Nepali body demands Amazon Prime's Paatal Lok slur removed

The Bharatiya Gorkha Yuva Parisangh (BhaGoYuP) youth wing of Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh (BGP) - National Social Organisation of Indian Gorkhas in a statement on Monday said that the Gorkha community whose common tongue is Nepali - one of the 22 constitutionally recognized Indian languages strongly condemns scene calling a Khasi character Mary Lyngdoh from Meghalaya being called 'Nepali Whore' disgustingly in Hindi as #NepaliR@@di in Amazon Prime Video web series Paatal Lok produced by actor Anushka Sharma released on 15th May 2020.

'This is not just regressive but also racist stereotyping of North Easterners in particular the Gorkhas. Racial discrimination exists is a known seen, told, fact. During covid19 crisis the NorthEasterners have been fighting corona racism, to add up to our woes, this web series will incite not just racial but sexual slur also and rape attempts to the women of our NE community. We as a nation should strongly condemn it in toughest terms and seek immediate removal.', said Nanda Kirati Dewan, president of Bharatiya Gorkha Yuva Parisangh.

Dewan further added, 'No we shouldn't and cannot consume community stereotyping content and accept derogatory racist attack in the name of creative freedom and in pursuit of entertainment excellence. Amazon Prime Video and #PaatalLok producer Anushka Sharma must pull down the scene calling "Nepali R@@di" which beyond doubt not acceptable to any community branding them prostitute, mute it, blur the subtitles, upload edited video with public apology and disclaimer

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India has 10.5 million Gorkha community who communicates in Nepali as their common tongue. Our immediate friendly neighbouring countries Nepal and Bhutan too speaks Nepali which constitutes nearly 50 million population. Social media trends shows that it has hurt linguistic group worldwide.

Bharatiya Gorkha Yuva Parisangh today started an online petition to Information & Broadcasting Ministry Govt of India through change.org marking copies to producer Anushka Sharma, OTT platform Amazon Prime Video Paatal Lok seeking its removal and unconditional apology.

Following these social media users started trending #ApologiseAnushkaSharma #PulldownPaatalLokPrimeVideo at the time of filing this report. The signature campaign is generating good response., said Namrata Sharma, Social Welfare Secretary of Yuva Parisangh.

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