Cooper urged to make statement on ‘terrorists’ who halted Gandhi film
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Masked protesters who disrupted the screening of a “controversial” Bollywood film in London have been branded “terrorists” by a Conservative MP. Bob Blackman, who represents Harrow East, said a group of demonstrators burst into a branch of Vue Cinemas in Harrow during the film Emergency.
He urged Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to make a Commons statement on the action being taken to enable people to see films in “peace and harmony”. The film covers the period where India was under a state of emergency from 1975 to 1977. This led to the jailing of political opponents and a clampdown on press freedom.
About 6.2 million Indian men were forcibly sterilised under a campaign run by Sanjay Gandhi, former prime minister Indira Gandhi’s son. Speaking in the Commons, Mr Blackman said: “On Sunday many of my constituents gathered and paid for a screening of the film Emergency in the Harrow Vue Cinema.
“About 30 to 40 minutes in to the screening of that film, masked Khalistani terrorists burst in and threatened members of the audience, and forced the screening to end. “I understand that similar disruption took place in Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Slough, Staines and Manchester.
“As a result Vue Cinemas and Cineworld have pulled the film from being screened. “Now this is a very controversial film, and I don’t comment on the quality or the content of the film, but I do defend the right of my constituents and others to be able to view that film and make a decision on it.
