"JODHA-AKBAR" row hits Madhya Pradesh......

Screening of Hritik Roshan-Aishwarya Rai starer 'Jodhaa-Akbar' was banned in Madhya Pradesh on Friday after demonstrations against it by the Rajput community at cinema theatres.

''The government has suspended the screening of the movie in the state with immediate effect as protests at cinema halls have posed a threat to maintenance of peace,'' Commercial Tax Department Addition Secretary DPS Parihar said.

In his order banning the screening of the film produced by UTV Software Communications Ltd, Parihar said the decision was taken in accordance to provisions under the Madhya Pradesh Cinema (Regulation) Act, 1952.

A Rajput organisation has threatened to set fire to cinema halls in the state if the screening of the controversial film was not stopped immediately.

Describing the depiction of the Jodhaa Bai as Akbar's wife in the Bollywood movie as an ''insult'' to the community, Akhil Bharatiya Kshatriya Mahasabha has threatened to burn the movie reels and cinema halls screening the film, which has been directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar.

''Till now our protests have been peaceful. We will resort to violence if our forefathers are continued to be insulted,'' the Mahasabha General Secretary Surendra Singh Tomar told reporters earlier this week.

Tomar had also led a delegation to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan seeking an immediate ban on the screening of the controversial film throughout the state.

Meanwhile, the film's director expressed concern over the recent developments.

''I am very sad that people are appreciating the movie in cities but the film is not being screened in some places. We are getting a good response from overseas. I want people to watch the film first and then express their views,'' said Ashutosh Gowarikar, Director, 'Jodhaa Akbar

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In an appeal to his party members, 94-year-old Left patriarch Jyoti Basu has expressed his desire to be relieved from the Politburo meetings.

Basu's request comes ahead of the Politburo meet scheduled for the end of March in Coimbatore. Basu has sighted health reasons repeatedly in the past, asking his party to relieve him from the helm of affairs.

But the CPI(M) for whom Basu's presence has more of symbolic meaning, has maintained that founding members like Basu will not be relieved from the core Politburo even if they don't attend the party meet.

Basu has said: "I have written to them that I can't attend the party congress. I have also told them verbally that I wanted to be relieved from politburo."