Hindus ask City of Melbourne to withdraw support from Ganesh vs. Hitler play

The Hindus have asked the Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Victoria, and City of Melbourne to severe partnership from it.

Nevada: The Hindus, who are concerned at the play `Ganesh versus the Third Reich` premiering at Melbourne Festival in Australia on September 29, have asked the Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Victoria, and City of Melbourne to severe partnership from it.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) on Monday, argued that taxpayer-funded organizations like Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Victoria, and City of Melbourne, which supported this play, should not be involved in projects resulting in upsetting a community group. Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, pointed out that these organizations should be more vigilant in their selections as Hindus were also taxpayers in Melbourne, Victoria and Australia. He stressed that Lord Ganesh was meant to be worshipped in temples and home shrines and not to be made a laughing stock on theater stages supported by the taxes paid by the public, including Hindus. He urged City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, Arts Victoria Director Penny Hutchinson and Australia Council for the Arts Chief Executive Officer Kathy Keele to urgently convene a meeting and withdraw support from this play. Zed has earlier stated that Lord Ganesh was divine and theater/film/art were welcome to create projects about/around him showing his true depiction as mentioned in the scriptures. Creating irrelevant imaginary imagery, like reportedly depicting him being tortured and interrogated by Nazi SS, hurt the devotees. ANI