Mumbai: Authorities have tried to crack down on portrayals of Congress president Sonia Gandhi in movies, books and cartoons, triggering criticism that they are too reverent towards the country’s most powerful politician.
An upcoming film Raajneeti, a political saga featuring a woman politician said to resemble Sonia, has had trouble with the censor.
Filmmaker Prakash Jha denies his lead actor in Raajneeti -- seen in promotional material draped in a saree like Sonia -- is modeled after her.
Jha said he had difficulty getting his film classified "U/A" (universal) after first receiving an adult certification that would have drawn smaller audiences. A new controversy threatens to overshadow the movie's premiere on Friday.
A Spanish novel El Sari Rojo (The Red Sari), purporting to dramatise the "tale of the Nehru-Gandhi family told through the story of Sonia Gandhi", has recently come under fire from the Congress party.
There have been moves to block the English publication of the novel, which in some editions has pictures of Sonia on the cover with folded hands.
Congress party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi was cited in The Indian Express as saying the work was "completely unauthorised, defamatory and salacious".
Congress has been blamed for shutting down the office of an Urdu-language newspaper in Kashmir over a caption under a picture of Sonia deemed derogatory by local officials.
The BJP says such censorship moves are a throwback to the Emergency in the 1970s when then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi banned books, movies and newspapers seen as anti-government.
Political observers say the Italian-born Sonia is not quite the autocrat her mother-in-law was reputed to be and that the new censorship is a result of the Congress party's protective nature over the Gandhi family.
"It is the culture of sycophancy in the party that is to blame," said Suhel Seth, managing partner of marketing consultancy Counselage India. "The eager beavers in the party take it upon themselves to be custodians of what they perceive to be Brand Sonia to curry favour."
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