Click to play videoMumbai: The Maharashtra government on Monday made a strange connection to ragging in KEM medical college in Mumbai to a ragging scene in the movie 3 Idiots. State officials suspect that a scene which shows students being ragged by seniors has inspired the ragging of 10 physiotherapy students of the KEM hospital.
Minister of Medical Education, Vijaykumar Gavit says, "If this film has incited this, we will take action."
However, on Wednesday, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan made an effort to sound more diplomatic. He said, "Who said this was because of 3 Idiots? We will first check the movie and then decide."
The censor board that cleared the movie is baffled. The Central Board of Film Certification and the filmmakers are both baffled with the government's inability to differentiate between reel life and real life ragging.
Member Central Board of Film Certification, Nandini Sardesai said, "I think the government is missing the point. The film does not inspire ragging. It depicts ragging."
Actor Aamir Khan added, "That scene from the film is clearly meant to be against ragging."
People are saying that the government's approach to the ragging problem in KEM is a trivial solution to a serious issue - targeting a film with a fictitious story to solve a legitimate problem that most colleges face in reality.
Nonetheless, this is not the first time the Maharashtra government has ignored the forest by focusing on the trees - from calling 26/11 a 'small incident', to declaring that ICSE students should get only 10 per cent of college seats, there seems to be no stopping the state's string of irresponsible statements.
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