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We, the undersigned members of the filmmaking community in India, and supporters, are shocked to hear that the inaugural film festival organised by Film Society Ravenshaw at Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, was stopped from screening Debalina Majumder's Gay India Matrimony and Shabnam Virmani' s Had-Anhad.

Gay India Matrimony is a 2019 documentary which takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the problems and prospects of same-sex marriage in India, featuring the director herself and two others. Gay India Matrimony has been criticised by the opposing outfit Hari Om as "an attempt to corrupt the minds of yore ruth to steer away from family see values and tradition". In Had-Anhad (2008), Virmani traces the 15th century mystic poet Kabir's attachment with Ram, across the Indo-Pak border. In this case, Had-Anhad is charged with "romanticising the Indo-Pak right relationship".

Both films are well-known and have already been in circulation in film festivals and campuses in India and abroad. At a time when free speech is threatened across the country, journalists and mediamakers attacked, the forcible stoppage of the screenings of these two films only adds fuel to the rising intolerance in the country.

What is particularly dismaying is how an institute of higher learning, a University, finds documentary films that have been widely screened and acclaimed in many public fora unsuitable for its own students.

We are also appalled to hear that the outfit, Hari Om, objected to the screening of Pather Panchali (1955) by Oscar awardee and Bharat Ratna Satayjit Ray as "romanticising poverty in India" and to his equally classic cinematic work Charulata (1964) as "borderline incest". Such policing of Indian cinema through intimidation and threats of violence further shrinks the culture of free thinking and creativity. Universities and film societies are integral parts of our public spaces, their right to screen and discuss cinema needs to be upheld at all costs.

We strongly condemn this illegal vigilante action by self-appointed "guardians" of "morality" and culture.

We stand in solidarity with the filmmakers and the organisers of the film festival, and extend our unflinching support to them.

$1 trillion in the shade – the annual profits multinational corporations shift to tax havens continues to climb and climb https://theconversation.com/1-trillion-in-the-shade-the-annual-profits-multinational-corporations-shift-to-tax-havens-continues-to-climb-and-climb-200034 : February 23, 2023.  By our reckoning, corporations shifted nearly US$1 trillion in profits earned outside of their home countries to tax havens in 2019, up from $616 billion in 2015, the year before the global tax haven plan was implemented by the group of 20 leading economies, also known as the G-20. 

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of 37 democracies with market-based economies, developed a plan that consisted of 15 tangible actions it believed would significantly limit abusive corporate tax practices. These included creating a single set of international tax rules and cracking down on harmful tax practices. ..

following leaks like the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers – which shed light on dodgy corporate tax practices – public outrage led governments in the U.S. and Europe to initiate their own efforts to lower the incentive to shift profits to tax havens.

Our research shows all these efforts appear to have had little impact.

Adani and Modi | The Full Story of Fraud Allegations | Dhruv Rathee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDEZSFNQmP0

 2=3=2023. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always been accused of having links with Adani. People claim that Modi has provided favours to Adani multiple times. But what are the exact allegations? Why do people connect Modi to Adani? And is there any truth behind these claims? Watch this video by Dhruv Rathee to find out as he deep dives into these claims and explains the truth behind them.

2:44 Adani’s contribution to country? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDEZSFNQmP0&t=164s

5:40 Land Scam? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDEZSFNQmP0&t=340s

8:18 Airport Scam? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDEZSFNQmP0&t=498s

12:12 Coal Scam? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDEZSFNQmP0&t=732s 15:32 Sri Lankan Port project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDEZSFNQmP0&t=932s

16:55 Alleged Tax Evasion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDEZSFNQmP0&t=1015s

20:05 Shell Companies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDEZSFNQmP0&t=1205s