Bhopal Oct 27 PTI An organization of religious leaders on Wednesday demanded that the cases registered against Bajrang Dal activists for allegedly ransacking the set of Prakash Jhas web series Ashram here be withdrawn and accused the Hindi film industry of portraying Hindu saints and Indian culture in the wrong wayThere was a global conspiracy to defame the Sanatan Dharma it saidAlleged Bajrang Dal activists on Sunday ransacked the set of the web series Ashram here and also threw ink at Prakash Jha its producer-director accusing him of portraying the Hindu community wronglyThe Aryawart Shatdarshan Sadhu Mandal Evam Acharya Parishad an organisation of Hindu religious leaders held a meeting on Wednesday and issued a statement accusing Bollywood of wrongly portraying Indian culture and Hindu saints and hurting religious sentiments during the past five decadesThe way an Ashram was depicted in the first two seasons of this web series is condemnable This is a global conspiracy to defame Sanatan Dharma the statement saidWhy Bollywood was afraid of making such films about other religions it askedSuch films should be stopped or Hindus will retaliate and the administration and Bollywood will be responsible for this it addedThe cases registered against Bajrang Dal activists who allegedly ransacked the set should be withdrawn the organization further demandedOn Monday Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra had said that producers and directors will have to inform the authorities about objectionable content or scenes in the script before seeking permission for shooting in the state Mishra also supported the Bajrang Dals demand to change the name of the web series Police have so far arrested four persons in connection with the attack on the set PTI ADU KRK KRK KRK

Filmmaker Prakash Jha was roughed up, his face smeared with ink on Sunday when a group of Bajrang Dal members went on a rampage on his set.  These days, there’s a lot of conversation around the ‘fringe’ becoming ‘mainstream’. As a civil society, there are certain limits upto which people could register their angst or protest against something or someone they find offensive. This is a mainstream discourse. However, this mainstream discourse appears to be deflecting towards more extreme form of protests as people engage in violence.

Bhopal Oct 25 PTI The Communist Party of India Marxist on Monday said the ransacking of the set of web series Ashram in Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh by Bajrang Dal activists was not only an attack on the freedom of expression but on the Constitution as well MP CPIM general secretary Jaswinder Singh in a statement said unfortunately the government which had taken oath to protect the Constitution was ripping it to pieces The criminal and objectionable activities of the Sangh Parivar under the patronage of the BJP government were on the rise in Madhya Pradesh The incident was not just condemnable but worrisome as well he said adding that MP home minister Narottam Mishras statement protecting the attack and attackers was supplying fuel to the fire Earlier in the day Mishra had said he supported the Bajrang Dals demand that the name of the web series be changed from Ashram to something else as it hurt Hindu sentiments though he added that we consider the ransacking as wrong Singh said Mishra had thrown a challenge to the Censor Board Censor Board of Film Certificate by saying producers and directors will have to inform authorities about objectionable content or scenes in their stories before seeking permission for shooting in the state We are going to issue a permanent guideline following the dispute over the shooting of Ashram-3 Now the producer-director will need to show the script of the story to the administration before seeking permission if they are going to shoot objectionable scenes which hurt the sentiments of any religion Mishra had said Bajrang Dal activists on Sunday evening ransacked the set of the third season of web series Ashram and threw ink on its producer-director Prakash Jha after accusing him of portraying Hindus wrongly The windscreens of two crew buses were broken in stone pelting and one person was injured police had said PTI LAL BNM BNM BNM