Rajputs split as Karni Sena faction backs ‘Padmaavat’

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, February 3

Members of the Rajput community opposing Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Padmaavat’ appear to have developed differences among themselves after a faction extended support to the film-maker after watching the movie on Friday.

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The Shri Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena announced in Mumbai that it has dropped all objections to the film after viewing it. Yogendra Singh Katar, who heads the SRRKS’ in the city, said in a statement that his organisation was withdrawing protests against ‘Padmaavat’ on the instructions of its national president Sukhdev Singh Gogamadi.

Katar said members of the SRRKS who watched the movie on Friday found that ‘Padmaavat’ actually glorifies the community and every Rajput would feel proud after watching it.

He added that there were no ‘objectionable scenes’ between Allahuddin Khilji and Rani Padmini that would hurt the sentiments of Rajputs.

According to Katar, the SRRKS would help the screening of ‘Padmaavat’ in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where it is facing problems from protesters.

Other Rajputs, including some members of the SRRKS, have slammed its office-bearers withdrawing the ban on ‘Padmaavat’.

The Shri Rajput Karni Sena, which claims to be the main opponent of ‘Padmaavat’, said in a statement that it would continue its protest. Its chief secretary Vishwa Bandhu Singh Rathore, who allegedly attacked Bhansali, has clarified that is organisation continued to oppose the movie.

Rathore also has been quoted as calling Gogamadi a traitor to the Rajput community for calling off the “ban” on ‘Padmaavat’.

Meanwhile, a section of Gogamadi’s colleagues in the Mumbai unit of the SRRKS, have also alleged that they were kept in the dark. Narayan Singh, vice president of the outfit in Mumbai, said he and some of his colleagues would quit the organisation as they were not taken into confidence by Gogamadi.