MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan praises filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri

|HT|

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday praised filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri and his film The Kashmir Files and said the state government will help in all possible ways to Vivek Agnihotri's proposal of setting up a 'genocide museum'. "I thank Vivek ji for bringing the pain of our Kashmiri brothers and sisters in front of the world," the chief minister said as Vivek Agnihotri paid a visit to the chief minister on Friday. "The movie, as Vivek Ji said and I also agree, is not aimed at spreading hatred, but to bring out the truth so that no other area becomes Kashmir," the chief minister said.

Recalling his 2008 visit to Kashmir, Shivraj Singh Chouhan said he had attended a seminar of the Kashmiri Pandits where the atrocities on Kashmiri Hindus were discussed. "Today, Vivek ji has come up with a very good proposal of 'Genocide museum'. Vivek ji, please go ahead with your proposal. The state government is with you, I am with you," the chief minister said. "Vivek ji is a son of Madhya Pradesh. He was brought up in Bhopal. Earlier, I used to think he is my senior. But then we discussed our age and found out that I am his senior," Shivraj Singh said while Vivek Agnihotri interjected saying that Shivraj Singh looks very young explaining why he might have thought he is junior to the filmmaker.

The Kashmir Files is at the centre of a raging controversy over the depiction of the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley and also because of the BJP's support of the film.

The Madhya Pradesh government was one of the first states to declare the movie tax-free. On March 13, two days after the movie was released, Shivraj Singh Chouhan made The Kashmir Files tax-free as he said the movie needs to be watched by maximum people. Madhya Pradesh IAS officer Niyaz Khan who asked Vivek Agnihotri on Twitter to make a film about the "killings of large number of Muslims across several states in India" has been issued a showcause notice by the government for "spreading hatred and violating service rules".

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)