A day after the Indian High Commission in Canada urged Canadian authorities to withdraw provocative material related to Hindu deities from the poster of a film displayed at the Aga Khan Museum, museum officials in Toronto are now seeking an apology for causing religious hurt. have come forward. Hindu sentiments. Microblogging site Twitter has also removed the poster of the film shared by its producer Leena Manimekalai in which Devi is seen smoking and holding the pride flag of the LGBTQ community.
In its apology letter, the Aga Khan Museum notes that Toronto Metropolitan University has brought together the works of students from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Under that, each student was exploring their individual spirit as part of Canadian multiculturalism for a project called ‘Under the Tent’. These works were held once at the Aga Khan Museum on 2 July in the context of the museum’s mission to promote intercultural understanding and dialogue through art.
“Respecting the various religious expressions and faith communities is an integral part of that mission. The presentation is no longer shown at the museum. The museum deeply regrets that one of the 18 short videos of ‘Under the Tent’ and its The accompanying social media posts have inadvertently insulted members of Hindu and other religious communities,” the letter further stated.
filmmaker’s poser
Reacting to the removal of her film’s poster on Twitter, Ms Manimekalai questioned whether Twitter would also block tweets from haters.
“This is so funny. Will Twitter stop tweets from 200,000 haters? These LoLife trolls tweeted and spread the same poster they found objectionable. Kali cannot be murdered. Kali cannot be raped. Kali’s Cannot perish. She is the goddess of death, ”she wrote on the microblogging site.
The microblogging site wrote that Ms Manimekalai’s tweets have been blocked in India in response to a legal demand.
FIR in Guwahati
Meanwhile, two organizations in Assam have filed an FIR demanding punitive action against Ms Manimekalai for “hurting religious sentiments” with posters of her documentary Kali.
The Hindu Suraksha Manch and the United Trust of Assam together lodged an FIR at the Dispur police station in Guwahati on Tuesday.
The complainants said the poster depicted Goddess Kali in a manner “unacceptable by any Hindu” and was a “deliberate distortion of Hindu religion and culture with a malicious intent to insult Hindu religious sentiments”.
(with inputs from Assam)