Pakistan to ban all cultural exchanges with India: Report
Islamabad: Pakistan has decided to ban all cultural exchanges with India, including all kinds of joint ventures between the entertainment industry of the two countries after India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, a media report said on Friday.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Thursday launched a national slogan 'Say No to India', Dawn newspaper reported.
"All kinds of Indian content have been stopped and Pemra [Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority] has been directed to step up its vigilance along with actions against the sale of Indian DTH instruments," said Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan.
Earlier this week, India revoked Article 370 to withdraw the special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the region into two Union Territories --Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh.
Pakistan termed the Indian action as "unilateral and illegal", and said it will take the matter to the UN Security Council. Awan said that the deception of cultural exchange was polluting the minds of Pakistani youth.
She said that the National Security Council had decided to establish a group and Pakistan would fight the "Hindutva ideology" from all fronts.
The group will be the cluster of all relevant ministries to fight against the Indian designs at required forums.
"The external communications will be dealt with by the ministry of information, the Foreign Office and the Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) as per nature of information," Awan said.
She said in the current situation, the clash between Indian and Pakistani cultural and social values were imminent and it was the media's responsibility to come to the forefront to defeat Indian "cultural invasion".
The government has also banned the screening of Indian films in the country's cinemas.
"No Indian film will be screened in any Pakistani cinema. Drama, films and Indian content of this kind will be completely banned in Pakistan," Awan tweeted.
Films and cultural relations are the first to get affected when there is tension between the two countries and it is not for the first time that Pakistan has banned Indian films.
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BJP govt 'going beyond limits' in imposing Hindi, says TN CM, slams naming arch as 'Kartavya Dwar'
Chennai (PTI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Wednesday lashed out at the BJP government at the Centre allegedly for "going beyond limits" in imposing Hindi and condemned the move to name the Tiruchirappalli railway divisional office entrance arch in that language.
The entrance arch of the railway divisional office, Tiruchirappalli, was named 'Kartavya Dwar' (Gate of Duty) recently, sparking a political row on language imposition in the state.
Taking strong exception to it, the chief minister claimed that the Union BJP government has embarked on a "vile" Hindi imposition of writing the Hindi name in Tamil and English under the pretext of promoting "one language, three scripts."
"They have written Kartavya Dwar at the entrance arch of the Tiruchirappalli division office of the Railways. The attempt to impose Hindi on Tamil and English names should be abandoned and proper Tamil names should be included immediately," Stalin said in a post on the social media platform ‘X.’
Otherwise, the BJP government will have to feel the heat of the Tamils, he warned.
The Centre had already imposed the name 'Bhavishya Nidhi Bhavan' for the Provident Fund Offices (EPFO) and was giving Sanskrit names in English for the new criminal laws.
"The name of the Union Water Resources Ministry has become 'Jal Shakti' and the 100 days employment guarantee scheme named after Mahatma Gandhi was renamed. The bitterness and arrogance is increasing," he pointed out.
"We need to teach these people who are trying to undermine the self-respect of Tamils a proper lesson," Stalin, who is the president of the DMK, said.
