Actor and writer Pooja Bedi has launched a series of tweets to defend actor Milind Soman after a complaint was filed against him for running nude on a beach in Goa. After questioning why no complaints are made against the Naga Sadhus who don’t wear any clothes and attend various religious gatherings across the country, Bedi also posted a video to justify her point. She shared a clip recorded at the Kumbh Mela in which two Naga Sadhus are seen performing nude stunts, some of which are a little too dangerous and absolutely unbelievable.
In her tweet sharing the video, Bedi highlighted how the Naga Sadhus take pride in flashing their private parts at a gathering of thousands of people and no one objects to that, however, when an actor runs nude on a beach (which could be a private beach), all hell breaks loose. Her tweet read, “Please tell me why this video of naked men flashing & flaunting their genitalia isn’t obscene? Because it involves men considered “holy” ? Is there anything holy about what they r doing in this video? Why shouldn’t they b booked 4 obscenity? @milindrunning” (sic)
The actor, who’s the daughter of veteran actor Kabir Bedi, made another post in support of Milind earlier. She posted a few photos of the Naga Sadhus standing nude and taking part in various religious processions. The actor wrote that if ‘nudity’ is a crime in our country then these Sadhus should be the first ones to be arrested. When a few Twitter users tried to ‘school’ her, Bedi replied saying that ‘nudity, violence and smoking weed in the name of a religion’ cannot be justified. She wrote, “Nudity, violence or smoking weed in name of Religion cannot be excused. Law of the land must b equal for all! Why would one naked man with a p**** in full view not be considered obscene & penalised, while another man with no p**** showing b considered obscene? Same with Marijuana” (sic)
Meanwhile, Milind took to Instagram to share a note about opinions and how they vary in these times. He didn’t directly address the controversy but wrote something that looked more like his first response to the entire controversy. A part of his caption on the post read, “Some opinions come from a deeper understanding of the self, the world and of life. Each one of us chooses what we wish to believe so that we can be happy. In earlier times it was not so, life was harder, we did not have this freedom to think as individuals and yet be together. But as we progress, as humans, we begin to understand more and more of who we are, and we will begin to treasure more and more the things that truly matter, and to let go of the things that keep us enslaved” (sic)
The actor was booked under IPC section 294 (Obscene acts and songs) & section 67 (Punishment for publishing/ transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the IT Act. Your thoughts on the issue?