| NEW
DELHI: NDTV Imagine was today warned by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry
for having telecast an episode of the TV series Bandini on 4 March which
"offended against good taste and decency." This
related to the showing of visuals of a poor girl being tortured by another woman.
The contents of the episode also appeared to be "portraying women in a negative
role." After
considering the reply of the channel to a show cause notice issued on 28 July
and placing it before the Inter-Ministerial Committee examining the content of
TV channels, the Ministry has advised the channel to strictly adhere to the Programme
Code prescribed under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act and "resist
from showing programmes which portray women in negative light."
The
channel was told that "strict compliance to above direction should be ensured
by NDTV Imagine Channel. Any further violation may entail stringent action." The
channel had in its reply on 10 August stated that the story of the programme Bandini
revolves around a Gujarati “Mahiyavanshi” family residing in a fictional
village called Dharampur in Gujarat. In
the episode, Santoo was shown recollecting the harassment meted out towards her
by Tarulataben who had accused Santoo of stealing a gold earring. However, nowhere
in the episode had the torture meted out by Tarulataben on Santoo been glorified
or hyped, the channel had explained. "These
incidents/acts, scenes are only to demonstrate the unfortunate treatment that
could be carried out by people who have unnecessary prejudice against some people.
It was also shown that Dharampratap Mahiyavanshi condemned Tarulataben for falsely
accusing Santoo," NDTV Imagine said. The
IMC said the telecast had shown visuals of a lady alleging a poor girl of theft
and torturing her for a great length of time and portrayed women in a negative
role. | 
