Satluj movie controversy must end now: Punjab BJP chief
Punjab BJP chief Kewal Singh Dhillon on Tuesday said the ‘Satluj’ movie controversy must end now, asserting that reopening these wounds serves no one, the State has bled enough, and healing takes time.
“The Satluj controversy must end now. Reopening these wounds serves no one — Punjab has bled enough and healing takes time,” Dhillon said in a post on X. In his post, he further said, “The killings of PUNJABIS, irrespective of religion, must never be forgotten. Let us honour the memory of our people, not exploit it for noise”.
“I specially appeal to the media to report with responsibility and restraint on this matter — Punjab’s peace comes first,” he said.
Dhillon’s statements come after many political parties, including Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Sikh bodies in Punjab, have slammed the takedown of Diljit Dosanjh’s film “Satluj” from an OTT platform, saying the movie compels India to confront one of the State’s “darkest chapters” and history must be confronted with honesty, not buried through censorship. SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal had on Wednesday said his party will screen the film “Satluj” in every village and corner of Punjab.
Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu appealed to Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargajj to remember all the victims of the violence witnessed in Punjab during the 1990s in his ‘ardas’ (Sikh prayer) on Tuesday, ahead of his prayers for the youths who allegedly fell victim to extrajudicial killings.
Bittu had on Sunday questioned why the Diljit Dosanjh-starrer film “Satluj” had underplayed “the massacres of innocent Hindus” and the “immense sacrifice of Punjab Police personnel, security forces and countless brave citizens who fought terrorism”.
The film, earlier titled “Punjab ‘95”, is based on human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra’s life.
Khalra was abducted in front of his house in Amritsar in September 1995. He was later found to have been murdered, though his body was never found.
The film was pulled from the OTT platform ZEE5 for viewers in India two days following its release on July 3 after the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting cited security concerns.
In November 2005, a CBI court had sentenced former DSP Jaspal Singh and ASI Amarjit Singh to life imprisonment for Khalra’s abduction and murder, while four other policemen were handed seven-year jail terms each.
In 2007, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted Amarjit Singh while enhancing the sentences of the four other convicts to life imprisonment, a decision that the Supreme Court upheld in 2011.
