John Oliver: His episode on HBO show Last Week Tonight banned by Disney on Hotstar!

Is expression of speech at risk in the new pro-Hindu nation that is emerging under the controversial PM of India, Narendra Modi?
It appears that after Disney’s streaming service in India, Hotstar blocked the show of HBO ‘Last Week Tonight’ in which the host John Oliver targeted the anti-Muslim policies of the current Indian government.

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Disney’s Hotstar blocks John Oliver’s show

In the Sunday night episode of the show Last Week Tonight on HBO, the show host John Oliver heavily criticized the anti-Muslim policies of the current government of India.

The channel simultaneously aired it in the US and other countries on Sunday night. And Hotstar was to stream the episode on Monday in India.

Hotstar is a local streaming provider run by Disney there. But Bloomberg reported that the Indian users of Disney’s streaming platform for the country, Hotstar could not find this latest episode of “Last Week Tonight”.

It probably was blocked from appearing on the platform where people were eagerly waiting to watch it.

Bloomberg requested comments from representatives of Hotstar but they did not reply back. The Indian government clarified saying that they have put no pressure on Hotstar to block the show.

But people have not forgotten the way that the same government stopped the airing of the BBC documentary ‘India’ s daughter’ about the 2012 New Delhi rape on the local channels after an emergency meeting.

The government had also asked Google to remove it from its site. But it continues to remain on the BBC website for everyone to see.

John Oliver’s Sunday night episode of Last Week Tonight

On 23 February 2020 Sunday during its night episode of Last Week Tonight, the host John Oliver blasted the Modi government for its anti-Muslim stance in an 18-minute segment.

He spoke about US President Trump’s two-day visit to that country which is rocked by heavy street protests and riots against the new CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) of the government.

He stated:

“Modi and his party may be about to strip millions of Muslims of citizenship. And they did it in a diabolically clever two step way,”

John added:

“The only glimmer of hope here in Trump’s visit is that for perhaps the first time in Modi’s whole career, his actions are creating a massive and sustained backlash.“

He also showed a picture of the Taj Mahal, the symbol of Love, and said:

“The home of this enduring symbol of love frankly deserves a lot more than this temporary symbol of hate,”

Wherein he pointed to the picture of Modi.

This particular episode of John Oliver went viral and trending on Twitter. There were thousands of retweets with many urging people and friends to watch and share the clip widely.

Similarly, an episode of Hasan Minhaj’s “Patriot Act” was pulled off from Netflix streaming services in Saudi Arabia. The reason was that Hasan Minaj had criticized Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s new and somewhat controversial crown prince.

What is CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) and NRC (National Register of Citizens)?

CAA is an act passed in 2019 in the Indian Parliament where the pro-Hindu party of India has a majority. It was an amendment to the Citizenship Act of 1955.

This new law allows all immigrants of Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Parsi, and Jain religions who fled persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan before December 2014 to seek Indian citizenship.

But it disallows the Muslim refugees from these countries to do so. Worldwide people have criticized this latter clause for its inherent discrimination based on religion.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has also called it ‘fundamentally discriminatory’ but it seems to not affect the government and continues to speak in its favor.

While the NRC which Home Minister Amit Shah announced in parliament would require all Indians to prove their citizenship through documents that many poor and illiterate people of India do not possess.

It might leave many Muslim refugees without citizenship and they might end up in unhealthy and congested detention camps for the rest of their lives.

Short bio on John Oliver

John Oliver is a British actor, comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, and television host. He is best known as the senior British correspondent of The Daily Show. His famous work is his own debut show called Last Week Tonight on HBO. Through this show, he became famous among the public. Currently, he appears as the host of the HBO series Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. More info…

Source: Wikipedia, NDTV

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