Dear Karni Sena, we’ve had enough of your nonsense.
You’ve risen to political prominence by making murder threats, attempting to incite violence and now, you want Rajput women to commit suicide if a film releases in theatres.
You’re beyond ridiculous. But we’re not here to ridicule you. We’re here to remind you, and the Rajasthan Police which seems to take no action against you, about the law.
If you are urging women to take their lives, you’re breaking the law.
Nonetheless, just hear me out. And try answering the following questions before you go on another one of your “naak kaat denge, sar kalam kar denge” sprees.
And you think we believe that you are making these threats because your sentiments are hurt?
No, Karni Sena, we’re not that stupid.
You’re doing this to raise your political profile – you were irrelevant political nobodies before you caught on to this film and manufactured a controversy that you have milked and milked… grabbing headlines and hours of TV channel airtime.
You deserve to see the inside of a jail for any one of the many criminal activities that I’ve already mentioned – but thanks to a state government in Rajasthan that is almost taking your side by banning the film, forget jail, you’ve not even been reprimanded for violating the law.
Dear Rajasthan Police, how about you do your job and act against this group of goons?
But you know what, it’s time we called you out for the group of lawless hoodlums you are.
You want to protect the honour of Rajput women? How about you not want them dead to serve your political cause?
You want to protect the honour of women in general? How about you stop wanting their noses to be chopped off?
You want to save some of your own dwindling honour and self-respect? Try not making murder threats and suicide calls the only visiting card you have.
Rajasthan ranks last in female literacy out of all the states and Union Territories in India.
So dear Karni Sena, how about you stop fantasising about ways in which you can protect the honour of Rajasthani women, and focus on getting the young Rajasthani girl child educated instead of marrying her off when she is an infant?
Not enough? In 2014, the NCRB data ranked Rajasthan among the top three states with the maximum crimes against women.
You’ve won many battles this controversy season. You got the censor board to demand cuts in the film. You got the filmmakers to drop the ‘I’ from the movie title. You’ve got them worried about whether a song should be edited and Deepika’s midriff concealed. You’ve even driven them crazy enough to print full page ads with fact sheets about the movie.
But you know what?
Come 25 January, this movie’s going to hit the screens. You think you’ll be able to stop that?
Cameraperson: Athar Rather
Video Editors: Mohd Irshad Alam and Purnendu Preetam
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