CBS show Madam Secretary’s first episode of season 5, seems to have been taken down by Amazon Prime India, due to its references to Hindu nationalism and Hindu extremists. The episode, titled ‘E Pluribus Unum’ is tagged as ‘video currently unavailable’ while the other episodes are available for playing.
Madam Secretary is an American political drama that traces the life of a fictional character, Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord played by Tea Leoni. The episode, which has apparently been removed, deals with McCord trying to get India and Pakistan sign a nuclear disarmament treaty.
According to reports, as the episode opens, Elizabeth McCord gets a brief from a staff member before signing of the treaty. The brief is, “Humint (Human Intelligence) indicates the Indian government has decided not to take any definitive actions to quell Hindu nationalists from violently attacking members of India’s Muslim minority. In fact, a variety of sources indicate the Indian government is siding with the Hindu nationalists, and has deemed any responses that could prevent further attacks as politically dangerous.” In the middle of a dialogue, there’s also a reference to ‘India-occupied Kashmir’.
Further in the episode, McCord’s husband, Professor Henry McCord played by Tim Daly is shown debating with an Indian professor, Arnay Vijay, played by Harsh Nayyar, on the issue. Vijay asks, “Does the Hindu majority in India have the right to defend itself or not?”
To this, Henry replies, “Of course, it does. But what you’re characterising as the Hindu majority defending itself is actually textbook terrorism against minorities with the Indian government turning the other way. A democracy cannot function without safeguarding the rights of minorities against the majority.”
There were a few Indian social media users who questioned the “research” that had gone into writing the episode.
With the episode being taken down mysteriously, some Twitter users questioned the same with their tweets.
Earlier, Netflix had also removed one of the episodes of The Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj which talked about the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, reportedly after complaints by Saudi Arabia.
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