New Delhi: While debates on nationalism and patriotism continue to rage since the Narendra Modi government took office, the government is going full steam ahead by broadcasting ‘patriotic’ films on Doordarshan National.
According to figures tabled in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, a total of 17 patriotic films were telecast on the national TV channel. This is a sharp rise from just one patriotic film telecast in 2014, when the Modi government first took office.
Harish Dwivedi, BJP MP from Basti in Uttar Pradesh, asked the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in a written question, “Will the Minister of Information and Broadcasting be pleased to state the number of patriotism based films made and broadcast by Doordarshan during each of the last three years and the current year; whether a sharp decline in the making of patriotism based films have been observed during the past few years; if so, the details thereof, and the reasons therefor; whether the Government proposes to promote patriotism based films and stop production of films depicting violence; and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?”
Minister of State (MoS) for I&B Rajyavardhan Rathore responded by saying, “Thirty-six patriotic feature films were telecast by various Doordarshan Kendras in the last three years including the current year.”
According to the minister’s data, only one patriotic film was telecast in 2014 and 4 in 2015. In 2016, when the nationalism debate took center-stage following the JNU controversy, the number of patriotic films on TV saw a sharp rise from 4 in 2015 to 14 in 2016.
In 2017, the number rose higher, to 17 patriotic films being telecast on Doordarshan.
Rathore also said that in the last three years, the Films Division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting produced six documentaries on imminent Indian nationalists. The titles of those six documentaries, Rathore said, are Jyotindranath Mukherjee (Bagha Jatin), Teerth of Peace (Longer Version), Mere Bapu, Hamare Bapu, Pandit Motilal Nehru and Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel.
He also said, “As per the guidelines of certification of films for public exhibition, the Board of Film Certification shall ensure that anti-social activities such as violence are not glorified or justified, pointless or avoidable scenes of violence, cruelty and horror scenes of violence are primarily intended to provide entertainment and such scenes as may have the effect of desensitizing or dehumanizing people are not shown.”
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