In IC 814, terrorists were made Hindus! The disease of Muslim appeasement in Bollywood style is an old one

New Delhi: There is a ruckus about the recently released web series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack. This web series is based on the true incident of the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 in 1999. Real scenes of 1999 have also been shown several times in the entire web series, which further strengthens the claim that this series is completely connected to the real hijack incident. This hijack was carried out by five terrorists. The reason for the controversy is that in this web series, the real names of the terrorists have been changed and their codenames have been shown with Hindu names like ‘Bhola’ and ‘Shankar’. Whereas the real names of the terrorists were something else, which have not been mentioned anywhere in the entire series. Amidst the controversies, the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has sent a summon to the content head of Netflix India. According to sources, on Monday, the ministry has summoned Monica Shergill, the content head of Netflix India, to Delhi on Tuesday regarding the ‘IC: 814’ web series content controversy. Along with this, they have also sought clarification on the controversial facts related to the web series.

Why is there a ruckus in the name of terrorists?

The web series makers have been accused of hiding the real Muslim names of the terrorists and giving them Hindu names, thereby trying to hurt religious sentiments. Actually, the names of the terrorists in the web series are Bhola, Shankar, Doctor, Burger and Chief. It has been told in the series that these were the common names of the terrorists. But the makers have not revealed the real names of the terrorists anywhere in this 6-episode series, whereas the real names of the terrorists were present in the public domain. The biggest controversy is about the names ‘Bhola’ and ‘Shankar’ of the terrorists.

What were the real names of the terrorists?

After the Kandahar Hijack, the Home Ministry of the Government of India had given full details of this attack after investigation. In a statement given by the Home Ministry on 6 January 2000, the real names and addresses of the hijackers were given. All five terrorists were Muslims and were residents of Pakistan.
1. Ibrahim Athar, Bahawalpur
2. Shahid Akhtar Saeed, Gulshan Iqbal, Karachi
3. Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Defence Area, Karachi
4. Mistry Zahoor Ibrahim, Akhtar Colony, Karachi
5. Shakir, Sukkur City

The Foreign Ministry said that these hijackers are known by the names Chief, Doctor, Burger, Bhola and Shankar. These people used these names to communicate with each other and carried out the entire hijacking.

BJP took aim

BJP has also targeted director Anubhav Sinha over the IC-814 webseries. BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya posted on Twitter, ‘The hijackers of IC-814 were dreaded terrorists who used false names to hide their Muslim identity. Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha legitimized their criminal intent by promoting their non-Muslim names. What will be the result of this? After decades, people will feel that Hindus had hijacked IC-814. The agenda of the leftists worked to hide the crimes of Pakistani terrorists, who are all Muslims. This is the power of cinema, which the communists have been using aggressively since the 70s. This will not only question or weaken India’s security system, but will also shift the blame away from those who are responsible for this bloodshed.’

Webseries makers clarified the allegations

IC-814 web series casting director Mukesh Chhabra clarified on this issue. he/she said that the makers have done a lot of research for this series. The criminals used fake names for each other. he/she said that I am reading a lot of tweets related to the names of the hijackers. We have done a lot of research. They used to call each other by codemen. You can give them any name you want.

What is the rule for naming in such films and series?

There is no specific rule in India regarding naming of characters in films and webseries. This decision rests entirely with the filmmakers. When fictional films are made, there is no problem. But for such films based on true events, it is expected that the producers respect the facts and do not hurt religious or communal sentiments. Producers often decide to change the names of the characters to avoid legal disputes, or to avoid hurting a particular community. But this series is being accused of appeasement. This is not the first such series which is surrounded by controversies. Many films and series like Padmaavat, Taandav, Pathan, Laila, Sacred Games, PK, A Suitable Boy and Laxmi have been accused of Muslim appeasement.

Is balancing policy being used in films too?

Some people say that the way terrorists have been given Hindu names in the web series is an example of pseudo secularism. A series was made on such a big incident and the real names of the terrorists were cleverly hidden. People are not liking this balancing policy of the makers of the series. Why does the film world want to wear the mask of such balancing? This is something similar to what the central government did in 2012 in a bill for riots. In 2012, the central government proposed the “Communal and Targeted Violence Prevention Bill” with the aim of controlling communal violence and riots. In this bill, only members of minorities, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes were recognized as victims of communal violence. This also caused discontent among Hindus because this bill was obviously biased against the majority community and an attempt was made to blame only the majority Hindus in cases of communal violence.