JAIPUR: Rajasthan is simmering over Jat community’s opposition to the movie Panipat. There were protests and a shut down in Bharatpur led by Tourism Minister Vishvendra Singh, the fourteenth generation descendant of Maharaja Surajmal who they say has been wrongly depicted in the historical drama.
Going into damage control, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has asked the Central Board of Film Certification to intervene and urged distributors to hold talks with protestors.
Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot urged Central Government to take cognizance of the issue and urged people to shun violence. What is worrisome is that the Rajput and Gurjar community has expressed solidarity with Jats.
Cutting across party lines, leaders belonging to the community have expressed their ire at the depiction of the seventeenth century ruler in the film.
An effigy of Ashutosh Govarikar and the film were burnt in Bharatpur where protestors demanded that the film be banned. Shows were cancelled in two cinema halls of Jaipur after protestors vandalized Inox Vaibhav in Vaishali Nagar.
Addressing the gathering, tourism minister Vishvendra Singh, who traces his lineage to Maharaja Surajmal, said, “Facts have been distorted. The Marathas had been given refuge by my ancestors for over six months and were safely escorted back to Maharashtra.
I urge the government to form a committee to review any film made on any noble or historical person. The family or descendants should be part of it.”
He further said, “Congress leader Deepender Hooda called me and said there is huge resentment in Haryana, too, over the affront to the statesman ruler.”
Gehlot, while taking the line that the cinematic license needs to be protected, said that no disrespect should be shown to noble historic persons. Pilot wanted the central government to intervene and defuse the situation.
