Actor Raveena Tandon and choreographer Farah Khan, along with comedian Bharti Singh, who were booked for hurting the religious sentiments of the Christian community by allegedly mocking ‘Hallelujah’, met the Cardinal of the Catholic Church, Oswald Gracias to tender their apologies to him.
Choreographer Farah Khan released a statement in which she stated that she along with actor Raveena Tandon visited Gracias and offered their unconditional apology to him. Farah also sought forgiveness from the Cardinal on behalf of the entire team of the Flipkart Video Original’s quiz show “Backbenchers”, on which she is a host. In addition, she also said that the concerned episode has been taken off by Flipkart Video.
In an apology letter by Farah Khan that was uploaded by a Facebook page called ‘persecutionrelief.org’, Farah apologises profusely and promises to never hurt the Christian community again.
Earlier, two FIRs had been registered against the actor and the choreographer on account of a video clip from the show “Backbenchers“ in which the duo along with Bharti Singh can be seen having difficulty vocalizing the word ‘hallelujah’. A complaint, which was registered in Amritsar accused the celebrities of trivializing the word and hurting the sentiments of the Christian community.
“His Eminence Cardinal Oswald Gracias met us. We apologised and asked him to forgive our mistake and he very graciously accepted our apology. He also issued a statement on our behalf to end this matter,” Farah said.
Farah tweeted, “To err is human to forgive divine. Thank you, Your Eminence Cardinal Oswald Gracias for meeting us and accepting our heartfelt apologies and putting this unfortunate matter to rest.”
To Err is human.. to Forgive Divine.. Thank you YOUR EMINENCE CARDINAL OSWALD GRACIOUS for meeting us n accepting our heartfelt apologies and putting this unfortunate matter to rest. Frm all of us thank you also @allwynsaldanha for making this happen. ?? pic.twitter.com/bkC8AIDZ2V
— Farah Khan (@TheFarahKhan) December 30, 2019
The president of the Indian Christian Voice, Dr Abraham Mathai said that the Christian community accepted the apology proffered by Farah, Raveena and Bharti Singh. “We appreciate Flipkart video and Walmart CEO for removing the episode off air. The Christian community appreciates the Flipkart video and Mr Doug McMillon, the global CEO of Walmart for having considered our demands and sentiments,” he said.
“This evening Farah Khan and Raveena Tandon went in person to His Eminence Cardinal Oswald Gracias to tender a written and unconditional apology, which the Cardinal graciously accepted. I request the Christian community of this nation who are infuriated by this whole saga to accept the apologies tendered by the celebrities in the true spirit of Christ,” Mathai said in a statement.
Following is the letter of apology submitted by Raveena Tandon. In the letter, Raveena Tandon asked for forgiveness from the Cardinal, the Christian community and the “Lord God”.
Bharti Singh also posted a tweet seeking forgiveness and proffering apologies for hurting the sentiments of the Christian community. Bharti tweeted, “From the bottom of my heart I would like to say Sorry to my Christian brothers and sisters for hurting their sentiments. Thank you Your Eminence Cardinal Oswald for personally hearing my apology in the voice note (as I’m not in the country) and forgiving me.”
Earlier, actor Raveena had posted a tweet seeking apology from those who were aggrieved by the video. Raveena posted a clip of the show asking her followers to watch the video.
Please do watch this link. I haven’t said a word that can be interpreted as an insult to any religion. The three of us (Farah Khan, Bharti Singh and I) never intended to offend anyone, but in case we did, my most sincere apologies to those who were hurt. https://t.co/tT2IONqdKI
— Raveena Tandon (@TandonRaveena) December 26, 2019
She wrote, “Please do watch this link. I haven’t said a word that can be interpreted as an insult to any religion. The three of us (Farah Khan, Bharti Singh and I) never intended to offend anyone, but in case we did, my most sincere apologies to those who were hurt.”
