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Hindus to protest
against Sony's Hanuman video game Washington:
In absence of any satisfactory response from Sony Corporation, Hindus are
planning to intensify their protest movement for withdrawal of its controversial
"Hanuman: Boy Warrior" video game for PlayStation2. Spearheaded by acclaimed Hindu
statesman Rajan Zed, who has stressed that this game "trivializes the highly revered
deity of Hinduism", many other Hindu leaders and groups world over have joined
the protest. Bhavna Shinde of Forum for Hindu Awakening in USA found the video
game "highly objectionable to us Hindus worldwide" and asked Sony to withdraw
it at the earliest and publish an apology, besides requesting distributors and
sellers of games to exclude it. Vamsi Krishna of Sanatan Sanstha based in Australia
found it "very disrespectful, disgraceful and an insult" to Hindus. Besides its
immediate removal, also requested Sony to issue an apology. Hindu Janajagruti
Samiti headquartered in India appealed to Sony to immediately withdraw the game,
render unconditional apology to Hindus for hurting religious sentiments, and assure
of not repeating such acts in future. Furthering the drive pioneered by Rajan
Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism; Jawahar L. Khurana, Chairperson
of Hindu Alliance of India; Lila D. Sharma, President of India Heritage Panel;
Dharam Loonaa, Executive Director of Universal Society of Hinduism; and Rakesh
Nagpal, General Secretary of Shri Ramayan Pracharini Sabha; have also urged Sony
for urgent withdrawal of "Hanuman: Boy Warrior" video game. Rajan Zed, in a statement
in Nevada (USA) today, pointed out that as Sony's Corporate Social Responsibility
stated, "Sony responds swiftly when a problem arises by investigating the facts
and taking appropriate action", Sony should immediately withdraw this game showing
some "responsibility" to its hurt Hindu customers worldwide. Moreover Sony should
create a high-level check system so that denigrations like this did not happen
in the future. Businesses should handle faiths with utmost care and sensitivity
and should not reshape the religious concepts merely to fulfill their financial
greed, Zed argued. Rajan Zed had earlier stated that re-imagining Hindu scriptures
and deities for commercial or other agenda was not okay. Lord Hanuman was not
meant to be reduced to just a "character" in a video game to solidify company/products
base in the growing economy of India. Lord Hanuman is greatly revered and his
worship is very popular among Hindus and there are numerous temples dedicated
to him. Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about
one billion adherents. Sony, with Howard Stringer as Chairman and headquartered
in Tokyo, is one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world.
-Apr 24, 2009
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