Madurai: Divya Bharathi, the young woman documentary film maker of Kakoos (Toilet) on Monday alleged that she has been getting threat calls and abusive messages from persons claiming to be members of the Dalit outfit, Puthiya Tamilagam (PT) party and of BJP.
The callers have raised objections to her mentioning of ‘Pallar’ scheduled caste (SC) community as one of the depressed castes that is still involved in manual scavenging in the documentary film. “As most of the callers are referring to PT leader Dr Krishnaswamy by name, we want to know whether he also shares the view of his party cadres or he would take action against them,” said Divya Bharathi, the film maker.
Many of the callers also identify themselves as functionaries of the BJP with their names and their native places. “The callers are stalking me wherever I go and informing me about my movements over phone. I am really worried,” Divya Bharati told a press conference in Madurai. And for the last three days, they have also been circulating abusive words against the film maker mentioning her mobile number in the social media. “She was receiving Internet calls from aboard issuing threats to her life”, said Prof. R Murali, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), state secretary. She had filed a complaint with the city police, but the cyber-cell wing were only promising to prevent the spreading of those messages in social media. “They are expressing their inability to take action against the callers because they are hundreds in numbers,” she claimed. The documentary film ‘Kakoos’ was released in February this year and it has been screened in various places in the state, but she had not received any such life threats and abuse from any communities in the last six months.
“I have started receiving such threats only after an uploaded video in social media narrating the humiliation faced by the Arunthathiyar SC community people employed as sanitary workers at Anna University Engineering College in Dindigul recently. The college principal Chithirai Selvi, belongs to Pallar SC community, has been ill-treating the workers,” alleges Divya, adding, that the workers also had filed a complaint with the Dindigul collector against the principal.
“Facing threats by non-state actors against human rights defenders by trivializing such issues is cause for serious concern for us,” said Murali.
