Khushi Maheshwari, Pune
The members of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad or ABVP were involved in a serious quarrel with the performers of Pune University’s Lalit Kala Kendra (officially known as the Centre of Performing Arts) over their play “Jab We Met”, which allegedly portrayed Hindu Gods in a distasteful manner.
On Saturday, five students, namely- Prathamesh Sawant, Bhavesh Patil, Jay Pednekar, Yash Chikhle, and Rishikesh Dalvi were taken under arrest along with Dr. Pravin Bhole (HoD of Lalit Kala Kendra). This was after an ABVP official, Harshvardhan Harpude lodged a complaint against them and an FIR was filed. They have been booked under section 295 (A) (deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class).
A video has also gone viral on X (formerly known as Twitter) depicting scenes that were found objectionable by the ABVP functionaries. In the video, the character of Sita, played by a male actor can be seen smoking while the actor who played Ram can be seen lighting the cigarette.
Additionally, ABVP members claimed that Sita was also portrayed as being abusive towards Lakshman.
The meta intent of the play according to the performing artists was to give insight into the real lives of actors who play Ram Leela Characters and give a glimpse of the backstage banter. Not to portray any God offensively or obscenely. The play still faced criticism for being misleading.
There is speculation of the verbal spat crossing lines and meandering into physical assault since the FIR mentions that when ABVP functionaries started objecting to the play verbally and stopped the performance, the performing artists began jeering at them and also physically thrashed them. However, a Chaturshringi police official verified that the confrontation didn’t cross over to being an assault and was verbal.