All those fuss about Padmaavat


Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat appeared to have put the angry coalition of Patidar quota leader Hardik Patel, OBC leader Alpesh Thakor and the Congress, which fought the BJP as a united front during the Assembly elections, on the same side of the BJP, in their view of the film as “hurting sentiments of a “particular community”. While the Congress remained guarded in its support of the ban on Padmaavat, Hardik and Alpesh have demanded a ban on the film as has the BJP government in Gujarat.As incidents of arson and chakka jam were reported from Surendranagar and the Ahmedabad-Rajkot highway, and attempts to burn a bus were made in Banaskantha on Ahmedabad-Dholka highway, Central forces were deployed in the districts of Mehsana, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Vadodara and Banaskantha.

A day after police opened fire to disperse violent mobs armed with sticks, stones and bottles filled with inflammable substances, burning down at least 60 vehicles outside four malls in Ahmedabad that hhoused multiplexes, the Multiplex Association of India declared in a press release on Wednesday that Padmaavat would not be screened in Gujarat. The police arrested 154 persons and lodged four FIRs in police stations in Ahmedabad charging the Karni Sena for “conspiracy” of “attempt to culpable homicide” under sections 120 B and 308 of the IPC respectively, based on CCTV footage.

Who would have thought about so much fuss about a movie based on fictional characters in a poem written by Malik Mohammad Jayasi. that had little to do with real history? An outsider to India may be surprised to read about so much violence in secular India. But  facts are India has never been a secular country and has been racist and bigotry-ridden to the core. That explains daily harassment, persecution and lynching of Dalits and minority Muslims and Christians. Truly, the real face of India is much uglier!!!

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