PIL in Calcutta HC against screening of ‘Lal Singh Chaddha’
Kolkata: A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed at the Calcutta High Court on Monday against the screening of movie “Lal Singh Chaddha”, starring Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor, in the state and may be heard on Tuesday.
In the plea filed before the division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, state BJP leader and advocate Nazia Illahi Khan claimed that that screening of the movie might result in breach of peace.
The petitioner argued that for the last few days there had been debates and controversies on social media over the screening of the movie and even a social media campaign has started for boycotting the movie. She argued that in a situation when West Bengal is extremely volatile to religious issues, the screening of the movie can further lead to breach of peace.
In her argument, she also referred to certain recent incidents in the state, especially tension and violence in certain minority-dominated pockets in districts like Howrah and Murshidabad. She also cited the recent “Jihad against BJP” statement by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, which then Governor and now Vice President, Jagdeep Dhankhar strongly objected to.
The film was released on August 1. Although there had been reports of some tension over the screening of the movie in some other states like Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, there had not been any report on this count from anywhere in West Bengal.
