Supreme court to hear Padmaavat plea today as violence escalates
NEW DELHI: Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh approached the Supreme Court on Monday seeking modification of an order that paved the way for Bollywood film Pad ma a vat’ s nationwide release as violent protests against the period drama intensified across India.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra agreed to hear the applications on Tuesday after the states requested an urgent hearing and expressed fears of a law and order breakdown if the film is released as scheduled on Thursday.
The Shri Rajput Karni Sena, which has led the violent protests, also filed an application in the apex court, seeking to be heard in the matter. The Rashtriya Swayams evak Sangh (RSS ), the ideological mentor of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), voiced its opposition to the film.
At the same time, street protests, violence and open threats continued through the day across north and central India.
In G ur ga on, a group of unidentified men created a ruckus at a mall. Shouting slogans against the release of Padmaavat, they smashed four LCD screen sat the booking counter. Similar groups of protesters broke windows of buses in different locations in the city on Monday evening.
The first incident took place at a mall located in Sohna road while the buses were attacked on the Sector 37 highway.
Members of Rajput outfits caused disruption sin various districts of Raj as than, including Rajsamand, Jalore and Pratap- garh. In Bhilwara, a youth climbed a mobile phone tower with a bottle of petrol in protest against the release of the film but climbed down hours later after police assured him of leniency, ANI reported.
In Lucknow, the Karni Sena announced that it will resort to a ‘public cur few’ the day the movie is released.
The announcement came even asa member of the Akhil Bhartiya Chhatriya Mahasabha Sukhbir Singh Bhadoriain Bareilly threatened “to plant bombs in cinema halls that would show the film”. In its application before the apex court, Madhya Pradesh government said despite the January 18 order that stayed banson Padmaavat by four states and instructed governments to provide security, many incidents of violence and vandalism had taken place.
“...despite the state’s obligation and best endeavours to protect the freedom of speech and maintain law and order, it is likely that the release of the film may cause breach of peace,” it said. Raj as than said it will have to divert forces from Lok Sabha by polls scheduled on January 29 to provide security for the movie.
In Jaipur, Karni Se na members issued open threats to cinema hall owners and two film distributors refused to make the film available.The Rajasthan unit of the RS S voiced its protest but condemned any violence. nd buses were burnt in Surat and a singlescreen theatre in Ahmedabad vandalised.