Ignorant govt shown 'forgotten hero' in 70mm

Days after his ministry was criticised by the Left for stating that it had no documents on Netaji Subash Chandra Bose's contribution to the freedom struggle, Home Minister Shivraj Patil was on Wednesday invited for a special screening of a movie based on the life of the revolutionary leader.

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee invited Patil to a screening of director Shyam Benegal's Bose: The Forgotten Hero, made in 2005, at the Balayogi Auditorium within Parliament premises.

The home ministry statement that it had no records on Netaji's contribution to the freedom struggle -- made in response to an application under the Right to Information Act by Delhi resident Dev Ashish Bhattarcharya -- had left Left parties fuming.

Others who watched the movie with Patil were Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K Rehman Khan, BJP lawmaker Ananth Kumar and several Left lawmakers.

Bhattarcharya had filed a petition under the RTI Act to know whether details of Netaji's contribution to the independence movement were well preserved by the government. Patil later wrote

a letter to Biswas, saying Bose's contribution to the freedom struggle was 'immense' and that the 'memory of Netaji and his contribution were an intrinsic part of Indian history and heritage.'

However, another RTI application by Bhattarcharya brought to light the fact that the government had not spent a single rupee on advertising Netaji's vision on his birthday on January 23 as is done in the case of other freedom fighters.

The department of audio-visual publicity of the Union information and broadcasting ministry said that during the period from April 1, 2006 to March 23, 2007, it had 'issued display advertisements to various newspapers worth Rs 1,096 lakh and an amount of Rs 100 crore was spent on the electronic media.'

"No advertisement was released by the DAVP on January 23 this year to spread the message of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. However, telecast of 60 seconds was done free of cost by Doordarshan News," DAVP said.

Benegal's 208-minute movie was scripted by award-winning writers Atul Tiwari (of Mission Kashmir fame) and Shama Zaidi (of Garam Hawa fame). Sachin Kherekar plays the role of Bose in the film, which was shot at locations in Berlin, Myanmar, Malaysia, Uzbekistan and Kolkata.