NEW DELHI: The Indian government on Thursday blocked the release of a controversial film on the assassination of former premier Indira Gandhi after calls grew for it to be banned for glorifying her killers.

“Kaum De Heere”, or “Diamonds Of The Community”, which was scheduled for release on Friday, tells the story of Indira Gandhi’s Sikh bodyguards who shot the premier dead in 1984 apparently in revenge for a military operation that killed hundreds of Sikhs.

The board decided to stop the release “because of the law and order situation that might result from the showing of the film”. . “We saw the film and decided that it will not be released tomorrow,” CBFC Chairperson Leela Samson said after reviewing the movie, according to PTI.

The home ministry had reportedly asked the ministry of information, under which CBFC functions, to review the movie’s go-ahead earlier in the day since content was found to be “highly objectionable”. The youth wing of Indira Gandhi’s Congress party had written to current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the film portrays the two bodyguards as heroes.

“I wrote to the prime minister to stop the release of the film,” said Vikramjit Chaudhary, president of the Punjab Pradesh Youth Congress, a local unit of Congress.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2014