IFFI Row: ‘I&B officials to blame for Nadav Lapid fiasco,’ say ministry insiders

New Delhi: The International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which had in recent times become an iconic gathering to showcase the soft power of India, this time has turned fast into an “unfortunate” event, with chief of the international jury Nadav Lapid having labelled ‘The Kashmir Files’ as “propaganda”.

The obvious question in India is why and how Nadav Lapid was invited, given that his ideological history is all over the internet.

Monideepa Mukherjee, Managing Director, National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) did not answer Firstpost queries in the matter. Having been redirected to the Balaji Mani Khumaran, Deputy GM and Head of Media at NFDC, Firstpost did not get a response from him too despite calls and text messages.

Meanwhile, talking to Firstpost, ministry insiders in the know of things, squarely blamed the bureaucrats tasked with organising the film festival. “It is unfortunate and sad that such a fiasco has happened. It only goes on to show that these people were just lazy. They did not do their homework. This is not rocket science. You could just Google the person and see…just as the whole of India is doing now,” said a highly placed source in the I&B Ministry.

The thing about IFFI is that it has very carefully been crafted since the BJP government came to power at the Centre to reflect and further India’s soft power in the rest of the world. And, it had been a raging success, till now.

“This is embarrassing for India as a country as a State. We have been found lagging at a very basic level. There is a set standard procedure for selection or inviting people as jurists, just like any other film festival across the world: the person should be eminent, must have an acclaimed body of work under his belt. Question is, who thought that Nadav LApid qualifies on these two counts?” another source in the government told Firstpost.

“This edition of the film festival was nothing new; it was the 53ed edition. A template for everything is in place. They just needed to go through the basic rigour of implementing them. This is just lazy work,” another source associated with the ministry added.

Former Indian Information Servcies (IIS) officers too are dismayed. “It would be wrong to place the blame on bureaucracy as a whole. In fact, all the previous and super-successful editions of IFFI were organized by bureaucrats only,” a retired officer, who did not want to be named, said.

“They could have just Googled Nadav Lapid and seen his love for India!” he added, jokingly.

After the initial uproar and public outcry over Lapid’s unsavoury remarks, his condemnation led by the very top of the Israeli establishment in India, including Israel’s ambassador to India Naor Gilon, the lens has finally turned towards the Information and Broadcasting Ministry of India, since IFFI is their show.

Even supporters of the government have come out to call for an explanation by I&B Minister Anurag Thakur.

Author Shefali Vaidya did not mince words to call out the I&B Ministry. “Ironic that the loudest voices calling out the scum called Nadav Lapid are all Israeli diplomats like Kobbi Shoshani, Naor Gilon and Daniel Carmon, while our own people responsible for this debacle have gone into coma,” she tweeted, tagging the I&B Ministry and minister Anurag Thakur.

Ironic that the loudest voices calling out the scum called #NadavLapid are all Israeli diplomats like @KobbiShoshani @NaorGilon and @danielocarmon while our own people responsible for this debacle have gone into coma @MIB_India @ianuragthakur

— Shefali Vaidya.