trouble free opening night for threatend film fest
s | 11.01.2005 03:26 | Free Spaces | Indymedia | Repression | London
Despite the no show, it appears the UK VHP have been busy during the day making statements to the press...
RASHMEE Z AHMED
INDIA IMES
TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2005
LONDON: Hindu activists in the UK have threatened to copy last month's violent Sikh protests in Birmingham against an allegedly blasphemous play, in an attempt to scupper the screening of films that badmouth Hindu organisations like VHP and RSS.
The films, which include Ram ke Naam and Gujarat, a Laboratory of Hindu Rashtra, have previously been screened in London but have now prompted fears that groups representing the UK's estimated one-million Hindus will find it hard to collect the millions of pounds they plan to raise for the Tsunami rehabilitation effort.
The films are to be screened as part of a six-day ‘Indian film festival', starting Monday, by RampART, a loose collective of artistes and activists here, to raise money for Tsunami victims and "create spaces for debate and discussion on casteism, adivasi rights and communalism."
But on Monday, Hasmukh Shah of VHP (UK) said, the films' screening was part of a long campaign by "habitual false allegators (sic) to spread habitual false allegations about Hindus."
Shah said the Sikh protests in Birmingham, which forced closure of a play, Behzti, set in a gurdwara, were "very encouraging and showed us that Hindus should not always be docile, should not always turn the other cheek."
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