Hindus worldwide to intensify protest against Sony's Hanuman video game

In absence of any satisfactory response from Sony Corporation, Hindus are planning to intensify their protest movement for withdrawal of its controversial "Hanuman: Boy Warrior" video game for PlayStation2.

Spearheaded by acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, who has stressed that this game "trivializes the highly revered deity of Hinduism", many other Hindu leaders and groups world over have joined the protest.

Bhavna Shinde of Forum for Hindu Awakening in USA found the video game "highly objectionable to us Hindus worldwide" and asked Sony to withdraw it at the earliest and publish an apology, besides requesting distributors and sellers of games to exclude it.

Vamsi Krishna of Sanatan Sanstha based in Australia found it "very disrespectful, disgraceful and an insult" to Hindus. Besides its immediate removal, also requested Sony to issue an apology.

Hindu Janajagruti Samiti headquartered in India appealed to Sony to immediately withdraw the game, render unconditional apology to Hindus for hurting religious sentiments, and assure of not repeating such acts in future.

Furthering the drive pioneered by Rajan Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism; Jawahar L. Khurana, Chairperson of Hindu Alliance of India; Lila D. Sharma, President of India Heritage Panel; Dharam Loonaa, Executive Director of Universal Society of Hinduism; and Rakesh Nagpal, General Secretary of Shri Ramayan Pracharini Sabha; have also urged Sony for urgent withdrawal of "Hanuman: Boy Warrior" video game.

Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, pointed out that as Sony's Corporate Social Responsibility stated, "Sony responds swiftly when a problem arises by investigating the facts and taking appropriate action", Sony should immediately withdraw this game showing some "responsibility" to its hurt Hindu customers worldwide. Moreover Sony should create a high-level check system so that denigrations like this did not happen in the future.

Businesses should handle faiths with utmost care and sensitivity and should not reshape the religious concepts merely to fulfill their financial greed, Zed argued.

Rajan Zed had earlier stated that re-imagining Hindu scriptures and deities for commercial or other agenda was not okay. Lord Hanuman was not meant to be reduced to just a "character" in a video game to solidify company/products base in the growing economy of India.ord Hanuman is greatly revered and his worship is very popular among Hindus and there are numerous temples dedicated to him. Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents.

Sony, with Howard Stringer as Chairman and headquartered in Tokyo, is one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. (ANI)