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Harbhajan Singh has apologised over the Colors channel dance reality show, and vowed “never to do anything that could hurt religious sentiments of any community”. "I apologise if my actions have hurt anybody. It was not my intention to hurt sentiments of anyone which includes members of my own community," the off-spinner told reporters in Chandigarh. "It will be my sincere endeavour not to repeat such things in future," said Singh, currently playing in the first Test match against Australia at...

The Maharashtra Youth Congress knows how to tackle Raj Thackeray — it is going on an anti-indecency overdrive. After filing a complaint against Harbhajan Singh for hurting sentiments of its members for playing Ravana in a dance reality show, the youth brigade of the Congress has filed an FIR against three participants of the preposterous reality show Big Boss. The show “bred vulgarity, indecency and indecent representation of women," they told the Andheri police, according to the Indian Express...

More people are seething over Harbhajan Singh's Ravana dance on Colors channel. All for different reasons. The Sikh clergy in Amritsar are fuming since both Harbhajan and Mona are Sikhs, says IANS: [ Link] Gurbachan Singh, the acting head of the Akal Takht, has taken strong exception to the depiction of Hindu gods by the two celebrities, who incidentally, are both Sikhs. “Though I have not received a complaint in this regard, I think it is unreasonable to mock at religious deities like this...

The youth wing of the Congress in Maharashtra has registered a case against entertainment channel Colors and production house Endemol for "hurting religious sentiments" in their dance show 'Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena'. [ Link] In an episode of the reality dance show, cricketer Harbhajan Singh dressed up as Lord Ravana and danced with TV actress Mona Singh, who was dressed as Sita. The Mumbai Youth Congress have claimed that this dance has hurt the religious sentiments of the viewers, Deputy...

This is hilarious. Because one doesn't get to hear of this things too often. A group of Bajrang Dal activists, protesting against 'show of indecency' at a Navratri garba festival in Bhopal on October 3 night, were bashed up by the organisers of the programme. The Times of India reported on the incident: [ Link] The Bajrang Dal has now threatened that it would not allow the nine-day dance festivities to continue at this garba venue. The violent incident happened at 10.30pm on Friday, when the...

Backless cholis and low-waits ghagras are out this festive season in Rajkot. The guardian of morality here is Commissioner of Police Sudhir Sinha who has issued an order to all the commercial organisers to ban the entry of participants in ‘obscene and provocative attire.’ Says the Indian Express: [ Link] For the strict implementation of the order, organisers have also been asked by the Commissioner’s office to depute a special security officer to keep an eye on the dress of each and every...

Erotic pictures on covers of condom packs? Eeks, thought the Madras High Court and virtually banned such pictures on condom packets, terming them as "indecent, obscene" and an affront to Indian ethos. But thankfully, the Supreme Court is not retrograde. It has stayed the lower court's order. The Times of India has details on the case:[ Link] The HC order had left Hindustan Latex, the largest manufacturer and marketer of contraceptives and condoms, so worried that it requisitioned the services of...

The Marriott ghost is still haunting Mallika Sherawat. Sessions judge ST Mahajan on Thursday (September 18) summoned Mallika Sherawat to appear before him on October 7, in a review of an obscenity case filed by Vinod Jain against her and the management of the hotel JW Marriott. From the Daily News & Analysis: [ Link] In his complaint to the Bandra magistrate, Jain had contended that on December 31, 2006, he had viewed on TV, Sherawat's dance at the hotel and had found it extremely obscene. In...

The police in Nagpur haven't quite done a Meerut, but they have been seen in action. On September 16, they caught 82 young boys and girls, some of them botany students, from the Botanical Garden in Telankedhi area and herded them into the Gittikhadan police station, on suspicion of indulging in indecent behaviour in public. The girls and boys were made to wait for hours for the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Purushottam Gavai, to arrive before being released. The Indian Express reported: [...

After the Delhi High Court, it is the Supreme Court which has dismissed charges of obscenity against MF Husain. From a report in the Telegraph: [ Link] The apex court threw out an appeal against a May 8 Delhi High Court order that had quashed criminal proceedings against Husain while deploring the “new puritanism” in India. “There are so many such subjects, photographs and publications. Will you file cases against all of them?” Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan wondered. “What about temple...