Demand for ban on 'Kaum De Heere' continues in Punjab

Shiv Sena and BJP today strongly pitched for a ban on screening of controversial Punjabi movie 'Kaum De Heere', which is set for release tomorrow, saying it will stoke up communal fires and vitiate peace in the state.
Shiv Sena (Bal Thackeray) asked the Centre to ban the film and demanded registration of sedition case against the producers and the director of the movie while stern action against the Censor Board officials who cleared the film for screening.
Sena's (Punjab unit) Vice-President cum Spokesman Inderjit Karwal today said the screening of the movie should be banned as it glorifies the assassins of the then PM Indira Gandhi and could stoke up "communal fires and vitiate hard-earned peace" in Punjab.

BJP leader and former Punjab Cabinet Minister Lakshmi Kanta Chawla, in Jalandhar, also demanded a ban on the film by the state government saying will it allow screening of film that glorifies the assassins of Sant Longowal.
"What would you do, if tomorrow, any film producer would release a film glorifying the assassins of Sant Harcharan Singh Longowalji, Gyani Pratap Singhji and former Finance Minister Balwant Singh? Would you allow it be screened?" Chawla said in a letter to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
The film 'Kaum De Heere'(Diamond of the Community), which is reportedly based on the lives of the assassins of the late prime minister Indira Gandhi -- Beant Singh, Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh -- glorifies their act.

Karwal warned that Sena activists won't allow screening of the film in state and cautioned owners of cinema halls and multiplexes that they would be responsible for any loss or damage caused to their theatres in case they screen the film.

Punjab Youth Congress (PYC) president Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary had already demanded ban on the screening of the movie and warned to stage protests across Punjab and prevent its release and screening.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chaudhary said it was unfortunate that the movie was being allowed to be screened in Punjab and other parts of the country.

The Censor Board passed the film with an 'A' certificate and it is scheduled to be released tomorrow in more than 100 cinema halls in north India.
Gandhi was shot dead by her two Sikh bodyguards at her official residence in New Delhi on October 31, 1984.