The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has voiced its opposition to a recently released web series on streaming service Amazon Prime Video, The Family Man, which features actor Manoj Bajpayee as the protagonist, The Hindu reported on Saturday. In an article in its mouthpiece on Friday, the organisation raised concerns over a few scenes in the web series about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
“In the series, a woman affiliated to the National Investigation Agency is shown speaking to her male colleague at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk, decrying the fact that Kashmiris were being oppressed by the Indian state as it had shut down phones and internet and used measures like the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act,” the article in Panchjanya read. “At one point she asks her male colleague, who appears quite affected by her talk, whether there is any difference between the Indian officials and militants.” The article expressed shock that the series was comparing the Indian Army to militants.
The Hindutva group, which is the ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, also alleged that after films and soap operas, content such as these were the new form of anti-nationalism and jihad. The article also raised concerns about unregulated content on the streaming platforms and said that they were replete with abusive and vulgar scenes.
The RSS also highlighted other series such as Sacred Games and Ghoul that also propagated hatred for Hindus. It further said that the show Sacred Games had depicted Hinduism as a cult that was set to destroy the world.
The article claimed that The Family Man portrayed that the problem of terror began after the 2002 Gujarat riots as it showed a character turning to terrorism after his family is killed in the incident. “More than 300 Hindus were also killed in the riots, why hasn’t anyone turned to terror yet?” the article asked.
Panchjanya’s editor Hitesh Shankar claimed that the RSS had objections to The Family Man and a few other series that he refused to name. “My larger point is that this kind of uncensored content is reaching people’s homes, their mobile phones, and is dangerous,” he told The Hindu. “There has to be some oversight, some mechanism through which this kind of content cannot make its way to screens in this country.”
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