After ‘Bhangi’ Comment, Salman Khan’s Tiger Zinda Hai Faces VIOLENT PROTESTS; Mob ATTACKS Theatres & Demands Screening STOPPED
Salman Khan is getting no respite after making that infamous ‘Bhangi’ comment on national television. His latest release Tiger Zinda Hai is in the ire of things as a violent mob attacks theatres and demands screenings to be stopped until Salman apologizes. Read on to know the whole story…
It so happened that while promoting his film, Tiger Zinda Hai, with Shilpa Shetty on a dance show, Salman Khan had allegedly made a casteist slur, where he compared his dancing skills to a sanitation worker, or “bhangi.” Shilpa had also laughed along with him, and said that she also looked like one.
There has been a mighty uproar against these statements, as several groups felt that it was a derogatory insult to scheduled castes, and sanitation workers. Posters were torn down, slogans were raised as protesters vandalised threatres in Rajasthan demanding that Tiger Zinda Hai not be screened.
The rage has spread to Agra. In an appalling show of lawlessness, a large crowd of members of the Valmiki community, including Agra municipal corporation’s sanitation workers hijacked a Municipal truck and attacked a film theatre in the city, which was displaying Salman Khan’s film, Tiger Zinda Hai.
Interestingly, this vandalism took place when Dy. Chief Minister of UP Keshav Prasad Maurya was present in Agra.
According to the theatre manager Mohd. Imtiyaz Chand, a huge mob of Valmiki community members tried to enter the gates of the theatre today, demanding that the film be pulled down immediately. The demonstrators claimed that Salman Khan and Shilpa Shetty have humiliated the Valmiki community by making some comments on the community. When the film wasn’t stopped, the mob attacked the theatre with rocks and tore down the film posters from the walls.
Chand said that the mob had also brought a municipal corporation truck filled with debris with them and this debris was dumped in a pile outside the theatre gate, blocking the entrance. He said that the mob was joined by members of a right-wing Hindu organization Rashtriya Hindu Sena later, and had the police not reached the spot in time, the theatre would have been set afire.
Talking to a popular daily, Senior Superintendent of Police Agra Amit Pathak said that the police reached the theatre well in time and lathicharge was ordered on the mob to disperse the crowd. Two accused have been arrested on the complaint of the theatre manager and police force has been deployed all over the city at the theatres that are displaying this movie.
Some members of the Valmiki community told the daily that Salman Khan had made some derogatory comments against the community in a TV channel interview and both Salman and his co-star Shilpa Shetty should be charged under the SC/ST Act. They claimed that the Agra District Magistrate Gaurav Dayal has also been served a memorandum of these demands.
Valmiki Samaj Kalyan Sangh President Dilip Utsahi said that the district administration had been warned in advance that if a case under SC/ST Act is not registered against the two actors, the Valmiki community will be forced to take this matter down into the streets. He warned that if any theatre tries to display this film, the Valmiki community will force it to stop the display.
Rashtriya Hindu Sena President Manu Rajput expressed solidarity with the Valmiki community and said any dishonour caused to Hindus will not be tolerated. He said that effigies of Salman Khan will be burned in front of every theatre displaying his film in the Agra division, unless he is booked under SC/ST Act and sent to jail.
Expressing his anguish at this outbreak of senseless violence in the city, Hindustani Biradari Vice-President Vishal Sharma said that cases of damage to public and private property and criminal intimidation should be registered against the office-bearers of the Rashtriya Hindu Sena and the members of Valmiki community for their acts of violence.
He said that if the Rashtriya Hindu Sena cares so much about the Valmiki Community’s honour, then it should work towards ending the practice of untouchability against this community among the Hindus.
He expressed surprise that a Municipal Truck was used in the vandalism, which indicated that there were a large number of municipal workers present in the demonstration, who should be identified prosecuted too.
He also asserted that the way a right-wing Hindu organization jumped into a community-specific demonstration and made it a matter of Hindu dishonour, it becomes clear that this matter was taken up as another opportunity of Muslim-bashing, as the film’s main actor Salman Khan is a Muslim. He said that Agra has been known for its religious tolerance and is known as the city of Sulh-e-Kul and such violent activities only serve to tarnish the image of this glorious city, which used to be the capital of the entire Mughal India at one time.
Sharma demanded a ban on all political and social organizations who call themselves ‘Sena’ and said that the world ‘Sena’ itself reeks of militant thoughts and should not be used for any political and social purposes.
Tiger Zinda Hai, starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif, released on December 22, and in just one day the film has gone on to earn Rs 33 Crore at the box-office..
