New Delhi: A tasteless video clip on Mahatma Gandhi by New York-based NRI comedian Gautham Prasad has got the government’s knickers in a twist. Outraged by the video, the government is seeking to shoot the medium: YouTube, currently the hottest video-sharing website.
I&B minister P R Dasmunshi is understood to have taken up the matter with the IT ministry for “action’’ against YouTube. Sources said YouTube would be either blocked or asked to take off the video.
The government has also taken “serious exception’’ to two TV channels, IBN-7 and Sahara, for airing the video. Dasmunshi on Friday demanded a “profound apology’’ from the channels — which came pronto. The move to act against YouTube has a throwback to the government’s action in October against Orkut for messages by a Pakistan-based ‘Hate India’ community.
The offending video has Gandhi doing a pole-dance, stripping, playing with daggers and dining with two beautiful women. An angry I&B ministry has decided the issue will be discussed by a committee headed by the additional secretary. As for the channels, they are likely to be let off after their unqualified apology. However, it is the YouTube issue that is of greater interest. With new technological breakthroughs, nation-states are being pitted against a borderless virtual world.
Interestingly, civil society leaders had a mixed reaction. Filmmaker Anand Patwardhan said: “Gandhi would have been upset by atrocities on dalits and the celebration over the nuclear deal. He would not have been the least bit upset by this video.’’ Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt said Gandhi would’ve “laughed’’ at this. “The video is akin to graffiti. Gandhi is not a form that can be insulted. He does not require to be protected.’’
Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande, however, felt that repeating the video clip again and again for “sensational value’’ was wrong. “Why should they telecast it at all,’’ she asked. Bapu’s great grandson Tushar Gandhi has also called for action against the offenders.
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I&B ministry seeks to block website YouTube, for featuring a clip showing an NRI comedian as Gandhi
Govt also takes ‘serious exception’ to two TV channels airing the video
The clip shows Gandhi doing a pole dance, bashing up hoodlums, stripping & dining with women


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