Saturday, August 25, 2007

HOW SANJAY KAK GOT OUR SCREENING SCUTTLED

It was a very sad day for all of us at RIK. When I should have been posting the pictures of our screening at Kamla Nehru College, which was to be screened today, I am writing this post to pre-empt another bundle of lies and self pity which the Jashn-e-Azadi team will come out with. Let me put the sequence of events straight.
We had approached Kamla Nehru College for a screening of the documentary”And the World Remained Silent” and were given permission to screen the movie on 24th of Aug at 2.30 PM.We had accordingly put the date of screening on our blog. Even in our recordings of Agrasen Collge Screening we had ended saying “See you at Kamla Nehru College on Friday the 24th,Aug”.
Our activist Pooja got a message from the college authorities on Tuesday saying they could not screen our movie because of some un-avoidable circumstances. We suspected “someone” was playing games and trying to scuttle our screening. Accordingly we went to the forums and posted on this very blog the news of cancellation of our screening.It was late that night that one our friends from Kamla Nehru college told us that at that same slot on the same day Jashn-e-Azadi was now being screened .Well we could understand Sanjay Kak being revengeful to the extent that he would get our movie cancelled by using his CONTACTS in the college but we had never imagined he would “teach us a lesson” by showing his movie on the same slot on the same day. How someone who has projected himself as a champion of free speech and right to expression was stooping so low as to “teach a lesson” to people who simply did not agree with his genre of movie making.
Since we are not well connected we again went to people, the forums and the SARAI readers list and posted Nishant Dudha’s post on Wedensday saying that someone had got our movie screening cancelled and had got a slot for his own movie at the same time same day.
Sad and hurt by the attitude of the college authorities there was little one could do, since they were acting on someone’s behest, someone so revengeful that he simply wanted to censor our movie from the face of the college. Since we are not known to Film Clubs, Leftist leaning one book wonders and self proclaimed champions of freedom and democracy ,we went to the Police Station next to the venue where Sanjay Kak had manipulated his way into. We filed a complaint and since Sanjay Kak is breaking the law of the land by screening a movie which does not have necessary censor certificate, the Police did the rest.
We have learnt a lesson, and learnt it well. Sanjay Kak is a well connected man and he can ensure that we can’t screen our movie if he does not want to. He can use his contacts and his blog to generate self pity and sympathy for his movie by being a CRY BABY. Anyone can cry hoarse by saying how his right to speech is being trampled by Police and Authorities but then he would never be honest to admit how he himself uses his contacts to get screenings of his detractors scuttled.
Ironic how “liberal intellectuals” behave when they feel insecure!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wont reveal my name.I am a Kashmiri muslim..In my opinion Pandits and Muslims should talk between themselves.People like Kak only divide the communities.The need of the hour was a more concilatory movie rather than this inflammatory one.
Though it is true what he has shown about us,but about Pandits he has been grossly wrong.
I know this blog and his blog are generating a lot of debate by we must keep go-betweens like him away.He works for someone ....and if I say it..I will be killed.
hope to see Pandits back in valley...most of the silent majority loves u...but we cant speak out..

Anonymous said...

This is really sad that people of Sanjay Kak's stature have stooped so low.
Is he afraid of kids?

Anonymous said...

You did the right thing by going to Police.We must follow the law and not act like VHP and Bajrang Dal activists.Good job done RIK ...I know he has put one of your activists name of his blog.
Dont care about that.Right now he is perplexed.he can go to any lengths.I just hope you guys are not attacked by Yasin Malik

Anonymous said...

Do what you like,his movie is doing well.You Pandits have always been like this.
Thats why we kicked you out of Kashmir.Good now,die here

Anonymous said...

I am not a Kashmiri,but I have seen both movies.I know Kashmiris are suffering,both Hindus as well as Muslims.Although Kak's movie is propogandish in nature but partly true as well.
So is And the World remained silent.It is time we look at problems from a human perspective and then only can we have solutions.

Anonymous said...

There is no doubt in any one's mind how Kak is carrying out propoganda for JKLF's Yasin Malik.

Anonymous said...

now something new has come about.That this Sanjay Kak has lied to the Courts.if this is indeed true,he should be in Jail.

Anonymous said...

How are imbeciles like Sanjay Kak and Sheikh Sajjad whatsitsname (ref. comments above) even allowed to spew their nonsense into the public domain?

Shivam Vij said...

I'd be surprised if this comment is published but to set the record straight, the above post is a lie. I found this through a simple Google search:

The representation of the sequence of events leading up to the
decision to screen Sanjay Kak's film `Jashn-e-Azadi' at Kamla Nehru
College on the 24th of August 2007 has created an unseemly
controversy. I refer to a posting on the Sarai Reader list by Rashneek
Kher which states that the organization, Roots in Kashmir (RIK) had
approached Kamla Nehru College to screen a film `And the World
Remained Silent' and had indeed been "given permission to screen the
movie on the 24th of August at 2.30 pm." He goes on to add that it was
at the behest of Sanjay Kak that their screening was cancelled and a
screening of `Jashn-e-Azadi' was scheduled in its place.

As visiting faculty in the Dept of Journalism in Kamla Nehru College
and the person who suggested that we organize a screening of
Jashn-e-Azadi, the sequence of events, as I know them, leading upto
the decision to screen Sanjay Kak's film are at complete variance with
what Rashneek Kher has suggested in his posting. The sequence of
events merits a renarration.

As part of our effort to use audio- visual material in the classroom
to initiate a discussion and debate around issues and the way they are
represented and encourage a process of critical thought, I had
suggested to the Teacher-in-Charge of the Wideangle film society of
the college that we schedule a screening of Jashn-e-Azadi.
Accordingly, Sanjay Kak was invited to screen his film in the college.

I was quite disturbed when I read the `sequence of events' detailed
in Rashneek Khers posting, suggesting that a prior commitment had been
made by the college to screen their film on the 24th of August 2007
which the college reneged on. I spoke with the teacher-in-charge to
confirm if that indeed was the case. I was told quite categorically
that , while the college had received a request for the screening of
`And the World Remained Silent', it had in no way committed to a
particular date for the screening and so the question of cancelling a
scheduled screening of `And the World Remained Silent' to accomodate
Sanjay Kak's film just didnt arise!

Sanjay Muttoo

via: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2007-August/010008.html