Legal notice served to Netflix and Netflix India by Kiran Aradhya.

Legal notice by a social activist Kiran Aradhya with the help of Advocate Gaurav Goel.

Series by the name of “The Suitable Boy” on your OTT platform. On this show in the episode number two (2), a couple consisting of a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl were shown to be kissing inside a temple. Lata and Kabir share a passionate kiss in temple premises. Characters are shown repeatedly walking around in shoes and sandals near Hindu sacred idols and holy trees. There are many other such examples in the show. Needless to say, ‘A Suitable Boy’ is a propaganda by Netflix to push Hindu Phobic content on its platform.

A Hindu temple is a symbolic house, the seat and dwelling of Hindu gods. It is a structure designed to bring human beings and gods together according to Hindu faith. Inside its Garbhagriha innermost sanctum, a Hindu temple contains a Murti or Hindu god’s image. Hindu temples are large and magnificent with a rich history. There is evidence of use of sacred ground as far back as the Bronze Age and later during the Indus Valley Civilization. Temple is also a sanctimonious place and such acts are definitely not allowed inside its precincts. There is no valid reason for depicting such a scene inside the temple. It does not serve any purpose except to create sensationalism and scandal.

That even though depiction of such a scene inside any place of worship would be bad, but I ponder whether you would be able to assert your life in the same way inside a church or a mosque, the way it has been done in the present case; for if it be the case of exercise of freedom, it should be equally applicable at other such places as well. And if not, definitely there can be no other indication for that and easy target has been chosen for obtaining publicity through scandal.

That such obscene depiction has the direct effect of hurting the religious sentiments, of that there can be no doubt. However, only the producers, directors or actors cannot be said to be solely guilty of hurting religious feelings in this manner. Netflix, whose network carries the content and brings it to the people is also equally responsible for any such depiction. Being an OTT platform, which is selling its content to the public in India, is therefore equally bound by the laws of the country and is responsible for the compliance of the content with the laws applicable.

By allowing the Kissing scene from the series “The suitable boy” in temple where the boy Is Muslim, and the Girl is Hindu, Netflix is trying to glorify “Love Jihad” which is menace that India is fighting right now. Love jihad is a terrorism that we all should be fighting together against however we see Netflix having no such intent instead we see Netflix being hand in gloves with those who are trying to propagate this terrorism in India. As per this series, a good Hindu is a non-religious one, or religiously indifferent, at best. A religious Hindu is always uncivilized or regressive and a Muslim – religious or otherwise – is mostly reasonable and understanding. Most important of all, a Muslim is always a victim – of Hindus or his/her circumstances which in reality is vice versa.

It is relevant to state that this is not the first time that Netflix is trying to push a Hinduphobic content. In the recent releases we saw a Telgu movie named “Krishna and his leela” released on 25^th June insulting Lord Sree Krishna Pramathama. It showed a male character named Krishna having sexual encounters with many women, one of them with a girl named Radha. It is worth noting that Lord Krishna and Radha’s love is considered as sacrosanct by millions of Hindus and Lord Krishna’s leela as lessons of life that should be imbibed by every individual. However, despite religious sentiments being attached to Lord Krishna, the producers of the web series have raised aspersions on the character of Lord Krishna, portraying the character of ‘Krishna’ as philanderer, readily engaging in sensual pursuits with countless girls. This appears like American media-services provider like Netflix are trying to propagate Anti-Hindu sentiments through its platforms.

Netflix also allowed distorted “Kabuliwala” in which a Hindu girl, Mini, begins doing Namaz because Kabuliwala hasn’t turned up for a few days. Targeted mockery and insults directed towards the Hindu faith has been the norm rather than the exception with a simultaneous veneration of everything Islamic. Such familiar sights were visible in the rendition of ‘Kabuliwala’ in the ‘Stories by Rabindranath Tagore’ series by Anurag Basu. The series does not appear to be an original Netflix content and seems to have been made available first on Epic On. This is a clear display of negligence from Netflix and is being ignorant in filtering out Hindu Phobic content and seems like a deliberate push to hurt the sentiments of Hindus.

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