CM Vijayan cites Hema Justice Commission guidelines for delayed publication of report

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 20 (SocialNews.XYZ) A day after the explosive report of the Hema Commission (retired) on the conditions and sexual exploitation of women in the Malayalam film industry came out and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was criticised for keeping the report under wraps for nearly five years, he on Tuesday made it clear that his government had no role in it and that the report was prepared as per the guidelines of the commission.

“Incidentally, it was Justice Hema himself who wrote to the state government in 2020, quoting the Supreme Court guidelines not to name the people in the report as it was private information and had to be kept extra confidential. The state government had no role in this,” Vijayan said.

He noted that in 2020, the then Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Vinson M. Paul ruled that the Justice Hema Committee report should not be made public.

“However, in 2024, the CIC decided to revoke the 2020 decision by masking the sensitive information. But soon a producer’s petition came to the Supreme Court. First it was stayed, then the stay was lifted. Soon another petition came from a popular actress. The state government has only one stand and we have no problem. The Hema committee report states that it was prepared by them alone and not even a stenographer was involved. It was done to maintain confidentiality and is mentioned in the report itself,” Vijayan said.

“I want to make one thing very clear… the government has been very tough in the past and we will only continue in that direction. We make it very clear that if anyone who has given evidence to the committee comes forward with a complaint about their experience, we will take action on that, regardless of who is on the other side,” he added.

Vijayan added that this is the first time that a state government in the country has appointed such a committee to look into women’s issues in the film industry.

“On June 6, 2017, our government, after hearing about serious problems in the film industry, decided to appoint the Hema Commission. They were supposed to submit a report within six months, but it was delayed and was submitted only on December 31, 2019,” he said.

“The government, after going through the recommendations, started taking action and the Internal Complaints Committee was set up. Also, there was a recommendation for women filmmakers and we decided to help them and included it in the state budget. A sum of Rs 1.50 crore was also sanctioned for each film made by women and four such films have been released so far,” Vijayan added.

“There was a recommendation to launch a Cinema Bill and this is being worked out by a team led by veteran filmmaker Shaji N. Karun. We are also planning to hold a Cinema Conclave where all issues would be discussed and debated,” he said.

The Prime Minister said the government believes that the film industry in Kerala is 94 years old and this industry with its vast history should not be discredited because of certain incidents.

“Kerala has a very great history of films and achievements and isolated incidents should not overshadow these achievements. There can be villains in films but not in the film industry. No one should be left out and there should be no factions or groups in the industry. At no cost, there should be no exploitation of any kind and the government will be with the victim and the ‘villains’ will be held accountable,” Vijayan asserted.

Source: IANS

About Gopi

Gopi Adusumilli is a programmer. He is the Editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc.

He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various verified news sources.

When it comes to writing, he enjoys writing about current world politics and Indian movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgement towards anyone.

He can be reached at [email protected]