Tandav row: Shivraj govt mulling ban on web series in MP

BHOPAL: Notwithstanding the unconditional apology by the cast and crew of the Amazon Prime Video’s web series ‘Tandav,’ the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh is considering a ban of the Saif Ali Khan-starrer political drama.

“Certainly the state government is considering banning the web series Tandav across the state owing to its content and scenes which hurt the feelings of the majority community and also have caste specific insulting scenes and dialogues,” Home Minister Narottam Mishra said in Bhopal on Tuesday.

“I condemn the insult to our religious feelings by the web series. The MP government too will register a case against the makers of Tandav. We also demand that the central government draft a policy to regulate web series and OTT platforms in the wake of repeated instances of web series insulting religious sentiments of people, besides serving obscenity. A policy which bans all such web series is a need of the hour,” Mishra said.

In a related development in Indore, the ruling BJP’s Scheduled Caste Cell submitted a complaint to the police demanding registration of a criminal case against the makers of Tandav for having scenes and dialogues which hurt the feelings of the Hindus including the Dalits.

Already, two criminal cases have been registered in Lucknow and Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh against the makers of the web series.

Earlier on Monday evening, following widespread protests against the web series in various parts of the country, the cast and crew of Tandav had issued an unconditional apology. In the statement, they had mentioned that they didn’t intend to hurt religious beliefs or sentiments. They had also referred to parts of the disclaimer that is an industry-standard and said that Tandav was a work of fiction and any resemblance to acts and persons and events is purely coincidental.

The apology had come after the Information and Broadcasting Ministry sought a response from the Amazon Prime Video in the matter.