FIRs in Delhi, UP over controversial Kaali poster

NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW: The Delhi Police and the Uttar Pradesh police have filed separate FIRs against filmmaker Leena Manimekalai over a controversial poster of her documentary ‘Kaali’ even as the Indian government urged Canadian authorities to take down all the “provocative material” in the film.

A massive row has erupted after the Madurai-born filmmaker based in Toronto in Canada shared a poster of ‘Kaali’ on Twitter on Saturday allegedly depicting the goddess in a disrespectful manner. The poster showed the goddess smoking and holding an LGBTQ flag.

A senior Delhi police officer said on Tuesday that from the contents of a complaint and the social media post, prima facie an offence under sections 153A and 295A of the IPC was made out and a case registered against Manimekalai at the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operation (IFSO) unit of the Special Cell.

A probe in the matter has been launched, the officer said, adding the case was filed on the basis of a complaint received from a lawyer. In Lucknow, the FIR was registered at the Hazratganj police station against Manimekalai, producer of ‘Kaali’ Asha Associates and editor Shravan Onachan on Monday night. Manimekalai on Monday said she will continue to use her voice fearlessly till she is alive. “I have nothing to lose. Till the time I live, I wish to live with a voice that speaks what I believe without fear. If the price for that is my life, it can be given,” she wrote in a tweet in Tamil in response to an article on the controversy. The filmmaker also urged people to watch the documentary to understand the context behind the poster.

Moitra: Kali is meat-eating, alcohol-accepting goddess

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Tuesday stirred a controversy by saying that she has every right as an individual to imagine Goddess Kali as a meat-eating and alcohol-accepting goddess, as every person has the right to worship god and goddess in his or her own way. While the BJP went hammer and tongs against Moitra and wondered if it was the official stand of West Bengal’s ruling party to insult Hindu gods and goddesses, the TMC distanced itself from the comment and condemned it.