Most religious people have very fragile sentiments. This is especially true about theists in India. They are always on the look out for anything that can possibly be accused of hurting their religious sentiments. Now they got a new one.. The popular game Pokemon go.
A PIL has been filed in the Gujarat High Court against developers of the location-based augmented reality game Pokemon Go, alleging it hurts religious sentiments of certain communities by showing eggs in places of worship.
Filed by Alay Anil Dave, the PIL is likely to be heard on Tuesday by a division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice Vipul Pancholi.
As per the plea, among other things, the image of eggs shown in the augmented reality game appear in places of worship of different religious groups.
The petitioner has said eggs are considered as non-vegetarian food, and it is blasphemous to carry non-vegetarian food inside a place of worship of Hindus and Jains.
“People playing the game get their points in the form of eggs which generally appear in the places of worship of different religious groups. To find eggs in temples of Hindus and Jains is blasphemous, and therefore my client has sought ban on the game from the country,” petitioner’s lawyer Nachiket Dave said
A PIL is a Public interest litigation , special provision in Indian law for speedy hearing and delivery of justice by High court or Supreme Court in matters of grave public importance so as to bypass the huge back log of cases awaiting trial.
Of course what can be more important than religious sentiments being hurt by an image of egg on your phone when you show it towards the godly abode ?
We need immediate justice by banning the game. Let the courts decide it first. All the millions of under trials in jails waiting justice can wait.
Is there a provision in Indian Law to punish people who bring frivolous lawsuits?
I do not think so.
Someone should tell them that the eggs are not real and are not actually in the place of worship.
Reminds me a lot of Rajan Zed and his continued campaign to get any portrayal of a hindu god removed from video games. Last I saw, Overwatch, SMITE, and Shin Megami Tensei were targets.
I love that in one of those shin megami tensei / persona games, you can summon a jesus to fight for you. I wanna summon a jesus. I also want all blasphemy laws in the toilet two hundred years ago.
@DanDare
And also, they’re not even virtual food. You’re supposed to incubate and hatch them, not eat them. Maybe Niantic can counter-sue for the blasphemy of suggesting anyone should eat Pokemon eggs.
I’ve never played any Pokemon games, but I didn’t think eating the eggs was part of it. It a bird laid an egg in a temple, would they charge it with blasphemy?
They may even do that ?
To call these people cretinous would be an insult to the world’s cretins.
The magic sky faeries of the temples should be able to explain whether or not they feel blasphemized. So call it/her/they/him as a witness.
Failure to understand “augmented reality” is not “reality”
The eggs are the “augmented” bit.
Best not tell the jains that wifi signals carrying pictures of eggs and all kinds of stuff are going through them, right now.
I wonder, how could they possibly know about this “problem” unless they were playing on their phone while at the temple?
This is like going to a strip show and then acting offended at the nudity. If you didn’t want to see this, then why did you go out of your way to look?