‘India’s Daughter’: Controversial documentary on Delhi gangrape uploaded on YouTube

New Delhi: Despite the central government seeking a global ban on India’s Daughter, a documentary based on the 2012 Delhi gangrape, it was aired by BBC and has been uploaded on YouTube by a private user.

The documentary was supposed to be telecast in India on March 8 (International Women’s Day) but the Home Ministry has obtained orders from court to restrain the broadcast of the documentary and promised to investigate how permission was given to interview the rapist.

Here are the excerpts from the documentary:

In the documentary, rape convict Mukesh Singh appeared to show no remorse and blamed the victim Jyoti for being out at night.

Singh told the documentary crew that the victim "should just be silent and allow the rape."

"A decent girl won't roam around at 9 o'clock at night," he said. "A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. Boy and girl are not equal.”

"Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes."

He suggested that they "had a right to teach them a lesson."

While Jyoti’s mother said, “My daughter was about to complete her studies, she always said that you don’t have to worry anymore as I am a doctor now and everything will be fine. It seems that god didn’t like this. He ended everything there.”

Delhi gangrape documentary sparks uproar in Parliament:

Heated debate was witnessed in Parliament on Wednesday after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in a statement that a restraining order had been obtained against the screening of India’s Daughter.

The controversial interview, conducted inside the Tihar jail premises in the national capital, shows the December 16 convict, Mukesh Singh, showing no remorse and blaming the victim for the gruesome crime.

The interview was recorded during the tenure of the previous UPA government. While the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) is planning legal action against the filmmaker, Leslee Udwin, for allegedly violating stipulated permission conditions, a “stunned” home minister said provisions for allowing such shoots inside jails would be reviewed.

Promising strict action and an “in-depth inquiry”, Mr Singh, in a suo motu statement in both Houses of Parliament, said he was “hurt” and “shocked” as to how permission could be granted in July 2013 for such an interview in Tihar Jail.

Noting that the conditions for permission to conduct the interview were violated, Mr Singh said, “Under no circumstances will this documentary be allowed to be broadcast... Government has taken necessary action and secured an order restraining the telecast of the film. The government strongly condemns it and will “not allow any organisation to leverage such an incident for commercial use”.

Observing that not only Parliament but the entire nation was feeling ashamed about it, Mr Singh said he has already spoken to the I&B ministry and told them to explore ways to ensure that the documentary is not broadcast even abroad.

“Our government condemns the incident of 16th December 2012 in the strongest possible terms and will not allow any attempt by any individual, group or organisation to leverage such unfortunate incidents for commercial benefit. The respect and dignity of women constitute a core value of our culture and tradition. Our government remains fully committed to ensuring the safety and dignity of women,” Mr Singh said.

In a letter dated July 24, 2013, the MHA, under then home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, had given a consent letter to the Tihar Jail authorities saying they had “no objection to the proposal of Udwin for entering Tihar Jail to interview some convicts provided informed written consent of the convict is obtained from each of the convicts interviewed.”

However, Mr Shinde denied involvement in allowing the interview of the convict inside the jail premises. Sources said the Tihar administration had already sent two legal notices to the filmmakers for not adhering to the norms.

Initiating an inquiry, Mr Singh summoned the Tihar Jail director-general and the Delhi police lodged an FIR on Tuesday against unknown persons under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act for outraging the modesty of a woman. The police is now planning to question the filmmakers, sources said.