Will disrupt Jaipur Lit Fest if CBFC chief participates: Karni Sena

Continuing its protest against the screening of Padmaavat, Shri Rajput Rashtriya Karni Sena has said that it will not allow censor board  chief Prasoon Joshi to participate in the 2018 edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF).  
 
Karni Sena chief Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi on Friday threatened to disrupt a session at JLF if Prasoon Joshi attends it.

"We will not allow him to enter the Pink City. Even if he enters, we will not allow his session at JLF. We are not happy with the review of the film done under him as it is full of biases," Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi said.

Alleging that the Central Board of Film Certification has misguided the Rajput Community, Gogamedi said, "Being CBFC chief, he did not perform his job well. And we will also not allow Javed Akhtar and many such writers to attend the festival as they are in favour of the release of Padmaavat".

The move comes a day after the Supreme Court ordered  a stay on the ban  to the release  the film in four states  - Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Prasoon Joshi is a regular at  JLF and is scheduled to participate in a session titled 'Main aur Woh: Conversations with Myself' on January 28. The festival will be held between January 25 and January 29.

Not new to controversies

The festival, called by some as the  "maha kumbh of literature", welcomes hundreds of authors from around the world every year. However, it is no  stranger to controversies.

In 2012, Salman Rushdie had pulled out of the festival at the last minute,  saying  he felt unsafe after protests from Muslim fundamentalists over his participation.

Also, four writers - Amitava Kumar, Jeet Thayil, Ruchir Joshi and Hari Kunzru - read out chapters from Rushdie's The Satanic Verses.  

The writers had to leave Jaipur immediately after the event to avoid arrest.

In 2016,  protests erupted over Asish Nandy's controversial remarks on corruption. In 2017, the festival again saw protests over the participation of Taslima Nasreen, the controversial Bangladeshi author.

On Thursday, replying to a petition by Padmaavat's producers challenging the states' ban, the Supreme Court said, "If Bandit Queen can be shown, why not Padmaavat? A film may bomb at the box office or people may choose to not watch it, but states cannot use their machinery to prohibit its exhibition citing risk to public order."