Assam government employees given leave to watch ‘The Kashmir Files’; Ajmal seeks ban on film

Guwahati, March 16 (PTI): Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday announced that government employees will be given a half-day special leave to watch ‘The Kashmir Files’, while AIUDF president Badruddin Ajmal sought a ban on the film claiming that it will promote communal tension.

‘The Kashmir Files’, a Hindi film written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri, is based on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990.

The chief minister, who watched the film along with his cabinet colleagues at a multiplex here on Tuesday night, said that government employees will be entitled to a half-day special leave to watch it.

“They will have to only inform their superior officers and submit the tickets the next day,” he said.

The genocide of Kashmiri Pandits and their exodus from Kashmir are a blot on humanity, Sarma said.

“Moved by the heart-wrenching portrayal of their plight in the film which I watched along with my cabinet colleagues and MLAs of BJP and our allied parties,” he tweeted.

He said that as Assam does not have any entertainment tax, there is no point in its waiver for ‘The Kashmir Files’.

Several BJP ruled states have made the movie tax free.

Meanwhile, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) president Badruddin Ajmal said he will request Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sarma to ban the film immediately as it has led to a “Hindu-Muslim divide and is likely to lead to communal tension”.

“These incidents (of Kashmir) happened over three decades ago and such a situation does not exist now. If the film is not banned, it will lead to unnecessary violence,” the Dhubri MP said.

Thousands of Muslims were killed in the Nellie massacre in 1983 in Assam but nobody has made a film on that incident, he said.

At least 1,800 Muslims (unofficial figure runs higher) were killed in six hours in Assam’s Nagaon district on February 18, 1983, by a mob as a fallout of a controversial Assembly election in the state. This is known as the Nellie massacre.

“We must not raise such issues now but must maintain peace at any cost,” Ajmal added.

He admitted that he has not watched ‘The Kashmir Files’ but said, “I have noticed the hype created about the film on social media which reflects the Hindutva agenda of the BJP and RSS

The movie has earned praise from the prime minister and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states.