'3 Idiots' glorified ragging, NGO complains to Supreme Court

Dec 29, 2009 IANS

New Delhi, Dec 29 (IANS) A voluntary organisation working against ragging in India has complained to the Supreme Court appointed anti-ragging committee about the menace being glorified in Bollywood film '3 Idiots'.

"We have written to the R.K. Raghavan committee about the ragging scene in the film.

Raghavan has assured us to take appropriate action," Harsh Agarwal, head of the Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education (CURE), told IANS.

"... recently released movie 3 Idiots has a scene on ragging, shown in a lighter sense. This is director Raj Kumar Hirani's second film, first being Munnabhai MBBS, where ragging has been used as a theme to make the audience laugh," Agarwal has written in his complaint to Raghavan.

"This not only shows the insensitivity towards the issue but more importantly such acts significantly add to the confusion already existing in the society vis-a-vis ragging. Millions of people, who don't know anything about ragging but have watched Munnabhai MBBS, till today remember the scene from this film and believe that ragging is all about dance and fun," the complaint adds.

Agarwal said instead of creating awareness against ragging, "the movie is glorifying it. Treating it as a subject of fun. This must end as hundreds of students across India suffer a lot due to ragging."

According to a study by CURE, the number of ragging cases reported (from July 2008-June 2009) are 88, number of ragging deaths are 12 and number of attempted suicides (due to ragging) are five.

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3 Idiots