The government, on Wednesday, banned the telecast of the now controversial documentary — India’s Daughter . Shot by British filmmaker and rape survivor, Leslee Udwin, it is an in-depth look at the Delhi gang rape of December 16, 2012. Udwin managed to tape an interview with Mukesh Singh, an accused currently lodged in Tihar jail. In the film, a seemingly unrepentant Singh squarely lays the blame for the crime on the victim. “A decent girl won’t roam around at 9 in the night,” he says. “Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes.”

In many ways, Singh’s is merely another voice in a country that always embraced victim-shaming as a means to explain away the instances of violence against women. Despite this, there are credible arguments on both sides of the debate on whether he should have a platform to air his views.

However, in calling for a ban, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in Parliament that the documentary was a “conspiracy to defame India”. This is problematic. For one, the ban only disallows Indians from watching it. Secondly, this is another indicator of this government’s tendency to hide the country’s warts. In January, it stopped a greenpeace activist, Priya Pillai, from attending a meeting in London. The ministry of home affairs argued that Pillai’s testimony would impact “India’s image abroad”.

Truth is, the December 16 incident has already done that. The number of foreign tourists visiting Indian in January 2015 was 10 per cent lower than the number for January 2014. Despite this, each week brings with it more stories of violent sexual crimes against women from all parts of the country. The actual defamation of India lies in these stories, at the country’s ineptness at keeping women safe. If the government had any concrete plans of dealing with violence against women, it wouldn’t have to snuff the telecast of a documentary to keep India’s honour intact.

Veena Venugopal, Deputy Editor

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