Nov. 12, 2007 - Arrest of students and intellectuals from peaceful rally: An eyewitness account

http://sanhati.com/front-page/408/#16

-Ananya Chatterjee Chakraborti

This is a first hand account of what happened at the peaceful rally of artistes, intellectuals, writers, painters, journalists activists in front of Nandan yesterday (Nov 11, 2007). The rally was held to let people know that we are boycotting the Kolkata Film Festival (which is state run) in protest against the Nandigram killings. There were about two hundred of us who started the rally from the protest manch of Medha Patkar at Esplanade, opposite Metro Cinema. There was painter Shuvoprasanna, Samir Aich, Suman Mukherjee, Supriyo Sen, Joy Goswami amongst others. We were carrying posters and banners and singing songs, when we were stopped by a huge force at Park Street. They had put up a barricade and asked us to go back. We tried talking to them to find out why we were being stopped. We were not armed, or violent. We only meant to walk peacefully upto Nandan. We were told that we will not be allowed to reach Nandan under any circumstances. So we squatted there on the road for a while. Then we went back and formed a human chain to stop all traffic. And then eventually we decided to leave for Nandan in threes and fours, where another group was waiting for us.

We reassembled at Academy of Fine Arts where Aparna Sen, Rituparno Ghosh, Shankho Ghosh (poet), Anjan Dutt and a host of other personalities joined us. Now we had a larger group and we signed a boycott statement. And then we started walking towards Nandan (the main venue of the festival) (which is next to Academy) As we walked about twenty steps or so, we were stopped again by the police. They were accompanied by RAF who stood menacingly with their batons. There were quite a few police vans waiting and we could make out that we were going to be arrested. Shuvaprasanna, the seniormost person, tried talking to the police. They told us clearly that we have to leave the place. We decided to squat on the road and sing songs. After a while two senior officers came in and told us that if we do not leave immediately, we would be arrested. They started by arresting four young students, who were beaten up ruthlessly and whisked away in a van. Now we all went forward and demaned that they release the boys immediately. Otherwise they have to arrest all of us. On this they started pushing us with the help of RAF.

Shuvaprasanna was badly heckled and they started using the stick. And then they started pushing us into the vans. We were taken to the central lockup of Lalbazar (police headquarters) where about sixty of us were kept in one cell, There were about 10 or 12 women amongst us. We instantly called up all our friends and informed them of the situation. Fortunately all this had also been shown live on most of the local tv channels. So there was a major public furore. Thousands of people stormed Lalbazar to get us relaesed, and they had to lock all their gates.

We were arrested at around 4.30 pm. By 5.30 pm Aparna Sen, Goutam Ghosh, Shankho Ghosh, Bibhash Chakraborti and Sujato Bhadro had forced their way into Lalbazar and managed to get us out by signing personal bailbonds (under section 151). By the time we were let out it was nearly 9.30 pm. There was a big crowd waiting for us outside with candles.

After this incident, all the people that I know have refused to be part of the festival. Many of our friends have withdrawn their films. The city is seething with anger, and the government has completely discredited itself.

Read Sangbad Pratidin report, reactions of poet Joy Goswami playwright Bratya Basu, stage actor Koushik Sen.
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Sight & sound : The Politics Of Film Festivals

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?date=2007-10-27&usrsess=8149188832047&clid=3&id=201830

Vidyarthy Chatterjee

The season of film festivals is upon us once again. This time of the year, at least two well-known film festivals are held in the country ~ first, the Kolkata Film Festival in the first half of November and then, a month later, the International Film Festival of Goa. They are important if for no other reason than that one gets opportunities to see some of the best work done the world over in the area of film art. Mandarins of art and culture, however, look forward to these events not so much to see as to be seen ~ and heard. At the inaugural function in particular, politicians and bureaucrats are known to hold forth with all the gas at their command on the theme of art and culture in the cause of human values. The Chief Minister of West Bengal, who also happens to be the state’s culture (and police) minister, may be relied upon to make the most of the occasion on November 10 when the Kolkata Film Festival comes to be formally inaugurated.

Moral authority

But, one question that is likely to agitate some thinking people is whether Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee hasn’t lost the moral authority to speak on human values or the relevance of high art after what his party and his government have lately been up to. One wonders how the beleaguered farmers of Singur and Nandigram or the grieving family of Rizwanur Rahman are likely to react to the Chief Minister's words of wisdom as and when he utters them from the dais of Nandan, the West Bengal Film Centre.
From Benito Mussolini to Ferdinand Marcos, many a political tyrant has tried to use international film festivals to cover up their sins of omission and commission. Mussolini thought up the idea of a festival in Venice to glorify and popularise himself, his party and the Fascist ideology. Initially, the Venice festival covered several areas of artistic pursuit and resembled a grand carnival, but in time came to be exclusively devoted to cinema. It was only after Mussolini had fallen and peace had returned to Italy that the Venice film festival came to acquire a democratic character. It is common knowledge that today, Venice is a major international event which annually celebrates lasting human values through the medium of cinema.
Nearer our own times, we have witnessed two dictators of Asiatic origin seeking to employ international film festivals in their respective countries to spread a cosmetic patina on their misdeeds. One was a hereditary and absolute monarch, the Shah of Iran, the last of the Pehlavis; and the other came to power through the ballot but ruled the greater part of his 20-year tenure by the bullet ~ Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines.
Even as the Shah was engaged in systematically liquidating his opponents chiefly by means of his secret police ~ the dreaded Savak ~ he mounted the dazzling Tehran film festival during what turned out to be the closing years of his wilful and bloody reign. One still remembers the parade of celebrities at the festival, duly reported in the media all over, but perhaps nowhere with greater fervour than in the widely-read Mumbai tabloid (now defunct) whose editor was a great one for running with the hare and hunting with the hound. This man, whose heart ostensibly bled for the wretched of the earth and was a self-proclaimed ally of the Soviet camp, saw shining virtues in the Shah and the Empress Farah till the very end of their dubious reign.
Marcos may well have modelled the Manila film festival on Tehran, such was its grandeur and extravagance. This was in 1982 when his infamy as an unbridled dictator had exceeded all limits. In any case, that both Tehran and Manila were shortlived exercises proves, if anything, how mistaken their promoters were in believing that their crimes against humanity could be whitewashed with lofty proclamations of commitment to art and culture.
In its inaugural year, the Manila film festival was an incredibly elaborate and expensive affair. But even then, there were quite a few people who could make out that the actual purpose of the festival was to divert the attention of Filipinos (and that of the rest of the world) from the appalling economic condition of the country as well as the Marcos regime's outrageous civil and political rights record. Anyone who dared to oppose the Marcos couple or their cronies in the army, big business or the media were dealt with severely. This may have been the reason why none of the leading Filipino film personalities came out openly against the festival.
Distinguished film people from other countries did not cover themselves with glory either. It was a tragedy of sorts that directors readily sent their films to Manila; that some renowned film-makers served on the jury, notably Satyajit Ray and Zanussi. Again, critics representing important papers wrote eulogistic pieces on the event. It is difficult to believe that those people had no idea about the actual credentials of the organisers of the show.
However, mercifully, not all the intellectuals and creative people of the world are made of the same stuff; that there were, and still are, some left who actually practise what they say they believe in. For instance, the legendary Ulrich Gregor of the Berlin film festival who, despite being energetically wooed by the Manila festival authorities, refused to have anything to do with it.
It may be a long way from Mussolini's Venice or Marcos's Manila to N T Rama Rao's Hyderabad or Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's Kolkata, but there seems to be a common thread running between these points when it comes to using film festivals to pull off a fast one. One clearly remembers that the Hyderabad Filmotsav in January 1986 was a hugely expensive and vulgar tamasha mounted with the agenda of popularising NTR and his party. The profusely-lit streets, illuminated buildings and welcome arches, the free food and mementos for delegates, all added up to a Machiavellian attempt at diverting attention from the disastrous performance of the Telugu Desam government in the area of human and political rights.

Intolerant & vindictive

Only a few weeks prior to the commencement of the Filmotsav, the editor of a weekly publication critical of NTR's policies and style of functioning had been stabbed to death in broad daylight allegedly at the behest of the ruling party. Reports in the press clearly indicated that intimidation and victimization of political opponents was the order of the day in Andhra Pradesh. It was no secret that during NTR's regime people subscribing to radical Left politics were done away with in cold blood and passed off as "victims of encounters with the police".
To think that people are better off in Bengal under CPI-M rule would amount to living in a fool's paradise. The mass killings in Nandigram, persecution of alleged Naxalites in the districts, the blank cheque given to the police and party cadres to do as they wish, or the cancellation of screenings of critical documentaries and staging of plays, together they go to show how intolerant and vindictive the party's leaders have become. Should the commissars and those beholden to them be allowed to go unchallenged when they try to pose as protectors and promoters of film and other arts?
Film festivals may come and film festivals may go, but tyrannies ~ big, small and in-between ~ will go on for ever. This could well be the motto of some future film farce, sorry, festival.
The author is editor of Motif, Jharkhand’s only English-language weekly paper

Thus spake Zarathustra

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=4&theme=&usrsess=1&id=176616

By S.M. Murshed

While briefing the Press at Writers’ Buildings on 13 November, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee made a distinction between “us” and “they”, which was most unfortunate for a chief minister.
By “us” he meant the CPI-M and by “they” he meant, in the vocabulary of Mr Biman Bose, the rest of the world who are not impartial in speaking about the CPI-M. In making this dichotomy, Mr Bhattacharjee has revealed himself as a petty party apparatchik and not as a statesman.
Next he said that “they”, meaning armed men of the Bhumi Uchhed Protirodh Committee, in cahoots with Maoists, had driven out “our” people from Nandigram and that “our” people simply paid them back in the same “coins” (sic). His lamentable use of the English language is perhaps pardonable, but his explanation of what happened at Nandigram, though facile, is not.
Mr Prakash Karat spoke in much the same vein earlier in New Delhi. Both Mr Karat and the CM endorse, with ill concealed glee, the forcible capture of Nandigram by goons with firearms to the accompaniment of much rape, arson and looting.
The Governor rightly described these proceedings as unlawful and unacceptable. For his pains, he was promptly castigated by Mr Biman Bose, who found the gubernatorial statement to be in excess of jurisdiction, entirely forgetting that the Governor, unlike him and his other comrades, is sworn by his oath to defend and protect the Constitution and the laws of India and to devote himself to the needs and welfare of the people. That the Governor was entirely right has been acclaimed by no less a jurist than Mr Soli Sorabjee.
After the recapture of Nandigram was complete, Comrade Bose hailed the awakening of a new dawn. But what about the dark days and nights preceding the dawn? All access to Nandigram, unofficially declared a war zone by armed goons, was sealed. The Press, Ms Mamata Bannerjee, Ms Medha Patkar, carrying relief supplies for stricken people, and others were prohibited from entering the zone.
Mr Biman Bose, with his specious logic, justified Ms Patkar’s exclusion on the ground that it was necessary for maintaining peace!!! She was on a mission of mercy carrying relief, and not bombs.
And who was maintaining peace by blocking all lines of communication and indulging in mayhem? Not the police, but armed cadres of the red brigade. The police were conspicuous by their absence. On the orders of the Director General of Police, they had been withdrawn from all strategic positions and those at the Nandigram police station were confined indoors and ordered not to move out. The field was thus left open to the marauding cadres to do much as it pleased. Rape, arson and loot was the order of the day.
Comrade Bhattacharjee ~ and the appellation has been chosen advisedly, for he has shown himself first and foremost as a representative of the CPI-M in the guise of chief minister ~ has explained the marauders pogrom by saying that it could have been avoided if the Centre had acceded to his request for the CRPF earlier instead of rejecting it on 5 November. This explains nothing at all. It does not explain, for instance, why should it have been necessary for the state government to bank upon the CRPF when there were many battalions of armed police, including the Eastern Frontier Rifles, available with them and why the state police, where visible, were reduced to being passive spectators. If Mr Bhattacharjee’s answer is that the state police, in spite of all their pomp and circumstance, are worse than useless, then they should be issued bangles and be confined to their barracks.
Here the director general of police, the chief secretary and the home secretary have to answer a question, if policemen do not have to wear bangles: Why were the police withdrawn and not allowed to function? Was it under orders of Comrade Bhattacharjee? Why were these orders obeyed? A chief secretary worth his salt would have resigned from his post rather that obey such patently illegal orders. But nowadays everyone is an obedient servant.
Mr Kshiti Goswami, the state PWD minister, has to be complimented on the bold stand he has taken in this matter. He has offered to resign from his ministerial post as a mark of protest against the activities of the CPI-M. He has a conscience and he has allowed his conscience to speak. Now three Left Front allies, namely the RSP, Forward Bloc and the CPI, are debating whether, following Mr Goswami’s cue, they should remain allies any longer. Probably, they will; but at least, they have raised a debate on the issue.
The comrades have all made heavy weather of the alleged infiltration of Maoists in Nandigram. The home secretary said that no one of that description had been found. Be that as it may, are the comrades trying to prove that their cadres achieved in a few days what the state police found impossible in eleven months? If so, there is a strong case for the police not to wear bangles, but to be disbanded altogether and their function “outsourced” to the red brigade, which in course of time may apply elsewhere also where their assistance may be needed to combat terrorism. Comrade Karat will be the officer commanding the brigade.
Comrade Bhattacharjee abdicated as chief minister at Nandigram, and with him the state police force also and, as a result, wanton acts of pillage, arson and rape were committed by the party cadres, which took the law into their own hands. They were manifestly illegal acts and Comrades Bhattacharjee and Biman Bose have publicly confessed to being privy to them. Will the Advocate General be now invited to advise the state home department whether or not the two comrades and the party cadres are guilty of murder, rape, arson and looting? To say the least, Mr Bhattacharjee as chief minister had taken an oath to defend the laws of the land. Far from being the upholder, he has proved to be a transgressor.
He should resign as chief minister and play the role of party apparatchik for which he is most suited.
In Kolkata, emotions have risen high in the wake of the recent happenings at Nandigram. A large body of writers, poets, artistes, et al, wanted to march silently on 11 November to Nandan, where an international film festival is being held, to record their protest against it, for the spirit of the festival was incongruous with so much misery and suffering at Nandigram. Many of these personalities are known to have leftist sympathies. They were arrested by the police and taken to Lalbazar, from where they were subsequently released.
The police later explained that they were being prevented from creating a spectacle at Nandan, where a large number of foreign film dignitaries had been invited. Congratulations, Mr Bhattacharjee! You think nothing of miring your backyard, but would like the outside world to think your are a **bhadralok**. The protesters should have been allowed to march to Nandan, for that was the best place to tell the world what happens behind the scenes.
Not to be outdone, the same people organised a much bigger march on 14 November, with no slogans or speech making of any kind and no political colouring. So eloquent a demonstration of public sentiment on this scale has not been witnessed in Kolkata in living memory. This is the celebration of an indomitable spirit that refuses to compromise with evil. There may be hope for the people if this spirit survives.
Nandigram is designed to show the public that when it comes to the exercise of brute power, there is only one party in the reckoning and it alone will decide what is right and what is not in human affairs. Trivial considerations of law and morality have no relevance in their thinking. The party has come to take itself for granted, having wielded absolute power for three decades and more sinister things may be in the offing.
One is now living in ominous and dangerous times, and the portents in the sky fill one with dark forebodings:
But never till to-night, never till now,
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.
Either there is a civil strife in heaven,
Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,
Incenses them to send destruction.
~ William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar

(The author is a retired IAS officer and former adviser to the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir)

Serves them right: CM

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=1&theme=&usrsess=1&id=176393

Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, Nov. 13: “Those who ruled Nandigram for the past 11 months were paid back in same coin,” an upbeat Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, chief minister told reporters at Writers’ Buildings today. The recent bloodletting leading to the "recapture" of Nandigram could have been avoided, he felt, had the Centre sent the CRPF contingents earlier.
The delay in deployment of Central forces had made the cadres, raring to return home, desperate, the CM said. “Our people (meaning cadres) were desperate to return home. They risked their lives, resulting in casualties. The official figure till date stands at four dead and 11 injured,” he said.
Mr Bhattacharjee, who repeatedly referred to the plight of “our people harassed, killed and evicted from their homes in the past 11 months”, had to be reminded that he happened to be the chief minister of the people opposing his party in Nandigram as well. “Yes. I am. That's why I am appealing to everybody to go back home,” came the reply.
When pointed out that a section of media felt that so much exhortation for peace had brought to Nandigram the peace of a necropolis, Mr Bhattacharjee shot back: “Was heavenly peace prevailing in Nandigram for the past 11 months?”
He acknowledged the role of foreign minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee in sending the CRPF but couldn’t help being sarcastic about Mr LK Advani’s visit there: “Good that Mr Advani used a car and not a rath on his way to and back from Nandigram. I thank him for it.”
The CM faced dissidence in his own backyard as a large section of Writers' Buildings employees marched in silence to protest against the atrocities in Nandigram. The CM met Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi in the evening. Earlier in the day, the chief secretary, home secretary and the DGP submitted their reports to Mr Gandhi. When asked whether he found the failure of the administration to check the violence in Nandigram as embarrassing, the CM said: “In a sense yes. It would have been better if the state police and CRPF could bring the situation under control.
That would have been possible if I could have deployed CRPF and EFR together earlier.” He feigned ignorance of the dismantling of a police camp off Tekhali Bridge ~ something that had helped CPI-M cadres enter Nandigram.
He dismissed the call for his resignation by a section of intellectuals and artists saying: “It is my misfortune. They would surely change their mind.” He termed their demand to put off the Kolkata Film Festival as “illogical”and reiterated that state and central intelligence agencies had evidence that Maoist leader Ranjit Pal and his team from Jharkhand had been present in Sonachura and Garchakraberia and that they had been heavily armed.
“The Maoists were in the area till yesterday. CRPF jawams have seized mines and rifles.” Earlier in the day, the home secretary said he had no reports of Maoists being arrested or identified in Nandigram. The chief minister apprised the PM of the situation in detail when the latter called him while he was on his way to meet the Governor.

Boycotting Buddha's Kolkata Film Festival

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071113/asp/calcutta/story_8540672.asp

Forces more, fans few at Nandan fest - Boycott spreads from screen to stage as eight-day theatre gala draws Nandigram glare

A STAFF REPORTER

Troops sit under a tree at Nandan, a spot preferred by film buffs at other times. Picture by Aranya Sen The 13th Calcutta Film Festival entered its third day amidst a tight security ring, with policemen outnumbering cine-goers and the normal celeb set giving Nandan a miss for Nandigram. Bandh Monday also saw the boycott of state-sponsored programmes spreading from screen to stage, from Nandan to the Academy of Fine Arts, with another of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s pet pursuits coming under fire. “Under the circumstances, Natyamela cannot take place,” said Rudra- prasad Sengupta, leading the charge against the eight-day theatre festival, scheduled to start from November 23. Nandigram and its aftershock have taken a heavy toll on the film festival. At Nandan, after the protest and police action on the first two days, the mood was subdued on Monday, with the city crippled by a bandh. “The atmosphere is not conducive to watching films. I have boycotted the festival whole-heartedly,” said director Anjan Dutt, who has decided not to moderate a discussion on November 14. Even those film festival regulars who were not part of the Nandigram protests chose not to be seen at Nandan. “It’s not a boycott, but I don’t feel the urge to be a part of the festival this time,” said Koneenica Banerjee, who otherwise “hangs out with friends” throughout every film fest. The Tollywood brigade was missing in action but a number of film buffs braved the bandh on Monday. Footfall picked up by afternoon, with long queues in front of Nandan 1, Rabindra Sadan and Sisir Mancha. Anna Pesoner, a films studies student at Jadavpur University, was among them. “I took the Metro to catch an interesting mix of films at the festival,” smiled the German girl. “Thank god, the Metro is plying!” exclaimed Sudeshna Das, a student of Presidency College, who took an autorickshaw from Santoshpur to Rashbehari Avenue to take the Metro to Rabindra Sadan, Bank employee Anindya Chowdhury also refused to mix Nandigram with Nandan. “What better way to spend a bandh day than watching films?” he demanded. Screenings were also held as per schedule at New Empire, SRFTI, Purbashree, Madhusudan Mancha and Okakura Bhavan. Only Star theatre cancelled screening due to “administrative problems”. The film festival brass put up a brave front. “There was no impact of the bandh on the festival. Nandan 1 alone had a footfall of around 350 people for the noon show on Monday. We have 30 to 35 per cent footfall at all the venues,” said Nilanjan Chatterjee, the Nandan CEO and director of the film festival. But Nandigram is threatening to do more than a Nandan at Natyamela. Natya Academy chairperson Kumar Roy, Rudraprasad Sengupta, Meghnad Bhattacharya, Prabir Guha, Soumitra Basu, Ashok Mukhopadhyay, Ramaprasad Banik and others have demanded the theatre fest be scrapped. Manoj Mitra, Bibhas Chakraborty, Kaushik Sen, Bratya Basu and others had earlier boycotted Natyamela ’07 to protest the violence in Nandigram.

PARTY POLICE

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071113/asp/opinion/story_8540115.asp

PARTY POLICE

There are two types of police in West Bengal. The first consists of those who refuse to take action even when there is a clear case for taking action. The second consists of those who move with alacrity and vehemence on innocent people and even deny them their legitimate constitutional and legal rights. The distinction has been driven home in the events of the last few days. The police stood by and did nothing while the cadre of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) wreaked destruction and mayhem in Nandigram. Even the CRPF was rendered inactive by human shields. On the very day the CRPF was stopped by CPI(M) activists near Tamluk, in Calcutta a group of artists and writers, who were protesting near the Academy of Fine Arts, were arrested and some of them were even beaten up. The protest against the violence in Nandigram was by no means violent: the artists and the writers were singing songs of dissent. No explanation was offered to them for their arrests. The speed and the efficiency with which the police moved against these dissenters in Calcutta was in sharp contrast with the appalling incompetence the police exhibited when handling the violence in Nandigram.

It would be erroneous to believe that the police in West Bengal are good at breaking up peaceful shows of protests, and are hopeless when quelling an armed mob. It would be a greater mistake to harp on the distinction between the West Bengal police and the Calcutta police. The fact of the matter is that the police under CPI(M) rule do what the party orders them to do. They could attack peaceful protesters outside the Academy of Fine Arts because they thought the singing could disrupt the International Film Festival being held in Nandan, which is adjacent to the Academy. The film festival is the pet project of the chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who is also the police minister of the state. The links are all too evident. Similarly, it would not be unfair to suspect that the police inactivity in Nandigram has had party sanction. The passivity of the police in Nandigram revealed that the government is unable or unwilling to enforce law and order in the area, and to restore to the homeless their basic rights. The police action in Calcutta showed that when they so want, the police can ride roughshod over the rights of citizens. The right of peaceful protest, Mr Bhattacharjee should know, is a fundamental democratic right.

Sing along, or else - The CPI(M) knows when and how to use the police

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071113/asp/opinion/story_8539072.asp

Sing along, or else - The CPI(M) knows when and how to use the police

Bhaswati Chakravorty

Sankha Ghosh: November 11, 2007 Does duplicity have a face? There is no need to guess three times. To match the face, the chief minister of West Bengal has a double role besides his chieftainship: he is police minister and culture minister. He uses the police to protect his brand of culture. The sanctity of the international film festival in Calcutta has to be protected from the artists, poets, actors and film directors of Bengal, singing in pain, awareness and protest against the CPI(M)’s second devastation of Nandigram. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s lathi-wielding policemen went for artists and students because they had got too close to Nandan, where the festival is being held, beat up whomsoever their lathis found, be it a woman actor or student, loaded them in vans and shoved them into the lock-up at Lalbazar. That is all that policemen in Bengal need to do, when they can take time off from their duties of separating couples when any aggrieved father has clout enough to engage the police to break up his offspring’s marriage. But where armed groups fire on the unarmed, demolish homes, where gunfire rages and grenades explode among groves and fields, where alternately victorious groups take turns to drive out their opponents with women, children, the old and the sick from their dwellings in a home-made war over territory, the police are absent. Or almost. The chief secretary of the state, with the home secretary by his side, had promised a credulous Bengal that all those driven out, presumably irrespective of party affiliations, would be able to return home with police protection. So there were policemen, at two spots far away from the scene — perhaps to prove that bureaucrats don’t do out-and-out lies? The chief minister’s party knows how to use the police. They can be used as shields when members of the party cadre decide to shoot down villagers — with police help — as they did on March 14 this year. And they know how to use women and hostages as shields when they want to block the entry of CRPF vehicles — now that they are here — into the core area of the battle, so that their takeover of lost ground can be completed without interference from the law, as they did on Sunday. It is a small incongruity that a party cadre cannot order policemen about. Neither can they decide when Central forces are to be let in. The orders and decisions surely come from somewhere else? Facts are good enough story-tellers. They show that policemen in the city cannot wait to get their hands on poets and artists because they might disrupt the chief minister’s festivities with their singing, while forces waiting to implement law and order in Nandigram are turned back to sit and twiddle their thumbs as CPI(M) cadre make their fortress safe. Apparently, the administration has curled up and died there, just where it suits the chief minister’s party. He, being a man of more parts than can be named, knows exactly when to give his fief the look and feel of a police state, and when to ask the police to look the other way. For months at a time. When North Bengal exploded in the Prashant Tamang controversy, the army was there within hours. A senior spokesman of the CPI(M) said on Sunday that there is no more terror in Nandigram. By holy writ, obscure to all non-party creatures, partymen do not have to speak the truth, what they speak is the truth. So when CPI(M) leaders, within the government and without, keep promising a peace process in Nandigram for days before the region is overrun with party cadre, the rest of the world is duty-bound to believe them. If someone dares to suggest that they have a habit of being economical with the truth, or if someone believes them and is hideously disillusioned after the ‘action’ in Nandigram, they are damned for having failed the demands of objective truth. No protest is legitimate in the eyes of the government — as the arrests of artists show — because no one protested against the miseries of the homeless in Khejuri. That is where the CPI(M) supporters driven out of their homes had gone. Violence is unacceptable, say the protestors, and nowhere are the sufferings of the people to be condoned. Instead of vengefully throwing Khejuri into their faces, should not the CPI(M) leaders ask themselves why the miseries of the homeless in Khejuri did not figure in the popular protests? Can it have to do with the fact that the chief minister, together with other leaders in the government, constantly talks about “ours” and “theirs” as if they were not governing West Bengal but taking part in a street fight with party thugs? Or can it be that even the foolish citizens of Bengal suspect that the homeless in Khejuri have been carefully nurtured over the months so that the place could be used to build up an arms cache and the name could be used as ammunition to discredit all protest? Or can it just be that people do not believe a word that this government or its party says? Why ask the people a question the administration, “their” administration, should answer? Why Khejuri alone, what about “outsiders”? Those who protest are not only biased, they are blind too. Maoists have laid mines in Nandigram and two CPI(M) supporters have died. No death can go unmourned. But if ordinary people as well as intellectuals protesting on the streets find it difficult to believe in Maoists from Jharkhand, not one of whom has been identified, whose fault is that? They are as invisible as those policemen supposed to have been grievously wounded during the March 14 massacre. As for the mysterious outsiders on the “other” side, they certainly merge in well. Because the only outsiders identified so far are those in Janani Intbhanta after March 14 and Tapan Ghosh and Sukur Ali on November 11. All fighting for the CPI(M). It may be that CPI(M) leaders were never told the fable of the wolf and the shepherd boy by their grandmothers. They cannot imagine that people might actually dare to disbelieve them. The CPI(M) general secretary has said at a press conference that because of an ex- parte order of the Calcutta high court, they decided to restrain themselves from sending the police there for all these months. The people are supposed to have forgotten that the high court had first asked for an immediate investigation into the circumstances of the police firing on March 14 and directed the state to ensure “the safety and well-being of all general public in the area”, then had reiterated the instructions about restoring normalcy and law and order later. But the party is happy now. According to the general secretary, the administration can move in at last. That is, the West Bengal government has got the CPI(M)’s goons to clear the way. The government’s satisfaction is understandable: goons are good company. Better company than those intellectuals and artists, left-leaning or even party loyalists, who are taking to the streets or boycotting festivals in protest. Not only have many of them boycotted the Calcutta film festival, they have also decided not to participate in the Natyamela. While a quiet and far-from-politically-visible Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay refuses to attend a film festival seminar, an acutely ill Sumit Sarkar joins a protest rally in Delhi. Shame can be measured in many ways. It is good of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s government to offer us such a wide range of images to choose from. An unarmed man with a gamchha round his shoulders, his legs curled up, his brains spilled by a bullet, lying on the spot he had stood minutes earlier shouting slogans against the guns that crackle across a smoky field. Or even just the once-green fields, groves, the spattering of tiled houses and occasionally running, secretive figures, blurred by shaking, uncertain cameras of people risking their lives to catch the total absence of policemen, of any shred of civilization, and the shifting colours of hatred and murder. But maybe we have grown used to those. But there is another. The face of a gentle-spoken poet, teacher and scholar, small in build and towering in stature, gazing in through the closed gates of Lalbazar police station. Somewhere within those gates are artists and students arrested for singing. It is enough to look at his eyes. Upon hearing that intellectuals were boycotting the film festival, the chief minister had said, “If you have the list, you can put it in a photo frame and hang it on the wall at home.” In return, he should be presented with this picture. He can look at the poet’s eyes and congratulate himself on what he has achieved.

Over 100 intellectuals roughed up

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=65389230-fbae-4692-a0b3-d851eb1c7f51&&Headline=Over+100+intellectuals+roughed+up

Snigdhendu Bhattacharya , Hindustan Times

Kolkata, November 11, 2007

After assaulting Bhumi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) members, the police in Kolkata
turned violent on intellectuals protesting against the Nandigram massacre on Sunday.

More than 100 intellectuals were beaten up and arrested when they refused to disperse from a rally near the popular Nandan complex, where the 13th Kolkata Film Festival is being organised.

Among the protesters were noted film directors Aparna Sen, Rituparna Ghosh and Anjan Dutta, poet Joy Goswami, painters Subhaprasanna, Sanatan Dinda and Samir Aich, theatre personality Suman Mukherjee and singer Pallab Kirtania.

The intellectuals were shouting slogans demanding the “immediate stoppage of mass killing by CPM cadres in Nandigram” and calling for postponement of the film festival. Some of the posters the protesters were carrying said, “don’t celebrate crime against humanity”, “Buddha has two cards — terror and culture”.

A huge police force, including RAF and SAP men had taken over the popular Nandan complex, restricting entry to the premises.

Unable to enter the Nandan complex, the intellectuals sat on the road at the Rabindra Sadan crossing, shouting slogans, singing and reciting poetry. After senior police officers failed to disperse the protesters, policemen descended on them in large numbers, beating them up before arresting many of them.

“This is complete fascist rule. While people are getting killed regularly in Nandigram, the CM is in a celebration mood. He is a bigger criminal than Hitler or Nero”, Subhaprasanna said.

Suman Mukherjee said he couldn’t understand how can such a “butcher government” could remain in power.

Aparna Sen, who boycotted the film festival, warned that the government wouldn’t be able to gag protesting voices in this manner. “The truth can’t be suppressed. Questions are coming out and will continue to flow. The government must answer,” she said.

Actors locked up in protest swoop

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071112/asp/calcutta/story_8537004.asp

Actors locked up in protest swoop

A STAFF REPORTER

Actor Parambrata Chatterjee leaves Lalbazar. Picture by Aranya Sen Actors, artists and writers on Sunday took the Nandigram protests to Nandan, where the Calcutta Film Festival is being held. Nearly 100 protesters, more than 20 of them women, were arrested. Actor Parambrata Chatterjee, actress Bidipta Chakraborty and 37 students, some from Jadavpur University, were among those put behind bars. The actors were released about five hours later, after a meeting at Lalbazar between deputy commissioner (headquarters) Vineet Goyel and a group of protesters, including film-makers Aparna Sen and Goutam Ghose and poet Sankha Ghosh. “I don’t know on what grounds we were arrested. We did not step into Nandan, nor did we have any arms and ammunition. We were sitting outside the Academy of Fine Arts, singing,” said Parambrata after his release. The protesters gathered at Esplanade around 1.15pm and walked towards Nandan. The police stopped them on Kyd Street. After staging a demonstration for half an hour, they returned to Esplanade and formed a “human chain”. “The protesters then walked to the Academy in small groups and sat down on Cathedral Road, disrupting traffic. This was around 2.20pm,” said an officer of South Traffic Guard. The demonstrators spoke against the government’s role in Nandigram and sang songs of protest. Scores of policemen and Rapid Action Force personnel were deployed. The demonstration ended at 4.15pm with the arrest of the protesters. About 40 minutes later, Youth Congress supporters started walking towards Nandan from Elgin Road. They clashed with the police, when they tried to stop the rally. A section of supporters pelted stones, smashing the windscreen of a state bus. Five passengers were injured. In the evening, Trinamul Congress supporters tried to barge into Nandan. A traffic sergeant was injured in the clash that ensued. The scene of the action shifted to Lalbazar after that. The intellectuals tried to enter the police headquarters to secure the release of the arrested protesters but found the gate shut. “There was confusion because we could not allow everyone who had turned up to step inside,” said a senior officer at Lalbazar. Outside the gate, several demonstrators, including poet Joy Goswami, theatre personality Suman Mukhopadhyay and director-singer Anjan Dutt, were lighting candles to protest the Nandigram violence.

Lawlessness looms - 24-hour bandh called on Monday as blood continues to flow

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071111/asp/frontpage/story_8535520.asp

Lawlessness looms - 24-hour bandh called on Monday as blood continues to flow

OUR BUREAU

Families left homeless by CPM attacks have lunch outside a Nandigram school. Telegraph picture Calcutta/Nandigram, Nov. 10: The Nandigram truce lies in tatters with Bengal staring at a long spell of lawlessness. The CPM today brushed aside governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s expression of outrage and pressed ahead with its bloody offensive in Nandigram, gunning down at least two persons in an unarmed procession. Mamata Banerjee sought to convert the governor’s statement into a force multiplier to breathe fresh life into her Nandigram movement that had appeared on its last legs 24 hours ago, and threatened to “indefinitely cripple” Bengal from Monday. She also announced her resignation as member of Parliament. The SUCI and the Congress called separate 24-hour Bengal bandhs on Monday, while the BJP announced a 48-hour one from Monday till Tuesday. With police staying put in the barracks, the onus of averting a conflagration in Nandigram now rests on the 1,000-strong CRPF unit the Centre today cleared for Bengal. But operational decisions like when and where to deploy it lie with the state. In Calcutta, it was Mamata’s turn to thumb her nose at the rule of law. She did not explain what she meant by “crippling” the state but Trinamul Congress general secretary Madan Mitra claimed that it signified an indefinite bandh. “We have to prepare ourselves for an indefinite period of bandh. That’s what Mamata Banerjee meant,” he said. The Trinamul chief had avoided the B-word also while calling for the state to be brought to a “standstill” on October 31. The Supreme Court, however, has clarified that any attempt to force a shutdown — by whatever label — is illegal. Asked what “indefinite” meant, senior Trinamul leaders said Mamata might have a “rethink” if the state witnessed a “total” shutdown on Monday and Tuesday. Mamata, who left for Nandigram late tonight, said she had sent her resignation letter to the Prime Minister and a copy to the Lok Sabha Speaker. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee cancelled his Delhi trip to attend a party politburo meeting there. He refused to take questions at Nandan, where the Calcutta Film Festival was inaugurated, and slipped out through a side door while Trinamul activists protested at the main gate. In Nandigram, where the CPM has “recaptured” half the party’s lost territory in the past few days, trouble erupted around noon. Men, women and children marchers from Nandigram Bazar, Garchakraberia and Sonachura came under fire near Maheshpur, which the CPM regained this week. Sheikh Rezaul, 38, and housewife Shyamali Majumdar, 33, lay dead and 15 were injured. Some reports spoke of a third death but district magistrate Anup Agarwal said “no (third) body has been found”. CPM leader Shyamal Chakraborty alleged that Maoists and Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee activists had used the marchers as human shield to fire at ruling party supporters. The marchers later regrouped and ransacked the barracks adjoining Nandigram police station in protest against the force’s inaction. The inspector-general (law and order), Raj Kanojia, said the police did not move into the troubled areas to avoid “confrontation or firing”. Shot, raped CPM cadres shot a 40-year-old woman in both legs in Satengabari on Wednesday and then raped her with her daughters, aged 14 and 17, Pratirodh Committee convener Abu Taher alleged. He said the woman got admitted to the Nandigram block hospital today. East Midnapore police chief S.S. Panda confirmed receiving the complaint. The police arrested eight CPM men near Egra apparently while they were removing some of the injured marchers from Nandigram in a van.

Protest at the Kolkata Film Festival 2007

http://news.webindia123.com/news/printer.asp?story=/news/Articles/India/20071109/817674.html

News From Webindia123.com Nandigram shadow looms over Kolkata Film fest
Kolkata | Friday, Nov 9 2007 IST

When the 13th Kolkata Film Festival (KFF) gets underway tomorrow, the shadow of violence-torn Nandigram will loom large over the silver screen. The week-long carnival of 247 films from 56 countries usually sends film buffs into raptures, but a large section of the intellectuals will be absent protesting the ongoing violence in Nandigram. The city's intellectuals have long been divided into two camps -- one spearheading a civil society movement against the state government's Nandigram and Singur policy and ongoing bloodbath in Nandigram and the other defending the ruling communists. The KFF is organised by the state government under the patronage of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, an ardent film lover. With filmmakers like Aparna Sen deciding to boycott the festival this year, it is a big face loss for Bhattacharjee who loves to hobnob with internationally acclaimed filmmakers during Kolkata's annual cultural event. ''I refuse to be a part of the festival in the backdrop of the Nandigram violence which is worse this time,'' Ms Sen said.

''This is a kind of self-censorship as we artistes are taking our own decision driven by our own conscience. With a person of Sen's stature boycotting the festival, the message is loud and clear,'' noted playwright Kaushik Sen said. The actors are members of the Artists, Cultural Activists and Intellectuals' Forum.

Ignoring the boycott, the festival is offering a smorgasbord of films from across the world and will have legendary Argentine director Fernando Ezequiel 'Pino' Solanos as the chief guest. Solanos was scheduled to arrive here on November 11. Before leaving on November 13, he will address a seminar on 'Revisiting Third Cinema' at Nandan, Kolkata's state-run film complex and KFF's main venue. KFF was also scheduled to play host to the daughter of Brazilian filmmaker, theoretician and critic Glauber Rocha. ''The package this year includes socially relevant and aesthetically rich contemporary films,'' said the Chief Minister. Mexican director Francisco Vargas Quevedo's ''El Violin'' (The Violin) is the inaugural film.

The eight-day spread will have special packages on Katherine Hepburn, Laurence Olivier, Jean-Luc Godard, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, Rocha, Shyam Benegal and films based on the literary works of Dostoevsky and Alberto Moravia. Amos Gitai from Israel and Shyam Benegal were also scheduled to attend the festival, which will have about 40 delegates from across the globe.

The Indian Select section has two Bengali films this year -- Agnidev Chatterjee's ''Prabhu Nasto Hoye Jai'' and Samir Chanda's ''Ekti Nadir Galpo''.

The film market -- an annual feature -- has been organised to celebrate 50 years of Bengali cinema. There will be an exhibition on Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni and Bismillah Khan. ''The festival's budget is Rs 12 million of which the government will provide Rs 7 million and Rs 5 million will be raised through sponsorships,'' the Chief Minister said.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/237528.html

Nandigram: Aparna Sen to boycott film fest

Express News Service

Posted online: Friday, November 09, 2007 at 0000 hrs Print Email

KOLKATA, NOVEMBER 8: Nandigram has played spoilsport for the forthcoming Kolkata Film Festival with filmmaker Aparna Sen deciding to boycott the event in protest against the renewed violence. Sen who was supposed to inaugurate the Film Market, a high-profile corporate event associated with the Kolkata Film Festival, called up Film Festival director Nilanjan Chatterjee to inform him that she will not be available for the event.

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“I have always felt very close to the Kolkata Film Fest, been very proud of it and thought of it as my own. So it is with a very heavy heart that I have decided to stay away. I could not bring myself to be associated with it after the renewed spate of violence in Nandigram,” Sen told The Indian Express. Earlier, Sen had openly protested against the March 14 police firing in Nandigram in public rallies organised by the city’s intellectual community.

Sen has also resigned from her position as an executive committee member of the Kolkata Film Festival. Asked if she had formally intimated the state government authorities about her decision, she said, “I have told them about my decision over the phone.”

The Film Market, scheduled to be held from November 11 to 17, will be organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at Nandan. The market is expected to provide a platform for leading film distributors to showcase their creation and promote regional cinema to national and international markets. The inaugural function will also be graced by director Shyam Benegal and actor Soumitra Chatterjee.





http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=47fcc8e7-ebf5-4209-aedb-a8797f5f5317&ParentID=beabc36a-9d81-4d1c-a140-fb5f6a807b8c&MatchID1=4599&TeamID1=6&TeamID2=7&MatchType1=2&SeriesID1=1156&MatchID2=4585&TeamID3=1&TeamID4=8&MatchType2=1&SeriesID2=1151&PrimaryID=4599&Headline=Rituparno+boycotts+fest+to+protest

Rituparno boycotts film fest to protest Nandigram

Bengali filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh followed compatriot Aparna Sen and boycotted the 13th Kolkata Film Festival (KFF) to protest against the violence in West Bengal's Nandigram and the Left government's "inaction".

Ghosh communicated his decision through the Forum of Artistes, Cultural Activists and Intellectuals (FACAI). The festival began Saturday.

"Ghosh communicated to us that he would not attend the festival to protest the Nandigram violence and the silent role of police and the administration as people were being brutalised and killed there," Ajanta Ghosh, spokesperson of FACAI, told IANS.

"He said he was not on the forefront of the Nandigram movement but had always supported the cause and would not be a party to a festival organised by the same government that failed to act and protect the lives of the people," Ajanta Ghosh quoted the filmmaker, who has made the Aishwarya Rai-starred "Chokher Bali", as saying.

Rituparno Ghosh, whose film "The Last Lear" starring Amitabh Bachchan and Preity Zinta is slated for release, has been writing in a Bengali daily against the land acquisition attempts of the government since the protests started in Singur in Hooghly district against a Tata Motors small car project.

The film festival will see 247 films from 56 countries being screened. A section of the city's film fraternity is keeping away to register their protest against the Nandigram violence.

The city's cultural world is divided into two camps - one is spearheading a movement against the government's policy on Nandigram and Singur as well as the violence in Nandigram. The other is defending the communists.

The festival is organised by the government under the patronage of culturally inclined Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, an ardent film lover.

"I refuse to be a part of the festival in the backdrop of the Nandigram violence," Aparna Sen had said earlier.

Among other noted artistes boycotting the event are playwright and film and serial actor Kaushik Sen and playwright Saoli Mitra.

"This is a kind of self-censorship as we artistes are taking our own decision driven by our own conscience. With a person of Aparna Sen's stature boycotting the festival, the message would be loud and clear," said Kaushik Sen.

"We cannot attend a festival organised by a government organising the Nandigram violence," said Saoli Mitra.

Nandigram has been hit by increased violence since over a week with the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) launching a massive offensive against the Trinamool Congress-backed Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) to regained lost bases there. CPI-M cadres have been entering village after village and allegedly torching houses belonging to the rival groups. The BUPC is opposed to acquisition of land by the government for industry.

While the CPI-M maintains that peace is returning to Nandigram, human rights activists and political opponents dispute this.

The death toll in violence in Nandigram has risen to 32 since January when the region flared up over a proposed land acquisition programme for a special economic zone (SEZ). The government axed the plan following stiff resistance.

However, a turf battle has continued to rage in Nandigram between CPI-M and BUPC.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/nov/10indrani1.htm

Aparna Sen: Are we living in the middle ages?
Indrani Roy Mitra in Mumbai

November 10, 2007 18:53 IST

Aparna Sen broke into tears even as she spoke about the violence which has become synonymous with Nandigram.

Talking to rediff.com exclusively over phone from Kolkata on Saturday, she said, "The violence in Nandigram has put democracy in danger. The events have taken the shape of a civil war and some drastic steps are needed to put an end to this mindless violence."

Sen, along with her father, filmmaker and critic Chidananda Dasgupta, left the ongoing Kolkata Film Festival Committee in protest against the violence. Filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh has also walked out of the event.

"How can we be a part of an event organised by the state government at this stage? The Left Front in Bengal is just the ruling party but the state belongs to the people. What the Left Front is doing in Nandigram is worse than any dictatorship. How can we accept such inhuman behaviour?"

It's a pity, she says, that the people of the state have not yet taken to the streets in protest. "Innocent people are being systematically butchered there. I am ashamed, terrified and helpless," says the filmmaker.

Sen's voice choked as she recounted how activist Medha Patkar was assaulted by the Communist Party of India-Marxists activists as she attempted to enter Nandigram.

According to her, Patkar was dragged by hair and hit on the head by party cadres who did not want her to enter the disputed area. "Are we living in the middle ages? What is the famed intelligentsia of Bengal doing? If they don't stand up against such atrocities, when would they?

"Since film is my medium, the instant protest that I can think of is walking out of the film festival. But that just isn't enough. A much more organised opposition should come from the civil society itself," the filmmaker said.

She said the involvement of Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee in the issue only complicated matters further. "The people can't see a viable opposition in Mamata. Bandhs can't and won't provide a solution. Rather a silent yet violent candle march by the common people is bound to have a much better impact."

Like Rituparno Ghosh, Sen too felt that it is time the protest against Nandigram was taken to a national level. "The Centre must intervene to put an end to mass killings. We appeal to the central government to free Nandigram of mindless violence," she said.

http://www.indiaenews.com/politics/20071110/79935.htm

Kolkata film fest begins under shadow of Nandigram

From correspondents in West Bengal, India, 11:31 PM IST

Marked by a Trinamool Congress protest outside the venue, the 13th Kolkata Film Festival (KFF) got underway at the Nandan complex here Saturday even as filmmakers Aparna Sen and Rituparno Ghosh boycotted it to protest violence in Nandigram.

When reporters asked him on his reaction to the eminent faces of Kolkata's film fraternity boycotting the event, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya first pushed back the boom of a regional television channel and said, 'I know those who are coming to this fest.

'It's better that you prepare a list of those who are not coming and hang it in your residence,' he replied in disgust.

The KFF is organised by the state government under the patronage of the culturally inclined chief minister who is also an ardent film lover.

The event was inaugurated by West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi who has been attacked by the ruling CPI-M for 'overstepping his constitutional rights' following his stinging rebuke of the party and the government for its failure to bring back peace in the trouble-torn Nandigram and the unlawful entry of CPI-M men in the area.

Eminent filmmakers Shyam Benegal, Mrinal Sen and Tarun Majumdar besides actor Soumitra Chatterjee were present at the inauguration.

Shortly after the festival was inaugurated, a group of Trinamool supporters led by legislator Sovon Deb Chattopadhyay staged an agitation in front of Nandan.

'Five senior Trinamool leaders were arrested and sent to the central lock-up of Lalbazar, the headquarters of the city police,' Kolkata Police Commissioner Gautam Mohon Chakraborty told reporters.

When asked about the security lapse as the agitators came close to Bhattacharya, Chakraborty said, 'We can't stop a sitting MLA to walk across the road but we take prompt action soon after the incident.'

The boycott and protests apart, the festival is offering a smorgasbord of films from across the world. This year 247 films, including documentaries, short films and children's films, from 56 countries would be shown in the event.

Legendary Argentine director Fernando Ezequiel 'Pino' Solanos is the chief guest. Solanos is scheduled to arrive here Nov 11. Before leaving Nov 13, he'll address a seminar on Revisiting Third Cinema at Nandan, Kolkata's state-run film complex and KFF's main venue.

KFF might also play host to the daughter of Brazilian filmmaker, theoretician and critic Glauber Rocha.

'The package this year includes socially relevant and aesthetically rich contemporary films,' said the chief minister.

Mexican director Francisco Vargas Quevedo's 'El Violin' (The Violin) is the inaugural film.

The eight-day spread will have special packages on Katherine Hepburn, Laurence Olivier, Jean-Luc Godard, Abbas Kiarostami, Rocha, Benegal and films based on the literary works of Dostoevsky and Alberto Moravia.

Amos Gitai from Israel is also scheduled to attend the festival, which will have about 40 delegates from across the globe.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)