Chandigarh: Bollywood actress-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut’s forthcoming film Emergency has caused a furore in Punjab ahead of its release next month.
Apart from the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which has objected to the portrayal of Sikhs in the film and demanded a ban on it in the state, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leaders have also opposed the film’s release and asked Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to clarify his stand on it.
The film is based on former prime minister Indira Gandhi’s declaration of a state of emergency in India in 1975. The trailer of the film was released on 14 August and the film is expected to be in the cinemas on 6 September.
Ranaut, now BJP’s MP from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, is playing Indira Gandhi in the film and her company Manikarnika Films is one of the producers of the film. Ranaut has also directed the film.
In the trailer, slain Sikh militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale has been shown to be in cohorts with Indira Gandhi, promising to bring in votes for her Congress party in lieu of a separate Sikh state.
Sikh hardliner Sarabjit Singh Khalsa, who was elected as an independent MP from Faridkot this year, was the first to object to the film after the trailer was launched.
In a post on his Facebook account Monday, Khalsa said the film seemed to be portraying Sikhs in the wrong light and such portrayals could lead to the creation of tension among communities in Punjab.
Khalsa, the son of Beant Singh, one of the two assassins of Indira Gandhi, is among the two Sikh hardliners who have got elected to Parliament this year. The other is Amritpal Singh, detained under the National Security Act at Dibrugarh jail in Assam. He, too, won as an independent MP from Khadoor Sahib.
Khalsa has asked the Punjab government to initiate steps to ban the film in the state so that it does not lead to any law and order situation.
“The film is part of a larger conspiracy to defame the Sikh community among other communities in the country. It is an attack on the Sikhs and the state government should do something about it. Hate crimes against the Sikhs are on the rise in India and this film is contributing to it,” he wrote.
SGPC member Gurcharan Singh Grewal said in a video message on Facebook Tuesday that Bhindranwale had been projected in the wrong light. “Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale holds an exalted position in Sikhism and is considered to be a spiritually advanced human being,” said Grewal.
“While we welcome the making of films based on historical facts, we strongly oppose the manner in which the Sikh community has been made to look in this film. The film’s trailer clearly showed Sikhs as an unfair, cruel and violent community,” he added.
Talking to mediapersons in Amritsar Wednesday, SAD MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal said that although she had not seen the film’s trailer, she had got to know that it was demeaning the Sikh community.
“Kangana Ranaut has been making controversial and uncharitable remarks about various happenings in Punjab. She spoke about the women protesting as part of the farmers’ agitation. Then, she allegedly misbehaved with a Sikh CISF staff member at the airport. And now I have been told that she has made this film that shows the Sikh community in the wrong light,” she said.
“It’s unfortunate that she (Ranaut) is an MP of the BJP and whatever she is portraying, the BJP should clarify if that is the party’s stand on this issue as well. The Sikhs have played a stellar role in the history of this country, whether it was the freedom struggle, the grain surplus movement or the wars on the borders,” she added.
According to Harsimrat, the SAD under former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal was the first political body in the country to raise its voice against the emergency.
“Mr Badal was among the first people to court arrest objecting to the imposition of the emergency, and every day, a jatha (group) of the Shiromani Akali Dal would court arrest,” she said.
When contacted, Vineet Joshi, spokesperson of the BJP in Punjab, told ThePrint that one of the main objections levelled against the film was that it showed Bhindranwale as a “creation” of Indira Gandhi.
“Journalists who have covered the Punjab militancy including Kuldip Nayar, among others, have on several occasions and in several books clearly said that Bhindranwale was chosen by the top leadership of the Congress to wean away panthic voters from the SAD in Punjab. However, Nayar adds in his book (on the emergency) that the Congress later regretted creating Bhindranwale because he became too big for them to handle,” he said.
“Apart from that, the film which Ranaut has made has been in the works for several years, much before she became the BJP MP, and the party has got nothing to do with it. Regarding Bhindranwale talking about Khalistan, it is something which only the producer and director of the film can answer,” he added.
Punjab Congress chief and Ludhiana MP Amarinder Singh Raja Warring told ThePrint that he could not comment on the matter till he had watched the trailer.
The film was initially scheduled to be released last year in November but was delayed and was then set for launch this June. However, due to the Lok Sabha elections, the launch was postponed again.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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