The controversial, self-proclaimed love charger Baba’s movie MSG- Messenger of God, has got entrapped in a controversy, after the Chairperson of Censor Board of Film Certification (CFBC) resigned on Friday. The movie’s lead hero is played by the chief of socio-spiritual organization Dera Sacha Sauda, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who has not 
only directed the film and written the script but also composed the music.
Leela Samson, a prominent Bharatnatyam dancer, was appointed as the Chairperson of CFBC in April 2011 by the then UPA government. She was compelled to take such a substantive step after the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) granted the clearance on Thursday for the release of MSG.
Before that, the film leapt over numerous hurdles as on Monday, CFBC’s revising committee was against giving the allowance to MSG. NandiniSardesai, senior board member of CFBC told Mumbai Mirror,” The film will not release this Friday.” Adding to this statement, she further informed that all other seven members agreed with this final decision that the film can’t be released as it promotes false values. It focuses on religious Baba performing magical tricks and hence can pass wrong message to society regarding blind faith and superstitions. It even nurtures the probabilities of hurting religious sentiments and can cause law-order disputes.”
Despite of this decision being passed by the examining committee, the tribunal cleared MSG on Thursday, which further prompted Leena Samson to resign in order to show her protest against the tribunal. Her reasoning behind the resignation act was, “interference, coercion and corruption of panel members and officers of the organization who are appointed by the ministry and having to manage an organization whose Board has not met for over nine months as the ministry had no funds to permit the meeting.”
She even mentioned about the cases of deterrence by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in the functioning of CFBC and the existence of degraded panel members which most of the time laid down the opinions of CFBC`s Chairperson and members. When the news of MSG bagging a clearance reached her, she commented, “It is a mockery of Central Board of Film Certification. My resignation is final. I have informed the (I&B) Secretary.”
After a while, Ira Bhaskar, another senior board member also resigned in support of Leena Samson. She told to the Mirror, “Other resignations will follow; we will make a joint statement tomorrow.”
Speaking about the dysfunctional attitude of the Ministry, she said, “The Board is supposed to meet four times a year, the last meeting was in January 2014. It seems the panel has become redundant. And now with Leela gone, there is no reason to hang around. The ministry can directly act as the certifying body,”
Soon after, the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore counter-argued Samson`s statement by demanding for the proof in the form of a letter or SMS which would explain her accusations.
After the film was rejected on Sunday, Nandini Sardesai was asked by committee to watch the film again. She then recollected what happened while she was watching it, “While we were watching, I got a call from the Police Commissioner of Gurgaon wanting to know if the film had been cleared. Obviously he feared law and order problems.”
She further reasoned, why this film is against human values, by saying that, “If he were a superhero in a fantasy film, it would be exciting to watch, but this is an attempt at self-glorification by a real person. He is shown performing miracles like curing a terminally ill AIDS patient and bringing a dead man back to life. This would only encourage blind faith and have every godman across the country wanting to feature in a film too.”
She said that the film even opposes the legal laws as the Cinematograph Act states that a film which showcase ‘obscurantism’ and ‘unscientific attitudes’ should not be put forth for public display. But, then too, Tribunal completed its work of passing the allowance within 24 hours which generally requires atleast two weeks. “
“The Regional Officer, who is supposed to be at the screening, to explain why the film was not cleared, was informed at 4.30 pm on Thursday in Mumbai, that the Tribunal was watching the film in Delhi in an hour. It would be interesting to know who were on the tribunal. They circumvented the panel, quashed the issues we raised,” said Sardesai.
Taking into consideration the political games, speculations are hovering that MSG was cleared because Dera supported the BJP during Haryana State Election. However, putting these speculations down to rest, their spokesperson Aditya Insan said, “It was cleared because the application was filed on an urgent basis since we had fixed the release for January 16. What merits equal scrutiny is why Madamji threw out an anti-drug, anti-trafficking patriotic film.” When quizzed on the release, he said, “I’ve no clarity at the moment.”
After the resignation, several protests by Sikhs exploded in Amritsar and Haryana. They claim that Singh has misinterpreted their scriptures and has tried to imitate the Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh in the film. S. Simranjit Singh Mann, the chief of one of the Sikh groups explained their side by saying “We are not against freedom of expression, but the organization against Sikhism.”
The film is facing too many obstacles due to the sudden changes in the decision and the release date isnot finalized yet.
Tags: Censor Board Dera chief Dera Sacha Sauda Leela Samson Messenger of God MSG MSG controversy Ram Rahim Singh
