Water Bengal ready to welcome Deepa and her team Energy Education Park inaugurated at Calcutta

After the fracas in Varanasi over the shooting of Deepa Mehta’s ``Water,’’ the West Bengal government has now made it clear that it will brook no opposition of any form if she chooses to shoot the film in Calcutta on the banks of the Hooghly. Mehta, stung by the protests of the Sangh Parivar bordering on goondaism and vandalism, has said that she is open to the offer but the negotiations with the state government have been put on hold given her sudden indisposition.

All this is sad news for the country at large and the arts fraternity in particular. The West Bengal government has again shown that it stands for honest politics and administration and that it will leave no stone unturned to ensure that the film unit can shoot here without a hitch. But the warnings and noises made by the BJP could make any unit wary ; after all, lakhs of rupees have already been lost in Varanasi and despite the good intentions of the state government, even a stray stone thrown by a mad man during the shoot is sure to invite media glare and in consequence, bad publicity for the government. Any step thus now has to be taken with the utmost caution with a firm warning and statement going out to the BJP and Shiv Sena that their diabolical intentions shall be crushed with a firm hand in this oasis of good governance, West Bengal.