‘Bid To Distract From Failures Of Modi Govt’
Akhilesh Singh (THE TIMES OF INDIA; December 29, 2018)

New Delhi: Days before its release, ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ — a biopic based on former PM Manmohan Singh’s 10-year tenure in office — has kicked up a huge row with Congress denouncing it as a propaganda effort and the BJP saying the main opposition was being duplicitous in running down the film.

With the movie, based on a book by Singh’s former media advisor Sanjaya Baru, showing the UPA in poor light, BJP’s social media handles were quick to share the trailer of the film scheduled for a New Year release. BJP said it was a “riveting tale of how a family held the country to ransom for 10 long years”.

“Was Dr Singh just a regent who was holding on to the PM’s chair till the time heir was ready?” BJP asked. With well-known actor and BJP sympathiser Anupam Kher in the lead role, Congress leaders said the movie was a bid to distract attention from the failures of the Modi government.

“Sponsored a book before 2014, sponsored a movie before 2019 elections,” Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said.

Senior leader P L Punia also said that the gimmick was intended to hide the government’s failures.

BJP picked on statements by some state leaders seeking a review of the film to say, “Why does Congress want to censor a film when the book was published way back in April 2014? Just because fewer people read books than watch a movie. Where are the champions of free speech and expression? Stand up for artistic freedom.”

BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya shared the stand of Congress leaders, including party president Rahul Gandhi, on the movie ‘Udta Punjab’ which was released just before the state assembly polls and which the incumbent Akali-BJP government felt was “politically motivated” to run down the state.

“Punjab has a crippling drug problem. Censoring ‘Udta Punjab’ will not fix it. The government must accept the reality and find solutions,” Rahul had then tweeted, Malviya recalled.

Reacting to the controversy, Kher said, “The more they protest, more publicity they will give to the film.”
------------------------------
Don’t intend to ban film in MP, says Kamal Nath

Bhopal: Hours after a spokesperson of Madhya Pradesh Congress said his party will not allow the screening of ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ in the state, CM Kamal Nath said on Friday evening, “I have no intention to stop the screening or ban any film in MP.”

One of the spokespersons of the party, Syed Zafar, had told a TV channel that Congress will not allow the film’s screening in MP. Zafar said he had written a letter to the film’s director saying he shouldn’t have shown a “scholar prime minister, who prevented India from being affected by worldwide recession, in a poor light”. Zafar said he intended to write a similar letter to the censor board chairman urging him not to clear the film.

Later, another Congress spokesperson Narendra Saluja put out Nath’s statement on WhatsApp. “It’s a BJP-sponsored film and they want us to protest so that it gets publicity, but we are not going to do it,” said Saluja.