The ban seemed futile with the documentary going viral and the government's attempts at stuffing the genie back in the bottle failing. Lakhs viewed the documentary online, even after it was taken down by YouTube on Thursday and civil society questioned the government's decision.
The BBC, which has telecast the documentary in UK, openly confronted the Indian government, saying 'India's Daughter' has a strong public interest in raising awareness of a global problem like rape and hence is "satisfied with the editorial standards of the film". The film "is an important account of an event that galvanized Indian opinion to ensure such tragedies are not repeated". The Union home ministry had sent legal notices, seeking a ban on its broadcast globally. BBC did not telecast it in India.
The documentary by British film-maker Leslee Udwin shows interviews with one of the rapists, the girl's parents and the rapists' lawyers. On Friday, the Bar Council of India said it will discuss the course of action it can take over regressive comments by the defence lawyers.
Udwin denied any breach of contract with authorities at Delhi's Tihar Jail where she interviewed the jailed accused. Delhi had claimed the film-makers violated conditions of the permission by making commercial use of the prison shoot and not showing the unedited footage to the Tihar authorities. Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said: "All I can say is that whatever is required, will be done. If conditions have been violated, there will be appropriate action."
The home ministry, apart from writing to BBC, had sent communications to the ministry of external affairs, requesting it to take up the issue with BBC; to the ministry of information & broadcasting, asking it to enforce the restraining order; and the ministry of information technology, seeking blocking of any content relating to the documentary on social media.
But pulling videos down is a bit like battling a many-headed hydra, for more kept cropping up. There were over 10 videos of the film posted on Youtube on Friday. Two of the links still worked. The videos had a total of around 11,000 views. Another film sharing site, Daily Motion, had 11 videos with a total of 36,853 views, while Vimeo had 3 videos with 5,848 views.
Many people on social media said they had downloaded the film and were willing to show it to anyone who could not access it online. Environmentalist Sumaira Abdulali, who managed to download the film before it was blocked online, says it is absurd the film can viewed across the world but is blocked in India. "How can you isolate India from the rest of the world, unless we turn India into China?" she asks.
While the government harped on conditions of filming the documentary being allegedly violated, a group of feminist activists—including Kavita Krishnan and Indira Jaisingh — also called for a ban on the film, not for its content, but because the case is still in appeal in the courts and the film's screening could weaken the case. -VIA TOI