New Delhi: The Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi, V.K. Saxena, has granted sanction to prosecute former Jawaharlal Nehru Students’ Union vice-president Shehla Rashid over her three year ol tweets on the Indian Army, reported Hindustan Times. 

The belated sanction relations to a 2019 FIR against Rashid registered under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code. The proposal for sanction to prosecute was put forth by the Delhi Police (which comes under the Union home ministry) and supported by the Delhi government’s home department, the L-G said while granting sanction.

The FIR had been filed on the complaint of one Alakh Alok Srivastava. Rashid’s August 18, 2019 tweets had reportedly accused army personnel of entering people’s houses in Kashmir and creating an atmosphere of fear. The army had then rejected the allegations and said such “unverified and fake news are spread by inimical elements and organisations to incite an unsuspecting population”. 

“Not every tweet is to be proceeded with, under criminal law. But the tweet of the kind in this case needs to be processed against religious fault-lines have been created in J&K [Jammu & Kashmir] by the likes of Shehla Rashid,” the Delhi government’s home department reportedly said in its opinion to the L-G. “The case is made of for prosecution u/s 153A IPC [Indian Penal Code]. This relates to public order.”

Related:

I quit from Electoral Politics, condemn suppression of Kashmiris in this sham of Democracy: Shehla Rashid
Shehla Rashid gets interim protection from arrest in sedition case
Rajasthan Police officer justifies ‘concentration camps’ in a tweet to Shehla Rashid

The post Sanction to prosecute Shehla Rashid over 2019 Tweets on Army given by Delhi L-G appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Srinagar Court has restrained Shehla Rashid’s estranged father and the media channels from publishing, telecasting or broadcasting matters that are defamatory, intrusive of her right to privacy or her right to live with dignity and honour.

Judge Fayaz Ahmad Qureshi granted interim relief to Shehla, her sister and mother in an injunction suit filed by them before the Small Causes Court. The Judge said, “…defendant no. 1(Abdul Rashid Shora, the father) is restrained from causing any interference in the life of the plaintiffs and shall abstain from publishing any material through media or other means which has the potential to cause harassment, agony and pain to the plaintiffs or which is defamatory in its nature.”

The order also said, “The defendants 2-8 (media outlets, social media companies like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Google) are also restrained from publishing, telecasting or broadcasting any mater with respect to the matrimonial life of the plaintiffs and defendant no. 1 or which has the potential to defame the plaintiffs. For this purpose, the defendant shall take steps to suspend the links … which contain contents causing harassment and defamation to the plaintiffs.”

Judge Fayaz noted that even though in 2005, a court had passed an order restricting the father from harassing and torturing the plaintiffs (Shehla, her sister Asma and their mother Zubeida Akhter) and also awarded them fifteen thousand maintenance, Abdul “not only violated the order of Ld. JMIC Srinagar but intentionally and deliberately infringed various rights including the right to privacy and right to live a dignified life of the plaintiffs.”

Further the court noted that Abdul Shora made every attempt to defame and lower the repute of the plaintiffs by levelling “false and frivolous allegations” including branding the plaintiffs as antinational elements. It also strictly noted that an intimate matrimonial dispute between him and the wife was highlighted by him through social, electric and print media which was direct interference in the privacy of the plaintiffs.

The court opined that Abdul Rashid Shora’s conduct appeared to be unjustified and without any sound legal basis, opining that he seemed to have approached the press with a view to give hype to private matrimonial issues. Judge Fayaz was also of the prima facie opinion that Shora had approached the DGP with a view to malign the three plaintiffs.

Accordingly, the permanent and prohibitory injunction was granted and the court added that the media outlets had no legal justification to highlight a private issue between the plaintiffs and Shora, when the matter is being dealt with by a court.

Judge Fayaz however, gave liberty to the defendants/non-applicants to approach it for modification, alteration or cancellation of the restraining order by the next date of hearing on December 30, 2020.

The order may be read here:

Related:

Shehla Rashid reveals domestic abuse history of father

State cannot act in misogynistic way: Himachal Pradesh HC

The post Court restrains Shehla Rashid’s father from publishing defamatory content, says it infringers family’s privacy: Srinagar  appeared first on SabrangIndia.

After young Kashmiri politician Shehla Rashid obtained a restraining order against her father Abdul Rashid Shora who she has accused of being an abusive husband and parent, the man made counter accusations and claimed he was being threatened.

Abdul Rashid Shora claimed a ‘threat” to his life ‘from family’, and has written to  J&K DGP seeking security cover. However Shehla Rashid has put out in public the courts order  restraining Abdul Rashid, and claimed the man was reacting to this. The court had ordered Abdul Rashid to keep away from the family home and restrained him from any attempts at harassment, domestic violence. 

Shehla Rashid, former vice-president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union, and a former Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Movement (JKPM) leader, is a well known young politician in Kashmir and is known as an activist across the country. She made a public statement after her father’s many allegations went viral on social media on Monday night. She revealed that it was her mother, who was a victim of domestic violence allegedly inflicted by her father over many years.

“Many of you must have come across a video of my biological father making wild allegations against me and my mum & sis. To keep it short and straight, he’s a wife-beater and an abusive, depraved man. We finally decided to act against him, and this stunt is a reaction to that,” she stated.

According to Shehla, her father, Abdul Rashid Shora, has leveled “absolutely disgusting, baseless allegations against me, my mother and my sister,” she added that she was forced to respond openly “because the allegations made are of (a) very serious nature. The fact of the matter is that my mother, my sister and I have filed a complaint of domestic violence with the court under which my father — who has been abusive towards us for as long as we can remember — has been restrained from entering home on 17-11-2020. The false allegation he is making are a reaction to that. My mother has tolerated abuse, violence and mental torture all her life. She has been quiet for the sake of respect for the family.” 

She shared that the abuse had been going on for a long time and as children she and her sister, “we were unable to protect our mother. Now that we have started speaking up against his physical and mental abuse, he has started abusing us too. I have also filed an FIR in September,” she requested that people do not “take him seriously and let us mourn in peace,” as the family had recently lost a close relative.

2) This is not a political matter, as it has been going on ever since I came to senses.

Exhibit 1: Letter to him from Mohalla Committee in 2005 asking him not to abuse us. pic.twitter.com/bgpCNyW3e3

— Shehla Rashid (@Shehla_Rashid) November 30, 2020

Meanwhile, Abdul Rashid Shora on Monday wrote to J&K DGP Dilbag Singh, saying he feared for his life after being threatened by his daughter’s armed “bodyguard” into leaving the family’s Srinagar home because he disapproved of her political and financial dealings, reported the Times of India. He asked that an inquiry be launched to look at Shehla’s finances, and he accused her “of receiving Rs 3 crore from two people under investigation for terror funding.” Shora has accused his daughter of carrying out “anti-national” activities.

Shehla Rashid’s father demands security against his own daughter; calls her anti national

Watch full video here https://t.co/Y346LSr6mU pic.twitter.com/XvA5113rnh

— The RealKashmir News (@TheRealKashmir_) November 30, 2020

Sections of local media have amplified claims by Abdul Rashid Shora, that he was offered Rs 3 crore to get Shehla to join the JKPM, and that the money was offered by former J&K MLA Engineer SA Rashid and businessman Zahoor Watali. As reported by The Print, both these men are currently in jail in connection with a militancy-related case being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Abdul Rashid Shora said, “They offered me Rs 3 crore for Shehla to join those notorious people. As I felt that the money is coming from illegal channels and shall be used for unlawful activities, I did not take the money, and later asked my daughter to not indulge in any such transactions with these people.” He alleged that even though he did not approve, Shehla “went ahead with the offer”, and told him to “not disclose anything” as it could put his “life in danger”.

“I have a strong belief that anti-national activities are going on in my house, the characters involved in this plan are my daughters, my wife and Shehla’s security man named Sakib Ahmad, who lately threatened me with his pistol for my resistance to Shehla for her activities,” he alleged.

According to a report by The Print, a police officer, on the condition of anonymity said that the force had not taken any cognisance of the complaint by Shora yet and “the allegations are of serious nature, but from preliminary findings, it appears to be a case of domestic violence that has got out of hand.”   

As expected the Right Wing troll armies have worked hard all night on Monday to fan hate speech against the young Muslim woman poltician. Who of course has refused to cow down to such abuse, and has given all credit to her mother for raising her and her sister over the years.

Thanks, Sharmistha. Our mother has been our mother, father and more. https://t.co/e4qYHaD34I

— Shehla Rashid (@Shehla_Rashid) December 1, 2020

Related:

State cannot act in misogynistic way: Himachal Pradesh HC

SC: Women have a right to stay at marital home under domestic violence laws

Making the Domestic Violence Act work for Women: Majlis Experience

Violence against women – more than just a law & order problem

The post Shehla Rashid reveals domestic abuse history of father appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In a strongly worded statement against the Centre’s decision to hold Block Development Council (BDC) elections in Jammu and Kashmir even while large parts of the Valley remain under a communications and movement blockade, Kashmiri youth leader, Shehla Rashid has said that she is disassociating from electoral politics because of the Centre’s disregard for Indian laws when it comes to Kashmir.

Rashid had joined the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Party, launched by former IAS officer Shah Faesal, in March earlier. However, she now says, “It is clear that participation in any political activity in Kashmir requires a compromise.” Her statement adds that she will continue her work as an activist, but cannot in good faith continue to engage in mainstream politics.

The Kashmir Valley has been under a 65 day long blockade since August 5, ever since the Centre read down Article 370 of the constitution, revoking the state’s special status, and bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories. A large number of political leaders and workers are under house arrest, including two former chief ministers.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) had also slammed the decision to hold BDC elections, calling it a “travesty of a justice:.

Rashid herself has been charged with sedition over her tweets in which she alleged that the Armed Forces tortured civilians and ransacked houses in the Valley. She has said that she was simply highlighting truths that are being hidden because of the blockade, and will continue to do so.

The full text of her statement:
The announcement of the BDC elections in Jammu and Kashmir amid an ongoing crisis has compelled me to make a statement.Even as the lockdown on millions of citizens continues for over two months now, even as the Indian government continues to abduct children in Kashmir, and even as people are deprived of the means to call an ambulance and other emergency services, the Centre is soon going to hold elections to the Block Development Councils, in an attempt to showcase “normalcy” to the outside world! In such a situation, I consider it my moral responsibility to speak up and clarify my stance on the electoral process and the way forward.

I joined a political formation that never asked me to give up my stance regarding the right to self-determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir on both sides of the border. We believed that it was possible to deliver both justice as well as good governance, and also work for the resolution of the Kashmir issue as per the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. All this would have been possible if the government respected the rule of law. However, the Centre’s recent actions have shown that, when it comes to J&K, it doesn’t even respect its own laws, forget international law. The Centre also gets away with it because the institutions play along.

In view of mounting international pressure on the Indian government to end the siege in Kashmir, the Centre now wants to showcase a sham electoral exercise in order to convince the world that it is still a democracy. However, what is underway is not democracy, but the murder of democracy. It is a plan to install puppet leaders.

The Central government’s preferred Kashmir policy since 1953 has been subterfuge and deceit. From an outright coup in 1953 to rigged elections in 1987 to stage-managed rhetoric in 2019, the Centre has only sophisticated the process of selecting its puppets over time. The Centre is currently looking for new ‘Bakshis’ to legitimise its recent actions with regard to the state of J&K.

Political leaders are being forced to contest elections only on the issue of restoration of statehood, and asked to keep quiet about Article 370 and bifurcation of the state! Anyone who doesn’t comply will face incarceration. Anyone challenging their detention will be slapped with the draconian Public Safety Act. It is clear that participation in any political activity in Kashmir requires a compromise.

While the dilution of the pre-1953 status, the imposition of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, the unfortunate exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, etc. cannot be blamed upon our generation, as we were not even born back then, the onus of accepting or rejecting the actions of today is on our generation alone. If we do not voice our opposition to these actions, and go on about business as usual, these injustices will be on us.

I would, therefore, like to make clear my dissociation with the electoral mainstream in Kashmir. I stand in solidarity with my people who are being made to suffer for even the most basic of amenities and being deprived of the most basic of rights. I cannot be party to the exercise of legitimising the brutal suppression of my people.

The government of India keeps inviting youth to “join the mainstream”. However, the Centre’s actions have, for decades now, only served to push people out of the mainstream. If being in the mainstream means compromising on the basic interests of your people, then one cannot be part of such a mainstream! If the state really wants the youth of Jammu and Kashmir to join the mainstream, it first needs to demonstrate that it is capable of delivering justice.

I will continue to be an activist and raise my voice against injustice on all fronts that do not require a compromise, and I’ll continue to put my energies behind the Supreme Court petition seeking the restoration of special status of the state, and the reversal of bifurcation of the state. I request people to support me and my co-petitioners in this fight. If we fail, it shouldn’t be for lack of trying. We owe the future generations that much.

The fight for justice requires little more than speaking the truth. I was charged with sedition for highlighting the truth about atrocities on Kashmiri people post August 5, but that won’t deter me from speaking the truth. I will continue to speak up whenever my voice is needed.
 
 

The post I quit from Electoral Politics, condemn suppression of Kashmiris in this sham of Democracy: Shehla Rashid appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Rashid had made these allegations in a series of tweets on August 17. However, when the matter came up for hearing before additional sessions judge Pawan Kumar Jain at Patiala House Court on Monday, he ordered that the “matter requires investigation in detail” posting the next hearing on November 5, 2019. Rashid was also granted protection against arrest till then.

Interestingly, the complaint against Rashid was not filed by the army, but by Supreme Court lawyer AA Srivastava who called Rashid’s allegations “false and concocted”. Subsequently, an FIR was registered against Rashid under sections 124A, 153A, 153, 504 and 505 Indian Penal Code.

Responding to the case against her Rashid tweeted, “The FIR is a frivolous, politically motivated and pathetic attempt to silence me.” She also highlighted how her recent legal intervention in the Kashmir issue makes her a prime target for malicious prosecution saying, “I am a petitioner in the Constitutional challenge to the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution of India, and our petition in the Supreme Court makes a very strong case for the restoration of the same.” She added, “In a situation where reporters are not allowed to report, media, social media, telephonic and postal communication is gagged, it is important to put out narratives of the people, so that people in the rest of India know what is happening there.”

The post Shehla Rashid gets interim protection from arrest in sedition case appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
New Delhi: A probationary officer of Rajasthan Police justified concentration camps in a reply to a tweet by Shehla Rashid, former vice-president of the JNU student’s union.
 
On Oct 21, Rashid had tweeted an India Express story with the caption “India’s concentration camps!” The story was on the people in Assam who were declared foreigners and died in detention camps even though they had papers to prove their Indian nationality.
 

On Tuesday, Sandeep Saraswat, a Deputy Superintendent of Police at the police lines in Jaipur police commissionerate, replied to Rashid’s tweet. “Had the regime constructed concentration camp, person like Shehla would have been the first to be lodged into that camp and she won’t have been able to spread venom on Twitter,” he wrote in a now deleted tweet.
 

 
Speaking to The Indian Express, Saraswat (30) said that his comments were misinterpreted and he was only “defending” the state he serves. “My tweet was taken out of context and misinterpreted. I never meant that Shehla Rashid should be sent to concentration camps. I wanted to say that concentration camps were terrible places where Nazi Germany imprisoned dissenters and Jews. Rashid was wrong to suggest that such is the situation in India,” said Saraswat.
 
He deactivated his Twitter account soon. “I felt that as an employee of the state, it’s my duty to defend it. By suggesting that there are concentration camps somewhere in India, she implied that there is no rule of law in the country, which is wrong as I serve that law and order system,” he said in the report.
 
Tejaswani Gautam, Jaipur commissionerate DCP (headquarters), said in the report, “It is not in violation of the model code of conduct of police because it is not an official account and thus what he writes there is not in his official capacity of a government servant.” Gautam must not have seen the handle as Saraswat had a profile picture in full uniform.
 
Many condemned the Rajasthan police’s response and said that it reflected their ideology as they were mute spectators when cattle labourers Pehlu Khan and Rakbar Khan were lynched by a cow-protecting mob in Rajasthan. Another Muslim man was lynched recently in September for fishing near a temple.
 
It would serve Saraswat well to read how Assam’s detention camps are flouting human rights conventions by incarcerating innocent Indian citizens on the assumption of being foreigners. The Assamese populace that has not found itself in the hotly debated NRC have had their lives and families uprooted because of false accusations.
 
Sabrang India has consistently reported how Indian people in Assam have been detained in jails and detention camps alongside serious criminals who have committed murders and rapes. They have caught diseases, died in detention and even committed suicide.
 
The declared foreigners in Assam are meant to be sent to detention camps until they prove their citizenship in a higher judiciary. But what are these detention camps? Detention camps are real prisons. In the absence of detention camps, the declared foreigners are sent to prisons and are kept with prisoners. Hence the declared foreigners are neither citizens nor considered refugees there is no national prescription about their rights. To put them in prisons becomes a violation of their human rights. In this exclusive interview to Sabrang India, Adv. Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Chaudhary of the Gauhati High Court explains how the detention camps violate the rights of those who are termed Declared Foreigners
 
Watch Video:

Saraswat, being a police professional in the state of Rajasthan should know about the internment camps in Deoli, Rajasthan where thousands of Indian Chinese people were incarcerated during the Sino-Indian war in 1962. Even though the war lasted only for a month, the Indo-Chinese people were imprisoned for as long as five years.
 
Around 3000 Chinese-Indian families were rounded up from all over Bengal, Assam and the North-East and sent in trains to the internment camps. Families that had lived in India for 200 years had to give up all of their legacies and live in constant fear among the barbed wires. 

Around 26 of them died in the camp and the survivors of the camp are still waiting for reparations and an unconditional apology from the India government. The elderly Indo-Chinese population is waiting for Indian citizenship after being labelled foreigners. They were born and raised here. They have to renew their residency permit every year and it costs them over Rs. 10,000.
 

The post Rajasthan Police officer justifies ‘concentration camps’ in a tweet to Shehla Rashid appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Would you peacefully allow your sister/daughter to marry a non-Muslim man? Because, if you won’t, we lose the moral authority to fight the ruckus created by RSS over the so-called “Love Jihad”. The Special Marriage Act allows interfaith couples to register a marriage without conversion. When we, as a minority, insist on our Constitutional rights, let’s remember that this too is a Constitutional right. Not only do minority communities have Constitutional rights, individuals too have Constitutional rights.
 
The way an adult Muslim woman Hadiya has a right to choose Shefin Jahan as her life partner, another adult Muslim woman has a right to choose Ankit Saxena as her partner. It’s the Constitution – and not Islamic/Hindu law – that gives both of them this right. Both Islamic and Hindu law require the father to “give away” the daughter. But it is the Constitution that allowed Hadiya to choose her partner. So, when you outrage – and rightly so – over the denial of her right to choose, please understand that the right is Constitutional, and is available to all adult Muslim women, regardless of who they love. When we insist that Hadiya be treated as an adult, as an individual who has Constitutional rights, let’s please uphold the same standard for all adult Muslim women – regardless of who they love.
 
There are those who hate Muslims, and those who love Muslims – who do we prefer?
 
A 20-yr old Hindu girl who said “I love Muslims” was driven to suicide by BJP members. A 23-yr old boy who dared to love a Muslim girl was killed by conservatives of the other shade.
Shame on us.
 
If we do not make room for love, we deserve to be ruled by hatred.
 
#JusticeForAnkitSaxena

(As received through Whatsapp).
 
 

The post #JusticeForAnkitSaxena: Shehla Rashid’s, ‘Question to my Muslim friends’ appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image: News18

In particular, I get messages from a lot of women who say how much it inspires them to see someone just like them in active public life. I also get messages from a lot of men saying that they would want their daughters and other women to be like me. At times, when we are visiting someone’s house, especially in smaller towns, the men will even go to the extent of telling their daughters that they must be like me, or even using me as an example to berate his wife for being concerned only with clothes or weddings, and “not taking up the cause of the community”.

Often enough, in these households, the women are performing all the traditional gender-assigned roles: bringing roti after roti while we eat or staying in the kitchen throughout the visit, while we relish the food made by them. I often have to step into the kitchen in order to talk to the women who are too shy or overawed to even talk to me, let alone talk to the gathering! Needless to say, this is more a feature of Muslim homes where the hospitality is amazing, but the gender-segregation is shocking.

Growing up in Kashmir, I wasn’t used to this, and I often thought that segregation is a myth. However, interacting with Muslim families across the country has convinced me that segregation is real and thriving. Now, these same families who look up to me as a leader would never want their own women in the role that I’m in. Or, in other cases, they would want them to be as “committed to the cause of the community“ as I am, but would never think of what it entails. Leadership, for men, is a black box. A woman has to decide, at every step, what she should and shouldn’t do. Going to a riot-affected area for a 3-day visit? Going to a late-night TV show? Going to work? Taking a cab late night? Being the only woman on a political tour? Travelling alone across state and national boundaries? Should I? Shouldn’t I?

Since women leaders do not mostly talk about these things, women leadership is a mystery, a black box, some kind of rocket science to most. Now, it is clear that our community cannot progress until/unless women are equally empowered and allowed to develop and grow. Just like our country cannot progress without the development and growth of every section and every community. But the question is: will the community allow women to do everything that is required to lead?

It is difficult to lead. It is doubly difficult for women to lead, because we have to make calculations about clothes/stalkers/appearances/monthly period, etc. that men do not have to make. Women leaders need additional support from their families, they need additional freedom of mobility and freedom from traditional gender roles. Now, gentlemen, while you admire women leaders who are already making a mark, please understand that you need to develop and empower women in your own family who are capable of leading. Not only are they NOT supported by their families, they even have to face social boycott if they decide to speak up – case in point being Ishrat Jahan who fought against the practice of triple talaq!

This advice is also for non-Muslim men who admire my leadership. Now, I have left behind a lucrative career because I have experienced oppression first-hand. Most of you would not let your daughters take up activism because – well, that is something that women from “good families” (elite or upper-caste Hindu families) do not do. Only jholawallahs like us should do that. So, gentlemen, when I get messages of admiration from you, it feels great, but if you show up for a protest or a political meeting without your wife or daughter or sister, there’s slight condescension in your admiration.

In India, since Independence, the number of women Parliamentarians has never been more than 10-12% – this is not an accident. It is a result of these structural barriers to women’s participation in public life. Also, if women are not treated as equals in society, violence against women will thrive. So, don’t get surprised when women are raped, abused and harassed – it is a result of inequality in power and NOTHING ELSE. I’m not going to paint you a rosy picture – activism is difficult and, unless you don’t sacrifice enough, you cannot be in leadership positions.

Not only is the sacrifice involved personal, your family also makes a lot of sacrifices to accommodate your unusual lifestyle and needs. If you want more women to lead, share in the household work, share the burden of child-rearing, cook, clean and assist your partner, plan your family according to her goals. If women are not urgently empowered and represented in positions of leadership, don’t expect your daughters and sisters to be safe from sexual violence or gender-based violence. The power imbalance between men and women is highly unnatural, skewed and perverted. In such an environment, we’ll always have oppression of women and sexual violence. Hope this makes sense. Peace out!

*The text was taken, with permission, from Shehla Rashid’s Facebook wall.

Courtesy: Two Circles
 

The post The challenges of being a woman leader appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A Moving, 3.50 minute (Audio) Musical Tribute to Gauri Lankesh: Shehla Rashid

And to the Martyrs Since Gandhi, to Safdar (Hashmi), Narayan Dabholkar, Govind Pansdare, MM Kalburgi who have fallen Victim to Hate and Bloody Bulets

The post Ek Nazm Gauri Lankesh Ke Naam: Shehla Rashid appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Pandit, known for his his support for Hindutva ideology and bigotry, had posted a tweet in response to a tweet by the former JNU students’ union vice president, Shehla Rashid.

Pandit’s tweet had said, “It’s better to be a Sanghi than sleeping around with terrorists and raising #antiIndia slogans in JNU.#ProudSanghi.”

His tweet was in response to a social media post by Rashid, who questioned the Censor Board’s decision not to certify a women oriented film, Lipstick Under My Burkha.

Rashid, who had tagged the Censor Board chief, Pahlaj Nihalani and Pandit in her tweet, had written, “CBFC banned a movie because it was too “lady-oriented”

 CBFC is staffed by Sanghi idiots like (sic)”

Leading the group of women who condemned Pandit for his obnoxious tweet was actor and famous TV host, Simi Grewal.

Grewal wrote, “Such a shameful & disgusting comment. Has he no conscience? If the law can’t punish men like him. God surely will..”

Grewal was joined by several other women who agreed with her in condemnation for the ‘proud sanghi’ filmmaker.

And those condemning Pandit also reportedly included his daughter, Shaarika Pandit, who wrote,

Since Shaarika has her Twitter account protected, we could not verify whether her tweet in the screenshot above was indeed posted by her. Shaarika had account open until Tuesday morning, but after the above screenshot went viral, she decided to protect her account.

Pandit, who claims to be a Bollywood director but has no tangible works to substantiate his credentials, had, last year, resorted to foul language and insinuation against a Congress’ lady spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi.

Pandit, known for yelling and aggressive behaviour on live TV, had told Chaturvedi, “I don’t need a certificate from such third rated spokesperson because we know how these people have climbed ranks in their party.”

His angry reaction was in response to Chaturvedi’s allegation that he had merely used the plight of displaced Kashmiri Pandits to further his political and professional ambitions.

The Censor Board had last month refused to certify Prakash Jha’s Lipstick Under My Burkha starring Konkona Sensharma and Ratna Pathak Shah.

Listing the reasons for denial of certificate, Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in a letter, posted by Bollywood celebrities online, wrote, “The story is lady oriented, their fantasy above life. There are contanious sexual scenes, abusive words, audio pornography and a bit sensitive touch about one particular section of society, hence film refused under guidelines (sic).”
 

The post ‘Proud Sanghi’ Ashoke Pandit condemned for ‘sleeping with terrorists’ comments for Shehla Rashid appeared first on SabrangIndia.