With the Battlegrounds Mobile India or BGMI smartphone game getting banned in India, an NGO named ‘Prahar’ has come forward to thank the government for banning the BGMI game.
Abhay Mishra, president, Prahar said “Since February this year, we have raised the fact that BGMI and the banned PUBG are one and the same. In the so-called new avatar, the BGMI was no different from erstwhile PUBG with Tencent still controlling it in the background. We are grateful to the Government of India for taking this step in the interest of security and sovereignty of India.”
While the NGO continues to call the BGMI as a Chinese, South Korea-based Krafton which is operating BGMI in India had said, during the launch of the game, that they have no “links” to any Chinese partners or Tencent in particular.
Source in the government claimed that the reason as to why BGMI got banned in India is due to “security and data sharing concerns”.
Also read: 3 Big Reasons Why BGMI Is Banned In India
Meanwhile, the NGO named Prahar has been active in raising concerns to the government over allowing the BGMI game in India for quite some time.
In February 2022, Prahar had written to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to block the Chinese app BGMI under section 69A of the Information Technology Act, “as it poses a threat to the sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, and public order.”
WATCH VIDEO: Why BGMI Is Banned In India
“RSS-affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) had also supported Prahar on the issue and said the government should thoroughly investigate the antecedents and China influence” of the BGMI-PUBG app and take “immediate action if found in violation,” said Mishra.
“In March, 2022, we had also written an open letter to the Chinese billionaire Pony Ma, founder of Tencent Holdings, demanding answers to 10 pointed questions on the antecedents and covert linkages between Krafton, the company which is the current face of BGMI in India and Tencent the former banned owner of PUBG. There was radio silence from Pony Ma,” added Mishra.
Recently, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar pointed out media reports that claimed that a child killed his mother “under the influence of PUBG”. While PUBG Mobile is already banned in India, he highlighted in Rajya Sabha that the banned apps appearing in new names is a concern. He also said that games like these have been sent to the home ministry for “examination”.
PUBG Mobile was banned by the Government of India on September 2, 2020. Within ten months, Krafton relaunched the game as Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI). BGMI is the biggest among the Chinese apps that relaunched and rebranded with the same features and have managed to circumvent scrutiny.
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