Amid the controversy surrounding Vivek Agnihotri’s latest directorial venture titled ‘The Kashmir Files’, seers on Wednesday watched the film and requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allocate them land in the Kashmir valley. The seers put in the request and said that they would like to relocate to the valley in order to re-establish the Vedic traditions there. The request came after hundreds of Sadhus saw the film after BJP leader from Indore, Deepak Jain, booked two theatres and watched the film with them.
The seers, who watched The Kashmir Files that has become the talk of the town, backed the film and lauded its realistic portrayal of Kashmiri Pandits’ exodus. The seers thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the abrogation of Article 370 and requested their relocation to the valley. They further said that the new generation of the country needed to know the history of the valley.
Mahamandaleshwar Radhe Radhe Baba, a seer who watched the film said that Kashmir was earlier known for Pandits. “Kashmir is the land of Lord Kashyap, Lord Shankaracharya’s place of worship. In Vedic times, Kashmir was known by the name of Pandits. Today all the saints, Mahamandaleshwar, Batuk had come to watch the film,” he said.
“To destroy the Vedic traditions, heinous crimes were done and the Kashmiri pandits were ill-treated. The new generation should be aware of these facts. I want to thank PM Modi for the decision to scrap Article 370. I also request the PM to allocate the land in Jammu and Kashmir to the saints so that we can establish the Vedic traditions there,” Radhe Baba added while speaking to ANI.
The reality of Kashmiri Pandits’ genocide has been shown: BJP leader
Furthermore, the seers also requested the Centre to make special screenings for students to watch the film. Meanwhile, BJP’s Deepak Jain praised the film and said that the government was now allowing such films to release unlike in the past. “Today we got the film screened for our Mahamandaleshwar and saints so that the society can know the reality of the ill-fated act that the Kashmiri Pandits had to go through,” he said.
“The reality of genocide of the Kashmiri Pandits has been shown in the movie. After 2014, our nation is changing and so is the thought process of Bollywood film-makers. Various patriotic films are now being made, which were earlier not made in such good numbers or the censor board and the government would not let them released. This has changed now,” Jain said. The state of Madhya Pradesh had earlier declared the film as “tax-free” in the state.
About The Kashmir Files
While the film is receiving praises for its realistic depiction of the events, it is also courting opposition for allegedly whitewashing the events of 1990. In an exclusive chat with Republic TV’s Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami on The Debate show, director Vivek Agnihotri dished out how he made the film.
He stated, ”I have not written the story in Kashmir, it is written by the Islamic terrorists, I have just presented it as is. We have interviewed 700 first-gen victims, spoke to them for days. Everyone was talking about the victims of Kashmir, nobody was talking to the victims of Kashmir. Therefore, we decided to go and find the real pain, and we have presented it as is without a full stop and comma.”