‘The Family Man’ is divisive: RSS objects to Amazon’s Web series

New Delhi:  “Panchjanya”, an RSS mouthpiece has raised strong objections to the Kashmir narrative as it is being depicted in the Amazon Prime web series “The Family Man” starring Manoj Bajpayee.

The article in Panchjanya read, “In the series, a woman affiliated to the National Investigation Agency is shown speaking to her male colleague at the Srinagar Lal Chowk, publicly denouncing the fact that people of Kashmir were being oppressed by the Indian state.”

The web series’ supposed critical stand on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Public Safety Act (PSA), under which currently Farooq Abdullah, the former chief minister of the state is arrested, has irked the Sangh mouthpiece.

The critical article quotes a character in the web series saying, “If not letting people live with freedom is not torture, what is?” Panchjanya’s editor Hitesh Shankar called this web show and a few like this “divisive”.

Speaking to IANS, Shankar said, “There is a trend in web series to exploit the social faultlines. They are only seeking to divide the society. This is happening due to unregulated content which needs to come under some purview.”

The article has also alleged that “The Family Man” has sought to portray 2002 Gujarat Riot as the reason for Islamic terrorism. The article states, “According to ‘The Family Man’, Gujarat riot of 2002 was the main reason for Islamic terrorism… They became terrorists because they had lost some of their relatives during Gujarat riot”.

The article goes on to ask, “During this riot, around 300 Hindus had also lost their lives. The question that should be asked, why no Hindus had turned terrorist?”

This is not the first time, objections are being raised on certain web series. Earlier, the Sangh alleged that Saif Ali Khan starrer “The Sacred Games” and Radhika Apte starrer “Ghoul” had also propagated hatred for Hindus.