Politically speaking

Prakash Jha denied permission to promote Raajneeti in Delhi University. DUSU lashes out, saying Delhi Police should keep out of campus matters.

Filmmaker Prakash Jha has found support in the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU), after a recent debacle left it impossible for him to promote his film,

Raajneeti

, in the University of Delhi, as he had initially hoped.

Jha, who wanted to have a student debate in Delhi University’s Shri Ram College of Commerce, was denied permission at the last moment, after being given clearance initially. “The police told us later that there were law and order issues, and that when Vidya Balan had come to the campus earlier, they could not control the situation,” says Jha.

This has left DUSU outraged. “DCP North has no right to abstain anybody from visiting Delhi University campus. University authority is responsible it. If the Delhi Police is facing security problems during the promotion of Prakash Jha’s film, we students union can arrange the whole thing from our side,” said Anurag Rawal, Chief EC-DUSU.

Last month, too, the venue for the film’s press conference had to be shifted to Gurgaon, after the team was denied permission to hold it in Delhi.

Speculation is rife that the supposed similarity between Katrina Kaif’s character Sonia Gandhi is behind the film’s troubles. A unit member involved in scouting for the venue says, “In spite of making all necessary arrangements, police withdrew permission at the last minute. They told us off the record that they didn’t want to ‘risk of annoying the Gandhi family’.”

A dejected Jha says, “

Pata nahi logon ko

film

ke baare mein kya aashanka hai

.”