Karni Sena cries 'distortion of history' even as historians clear Padmaavat

Even as two historians claimed that Padmaavat does not hurt sentiments of any caste or community, the Shri Rajput Karni Sena on Tuesday (30 January) again claimed that historical facts had been tampered with in the movie.

Informed sources said historians RS Khangarot, principal of Agarwal PG College in Jaipur, and Rajasthan University's retired history professor BL Gupta watched the movie in Bengaluru in Karnataka on Monday (29 January) after a special invite by spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at his ashram to watch the movie in an attempt to resolve the raging row over the film.

Khangarot had claimed that the film has nothing to do with history and does not hurt any section of society. Gupta seconded the view and said nothing in the film hurts the sentiments of any particular community.

Karni Sena spokesperson Vijendra Singh told IANS, a news agency, that these two historians did not watch the movie earlier.

"We need to know in which context they said what they said. Had they questioned the movie's credibility, would Bhansali have stopped its release?" he asked.

"Pregnant women never perform jauhar or self-immolation, as shown in the movie. (Alauddin) Khilji attacked Chittorgarh when he was aged 55, but the movie shows a young Khilji of around 25. The Chittorgarh Fort's door was never broken by Khilji, but the movie shows otherwise," the Karni Sena leader claimed.

He said as per history, Khilji uprooted the fort door and took it along with him to Delhi. "Bharatpur's then king Surajmal brought the door back and reinstalled it at the fort after 400 years. However, the film shows that the door was smashed by Khilji to enter the fort," Singh said.

He added that the movie has Khilji entering the fort and threatening Rawal Ratan Singh to allow his wife to go with him or else Ratan Singh will be killed right there. "This sounds too comical — a king can just not be threatened in his own kingdom."

He quoted other scenes which also he claimed were not as per historical facts.

When pointed out the movie is doing well at the box office and earning rave reviews too, he quippted: "This is India, where even Sunny Leone has a strong fan following."