Hoshiarpur- Taking an exceptional note on the Supreme Court of India’s Verdict to making mandatory for the cinema viewers to stand up as mark of respect during the play of Jan Gan Man, so-called Indian ‘national anthem’ before the start of the film.
L to R: Dal Khalsa leaders Kanwarpal Singh, Harpal Singh Cheema and HS Dhammi
Party president H S Cheema and former president H S Dhami said the order passed by the SCI is in grave contravention to belittle ‘freedom to hold independent belief’.
This recent order was surely going to be used to impose a specific brand of so called “nationalism” on those who don’t subscribe to Hindutva ideology and also a means to curb freedom of expression, hence theirs group refuses to abide by this verdict.
Further adding to their statement they said “a person goes to cinema for entertainment and not to display his patriotism. Going further they wondered how come citizens of another countries, like a Thai Buddhist, US Christian, British Sikh, Saudi Muslim be forced to show his or her loyalty towards anthem of another country.”
They also said that the judiciary has gone beyond its mandate and indulged in legislation, where as in such a grave crisis like the demonetization drama it’s playing a mute spectator.
They observed that this order could result in more vigilantism and assaults on vulnerable sections and others who wouldn’t want to adhere to such tokenism. The genuine anger of the people on issues like demonetization would get channeled into such vigilantism, they opined.