A couple of days ago it was reported that a Congress leader from West Bengal had filed a complaint against India’s Netflix series Sacred Games, alleging that it was insulting Rajiv Gandhi. In the complaint, the Congress leader was miffed about Rajiv Gandhi being called a ‘Fattu’ (which was translated by Netflix as Pussy).
Now incidentally Sacred Games has also angered an organisation named All India Cine Workers Association (AICWA), which has lodged a similar complaint demanding an FIR against the actor and producer of Sacred Games:
All India Cine workers’ Association has filed a complain with the police to lodge an FIR against the producer & actor of the web series Sacred Games and actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui for maligning the image of former PM Rajiv Gandhi.
— ANI (@ANI) July 11, 2018
Now clearly for most people, a question might arise as to why is AICWA (which prima facie looks like a union of people employed in the film industry), angry at the portrayal of Rajiv Gandhi in the TV Series.
Even though the name of the organisation does not give it away, a glance at AICWA’s website leads one to realise that the innocuous-sounding organisation is actually built on strong political foundations. This is the poster featured on the homepage of the website:
As seen in the poster above AICWA which is headed by founder and president Suresh Gupta, claims to be affiliated to INTUC and even features Rahul and Sonia Gandhi on its banner.
So is the INTUC in question, “Indian National Trade Union Congress”?
An IANS report says yes, by also calling Suresh Gupta the President of Youth Indian National Trade Union Congress’ city wing.
This report which covered the case filed against Sacred Games claimed that Gupta filed the complaint at the Chembur Police Station on Wednesday. In the complaint, he too was aggrieved about actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui calling Rajiv Gandhi a Fattu in the TV Series.
Even Mumbai Congress’ official Twitter account had affirmed Gupta’s INTUC credentials by calling him a Youth INTUC Mumbai President, in a tweet, posted back in January.
So what is Youth INTUC, and is it connected to the Congress party, which might explain why Gupta and subsequently AICWA are so miffed at the TV Series.
INTUC’s website states that Youth INTUC is its youth program which was launched in 1961 and claims to strive to mobilise youth activists, to make them aware of their rights, responsibilities and provide them adequate training.
As stated by various news reports, INTUC is known as the trade union arm of the Congress party and even the latter mentions INTUC on its website:
So clearly AICWA is linked to the Congress party via affiliations, thereby providing the reason for it angst against Sacred Games.
Now that the Congress leaders and the affiliate members of the party have launched legal action against Sacred Games, it raises the question whether the mainstream Congress machinery too would jump in the fray and start displaying the kind of intolerance it displayed during the release of the movie – Indu Sarkar.
