By Matters India Reporter
Rupnagar, Jan 5, 2020: An apology to Cardinal Oswald Gracias, head of the Catholic Church in India, has not ended the woes of Bollywood actor Raveena Tandon, director-choreographer Farah Khan and comedian Bharti Singh.
Police in Rupnagar, Punjab, have registered a case against the three for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of the Christian community in a TV show.
The complainant was the All India Christian Welfare Front, a Protestant group, which says it cannot accept the apology to Cardinal Gracias as the Catholic Church had not protested against the TV show.
The case was registered under Section 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code at Rupnagar city police station on January 3 on the complaint for the front’s national president Charan Masih Sahota and others.
The group had demonstrated against the three on December 28, 2019.
Raveena and Farah had on December 29 met and apologized to Cardinal Oswald Gracias, head of the Catholic Church in India. Farah took to Twitter to inform that Cardinal Gracias had accepted their apology.
“His Eminence Cardinal Oswald Gracias met us. We apologized 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.
Masih, however, maintains that the Christian community was deeply hurt by the actions of Tandon, Khan and Singh. He said there was no question of accepting their apology to the cardinal and demanded the arrest of the three.
However, another Protestant leader Abraham Mathai, president of Indian Christian Voice, had earlier said the Christian community had accepted the apology tendered by Khan, Tandon and Singh.
He appreciated Flipkart video and Walmart CEO taking the episode off air and thanked the two for respecting Christian sentiments.
Mathai also said the written and unconditional apology to the cardinal from the three is acceptable to all Christians and appealed Christians in India to accept their apology in the true spirit of Christ.