India

Chetan Bhagat’s Half Girlfriend Is Banned At Railway Stations; Twitter Explodes With Satire & Shock!

By Radha Joglekar
Chetan Bhagat's Half Girlfriend Is Banned At Railway Stations
Chetan Bhagat’s Half Girlfriend Is Banned At Railway Stations

Chetan Bhagat’s novel Half Girlfriend has been banned from being sold on railway stations by Rail Yatri Seva Samiti chairman Ramesh Chandra Ratna. 

Twitter has, obviously, exploded over this, with negative and positive reactions erupting from every nook and corner.

Ramesh Chandra Ratna is the Chairman of the Rail Yatri Seva Samiti, and is responsible for checking the state and quality of the amenities on the railway station. 

He, on one of his inspection tours, came across a copy of Half Girlfriend by popular writer Chetan Bhagat, at a New Delhi Railway Station recently. As per reports, he lost his cool at the sight of the book, and asked for the books to be removed from the railway station. 

Why did he order a ban on the book? How much sense does this ban hold? 

We try to analyze.

National Newspapers Should Be Sold; Such Books Spread The Wrong Message says Chairman

Ramesh Chandra Ratna, who is the Chairman of the Rail Passenger Service Committee, labeled Half Girlfriend as ‘obscene’ and asked for it to be removed from being sold at railway platforms immediately. 

He opinionated that such books spread a negative message in the society and bad behavior and the rate of crimes against women increases through such media. He also asked for cultural, national magazines and national newspapers to be sold at book stalls on platforms. 

Twitter has exploded with interesting reactions..


Twitter is having a field day with the news, with all sorts of reactions pouring in on the matter. 

Should ‘Half Girlfriend’ Be Banned?

There are a million reasons for the Chetan Bhagat best-seller to be banned, and ‘obscene’ is just beginning to scratch the surface. Bad content in poorly constructed sentences and paragraphs, and it’s still a best-seller. 

Half Girlfriend is the love story of a student from the rural regions of India being insanely crazy about a rich girl. He likes her and she doesn’t like him back, initially.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being in love with someone, but the obscene dialogs in the book that will definitely make a negative impact on society. The main lead doesnt think twice about hurting or pushing around the woman he claims to love.

This is a contorted way of expressing one’s feelings, and does promote violence and crime, where we agree with Mr. Chairman. Especially if the books are being read by the generation who’s minds and hearts are vulnerable and can be influenced by ‘best-seller’ love stories such as these. 

The fact that this book does not dignify women, college going boys from rural regions, or the feeling of love, and yet gets chosen for a censor board-approved movie about it, speaks volumes. 

Ofcourse, there should be freedom of speech, and as the Government cannot ban a book from being sold as written by the Constitution, unless it is anti national. Also, we cannot ignore the fact that if not on railway platforms, the book is still being sold all around the country at bookstores. 

Radha Joglekar 2174 posts 0 comments

An engineer, a history buff and a book-eater. A writer with a newfound interest in technology, attempting to build a bridge between the two!

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