CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress president and Ludhiana MP Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Thursday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the planned release of web series 'Lawrence of Punjab' based on the real life gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, stating that such a brutal person should not be glorified.
The Punjab government has also sought a ban on the release of the series, noting that it glorifies organised crime.
Warring wrote: "The movie/series aims to glorify someone who has been involved in so many gruesome crimes, including the brutal murder of the most popular Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala."
He condemned the making of such a series wherein problematic characters represent Punjab, which is known to be a "holy land of Gurus, Rishis and Pirs."
"You have yourself spent a lot of time in Punjab. You know Punjab’s history and culture as much. Should such a holy land with a glorious history and culture be identified with a gangster? That is what the OTT series wants to project," he wrote, calling for the PM to pay attention to the implications of such media portrayals.
Warring also pointed out that such a series will have dangerous impact on "impressionable young minds" who might be tempted to begin a life of crime.
"Identifying Punjab with a criminal and a gangster like Lawrence Bishnoi is an insult to Punjab, Punjabi and Punjabiyat. We must nip the evil in the bud and we seek you personal intervention to ban the series from getting aired," the letter stated.
Warring requested Modi to kindly issue directions to the ministries of Information and Broadcasting and the Information Technology to ban the release of the web series.
Warring on Wednesday filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in larger public interest of society, particularly keeping in view the socio-criminal environment prevailing in the state of Punjab.
The petition is expected to to be taken up tomorrow. Requesting to block the public access to the 'unlawful' content under section 69A (1) of the Information Technology Act, the Special Director General of Police, Cyber Crime of Punjab Police, Neeraja Voruvuru, had also written a letter to the Joint Director in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, C Senthil Rajan, stating that series scheduled for release depicts the life of Bishnoi.