India Archives - Page 47 of 54 - Index on Censorship

Indian government to answer allegations of phone-tapping

The Indian Government is to respond to the serious charges of having tapped the telephone conversations of four leading politicians, including the chairman of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Lalit Modi, since 2007. The government began an investigation of Mr Modi and the IPL last week after allegations of tax evasion, money laundering, kickbacks, match fixing and illegal betting in cricket’s competition. Many prominent Indian figures have been implicated in the scandal, which led to the resignation of Shashi Taroor, a junior minister and former UN under-secretary-general, and the suspension of Modi from public assignments.

Arundhati Roy under investigation by Indian police

Writer and campaigner Arundhati Roy is currently under investigation by Chhattisgarh police for her article “Walking with the Comrades”, published 29 March in Outlook magazine, describing her experiences with Maoist insurgents in the Dantewada region. The area was the location of the recent ambush launched on 6 April by the same rebels which killed 70 police troops. Police are alleging that Roy has intricate ties to the insurgents as a result of her sympathetic article. Roy stated in an interview to an Indian newspaper that the investigation was simply a way to “cordon off the theatre of war and choke the flow of critical information coming out of the forests”.

India: Writer charged with obscenity for debut novel

Author Murzban Shroff has been charged with obscenity and making “prejudicial” remarks to “national integration” in his novel Breathless in Bombay. The latter charge is based on the use of the word “ghati”; a defamatory term for Maharashtrians, people from the Maharashtra region in western India. Following Shroff’s hearing at the Bombay High Court on Friday, Justice BR Gavai ordered that police not to take any “coercive action” against the author during the ongoing investigation but he granted the prosecution three weeks to file a reply.

India censors Nehru-Mountbatten passion

Plans to make a movie about the romance between Jawaharlal Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten may be halted by the Indian government. It has refused to allow filming in the country if there are any scenes that show India’s first prime minister and the wife of the last viceroy holding hands, kissing or saying the word love.