Indian film-makers return accolades in protest at unsolved political murders

A group of prominent Indian film-makers have returned prizes awarded to them by the government in protest at the unsolved murders of the rationalist artists Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi, according to Variety. The group, which includes documentarian Anand Patwardhan and Dibakar Banerjee, returned their medals from India’s National Film Awards, the country’s most prestigious film awards ceremony. “We have watched the murders of rationalists and writers such as Dr Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi with dismay,” they said in a statement. “These are clearly not random acts of violence. People are being murdered for their beliefs and opinions.” Dabholkar, a prominent anti-superstition campaigner, was murdered by two gunmen in 2013. Pansare, a left-winger and a member of the Communist Party of India, was shot in February this year. Kalburgi, who was killed in October, had spoken out against idolatry in Hinduism. All three had received death threats before their murders and all three murders remain unsolved. Patwardhan, a secular rationalist, won a special jury prize at the National Film Awards in 2012. Banerjee had two prizes from the awards: best Hindi feature for Khosla Ka Ghosla and best popular film for Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! Both film-makers are critical of prime minister Narendra Modi’s government, which is facing protests from campaigners for allegedly ignoring the threat of extremism in India. “There seems to be no attempt to unravel the larger picture and bring to book extremist groups that believe in ruthless violence to eliminate those who hold a counter view from theirs,” said the group in their statment. “There has been no official condemnation of these groups and we question this silence.”