Divya Bharathi, who made the documentary Kakkoos on the plight of manual scavengers, has complained of a barrage of hate calls over the past few days from casteist and Hindu right-wing elements, who blamed her for the “wrong” portrayal of a particular community in the film.
Speaking to the media, she said that the callers, who were highly derogatory and often threatened to rape or kill her, reviled her for showing Devendrakula Vellalars, who come under the Scheduled Castes, as undertaking manual scavenging.
Appeal to PT chief
“The film was not to insult any community, but a searing criticism of the government and the society at large for forcing a section of the underprivileged people to do the inhuman task of manual scavenging,” she said.
Alleging that many callers pointed to Puthiya Tamizhagam (PT) party leader K. Krishnasamy’s alleged criticism of the film over the same issue, Ms. Divya expressed hope that their claims were false. “If Dr. Krishnasamy watches the film, I believe he will appreciate it. If his partymen are involved in these hate calls, I appeal to him to ask them to stop,” she said.
She also alleged that a considerable number of calls were from men belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
She said that though she had approached the Madurai city police with the list of callers, they said it would be difficult to help since there were hundreds of numbers.
