Ban Tom & Jerry

If the Punjab government does decide to ban Hindu mythology cartoons, there are a few other things that should be banned on TV.

Ali Syed September 14, 2010


Recently the Punjab government formed a committee to see whether cartoons based on Hindu mythology should be banned or not. The reasons given were that the children of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan might come under the influence of such animations and deviate from Islam.

I am not going to get into how that is clearly ridiculous or how it is not in line with Jinnah’s vision as many have already addressed those issues. However, I would add that in case the Punjab government does decide to ban these cartoons, there are a few other things on TV that it might want to take a look at.

Tom and Jerry: A cartoon show that features a cat, Tom, and a mouse, Jerry, who indulge in the most violent form of behaviour, without suffering any sort of critical injuries. Now, if the government considers children in Pakistan to be so impressionable, or the parents to be incredibly incompetent of raising their kids, I would urge them to form a committee to ban this cartoon as well.

Tom may burn into ashes, get his tail chopped up or have a huge bump on his head, but in the next scene he returns, completely healed and rejuvenated. It would be unthinkable for us to believe that this can happen in real life but for the young kids, this may prove to be a matter of grave concern. Of course, the cat and the mouse are not Hindu so I might be wrong.

Commercials: I want the Punjab government to look into some, no, all the commercials on television that show Pakistani society to be happy, satisfied and prosperous, because such visions are also a thing of myth, and as such, possibly merit banning. Bear in mind that I might be entirely wrong in suggesting these bans, but that is why we have an elected government in place; to stop such erroneous thinking from becoming law. Right?




WRITTEN BY:
Ali Syed
The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

COMMENTS (25)

Anoop | 12 years ago | Reply @Nobody: I bet the Khans of Bollywood and members of the minority community in our Indian Cricket team(The 2 most popular past times of India) would disagree with your sarcasm. I bet Azim Premji, the owner of the multi-billion dollar empire, in the form of Wipro(who was the richest man for the longest time in India), would disagree. Yes, there are fanatics in India, as in any other Country. But, the thing is we show them their place quickly when they get out of hand, thanks to a continues system of uninterrupted Democracy. Pakistan cant even admit it helped the US forces(whether true or not) in killing Osama, due to fear of violence. Surely if the Majority are peaceful in Pakistan, this should have been done, even it was false. Anyway, Indian Muslims are in a much better position to succeed then any Pakistani Muslim.
Nobody | 12 years ago | Reply @Anoop: Correct, Indian Muslims are so pure and non violent; they only respond when forced to after being viciously targeted by Hindu fanatics.
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