‘Systematic attack’: Venugopal targets Govt over Empuraan row

Since the movie depicts the Gujarat riots, Venugopal said that the film’s actors, the producers, the directors were “forced to cut 24 parts of the film”.

As per the new CBFC certificate, there are cuts or changes in 24 scenes and visuals with a total duration of 2 minutes and 8 seconds have been deleted from the original movie.

Without naming any Youtuber or journalist, Venugopal said, “Whenever somebody is talking against the government or against the BJP, they are under threat… the entire machinery of the Sangh parivar and the BJP are behind them.”

Warning that the trend will “ruin our democratic values”, he said, “They are systematically trying to finish the RTI… it is one of the best weapons for the common people… ”

Later, in a post on X, Venugopal said, “The BJP & RSS have perfected the use of the heckler’s veto and are taking a sledgehammer on people’s freedom of expression”.

“The way in which the makers of Empuraan have been targeted in Kerala, or the hounding of journalists and YouTubers shows how the BJP & RSS will not tolerate any contrarian thought and use all its muscle power to silence its critics. They are also hell bent on eroding transparency by severely diluting the RTI Act,” he said on X.

RSS mouthpiece, Organiser, had strongly criticised the movie, saying the film is trying to push an age-old anti-Hindu agenda with an alarming bias. “Rather than focusing on the true historical events, the film uses the backdrop of the 2002 post-Godhra riots to push a divisive, anti-Hindu narrative that poses a serious threat to communal harmony,” it had said.