shows the patriotic chest-thumping that followed India’s underground tests in 1998, which marked the country’s entry into the exclusive club of nuclear powers.

Patwardhan said he was concerned India was caught up in “nuclear machismo” and had strayed from independence leader Mahatma Gandhi’s message of non-violence.

The movie-maker said he wanted to “let people know the horror of nuclear war” while India and Pakistan were locked in a military standoff over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

The board’s demands have stirred a ruckus in the media and Patwardhan has vowed to “fight it out” with the board in order to show the film without any cuts.

Among scenes the board wants cut are those showing leaders of the Hindu nationalist ruling coalition proclaiming at public rallies that the nuclear tests had put India on the world map.

“Some board members felt these were defamatory,” said a censor official, saying there was an appeals process and Patwardhan would have a chance to argue his case.

Patwardhan has always emerged the victor in his frequent battles with the censor board.

He rejected the board’s latest objections, saying all the political footage had been aired publicly already.

The film shows crowds dancing in the streets, newspaper headlines roaring “Bravo India” and young men writing congratulatory messages in blood after the nuclear tests, which prompted Pakistan to do similar tests and stoked fears of an arms race in South Asia.

Set against the scenes of jubilation are devastating accounts from survivors of the atomic bomb attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that forced the end of World War-II.

The censor board has a reputation for a strait-laced approach and forbids graphic sex. Kissing on the lips is allowed, but it is rarely shown.

The board comes under the country’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry, headed by Sushma Swaraj, a rising star of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the ruling coalition.

Patwardhan said his film is topical and needed to be shown to Indian audiences while India and Pakistan have a million troops massed eyeball-to-eyeball on the border.

Film critic Nikhat Kazmi says Patwardhan, who ran afoul of authorities with an earlier film on the rise of Hindu fundamentalism that propelled the BJP to political centre-stage, has long been a thorn in the side of authorities.

“His films are so powerful they have the power to change people’s minds. That’s what disturbs them,” Kazmi said.

Anti-nuclear activists also say they are often accused of being unpatriotic as the country’s membership in the nuclear club is seen by many Indians as affirmation of its big-power status.—Reuters