Broad aim of "The Love Guru" protests is protecting minorities

Nevada (USA), June 4 : Indo-American leader Rajan Zed has said the broader aim of the worldwide Hindu protests against "The Love Guru" is to protect various minorities from future ridicule.

"Through these protests, we are attempting to safeguard the rights and respect of all minorities, including Hindus and including 'mind-body' guy Deepak Chopra who makes a living by repackaging Hindu concepts, terminology, and products," Zed said. Everybody is a minority in some place, and in some sense in this world, Zed added. Zed said that Hinduism is the oldest and the third largest religion of the world with about one billion followers and should not be taken lightly.

"Filmmakers should be responsible when handling faith-related subjects because movies being a powerful communication medium have far reaching effects," he added. Hindus the world over are deeply concerned about the apparent denigration of their traditions by this movie portrayal of Hindu characters like buffoons and parody of yoga, which is one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy, he said.

"We hope that Paramount Pictures, presenters of 'The Love Guru', will be positively responsive to our concerns which we point out at the pre-screening of the movie promised by Paramount, and be prepared to make amends if requested," he added. Comedy should make everybody smile and should not come at the expense of ridiculing others' faith and spreading misinformation, he said and added that besides Hindus, leaders of various other faith traditions have come out in support of the protest.

ANI