MUMBAI: An Indian village had to cancel a performance of a traditional Hindu play moments before it was due to start after far-right activists opposed the participation of a Muslim Bollywood star, reports said Friday.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, best known outside of India for his role in “The Lunchbox,” had been due to perform in a theater production based on the “Ramayana” in his home village of Budhana in Uttar Pradesh state.
But organizers canceled the event after activists from the ultra-nationalist Shiv Sena said they were opposed to a Muslim actor taking part in the Hindu play, according to reports.
“A few members of the Shiv Sena didn’t want a Muslim man to play a character in Ram Leela,” Damodar Prasad Sharma, president of the Ram Leela Committee, told the Indian Express newspaper.
“Then the police told us that we should not let Nawazuddin participate and, if at all we do, and there is a problem during the show, we will have to take responsibility.”
“There were just too many people in the audience, we couldn’t have controlled the crowds in case of a ruckus,” Sharma added.
The Times of India quoted local Shiv Sena official Mukesh Sharma as saying: “In the 50-60 year history of the Budhana Ramleela, no Muslim artist has set foot on the stage. We couldn’t allow that now. It’s about tradition.”
The Press Trust of India said the performance had been canceled while Siddiqui took to Twitter to express his disappointment.
“My childhood dream could not come true, but will definitely be a part of Ramleela next year,” he tweeted late on Thursday.
Supporters of Shiv Sena, which shares power with India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the western state of Maharashtra, is accused of being anti-Muslim and regularly uses intimidation tactics.
Last year activists threw ink over the organizer of the launch in Mumbai of a book by a former Pakistani foreign minister.
It was also accused of using threats to force the cancelation of an appearance in Mumbai by Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali.
Muslim star forced out of Hindu stage play
Muslim star forced out of Hindu stage play
TikTok finalizes deal to form new American entity
TikTok has finalized a deal to create a new American entity, avoiding the looming threat of a ban in the United States that has been in discussion for years.
The social video platform company signed agreements with major investors including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX to form the new TikTok US joint venture. The new version will operate under “defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurances for US users,” the company said in a statement Thursday. American TikTok users can continue using the same app.
Adam Presser, who previously worked as TikTok’s head of operations and trust and safety, will lead the new venture as its CEO. He will work alongside a seven-member, majority-American board of directors that includes TikTok’s CEO Shou Chew.
The deal marks the end of years of uncertainty about the fate of the popular video-sharing platform in the United States. After wide bipartisan majorities in Congress passed — and President Joe Biden signed — a law that would ban TikTok in the US if it did not find a new owner in the place of China’s ByteDance, the platform was set to go dark on the law’s January 2025 deadline. For a several hours, it did. But on his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep it running while his administration sought an agreement for the sale of the company.
In addition to an emphasis on data protection, with US user data being stored locally in a system run by Oracle, the joint venture will also focus on TikTok’s algorithm. The content recommendation formula, which feeds users specific videos tailored to their preferences and interests, will be retrained, tested and updated on US user data, the company said in its announcement.
Oracle, Silver Lake and the Emirati investment firm MGX are the three managing investors, who each hold a 15 percent share. Other investors include the investment firm of Michael Dell, the billionaire founder of Dell Technologies. ByteDance retains 19.9 percent of the joint venture.
