The twin brothers from Mumbai now residing in Maharashtra, Ashish and Amar Vitthal, have decided to celebrate Holika Dahan by burning a PUBG Mobile effigy. Holika Dahan is the event during which Indian people get rid of evil stuff by burning them. Obviously, their action is to attract more attention to how negatively impactful the game is, as well as to discourage others to play the game.

Speaking to the Asian News International channel – ANI, the Vitthal brothers stated, “PUBG must be banned. Parents tell us children play PUBG all day. They appreciate us for the concept." Additionally, they emphasized, "People are turning violent by playing PUBG, children are not focusing on studies. So, we came up with this concept. Earlier we had created awareness about noise pollution, demonetization etc. We will burn this effigy during ‘Holika Dahan’. We want to spread a social message.”

The game’s reputation has skyrocketed since last year and more and more players are becoming too addicted to it. Therefore, PUBG itself has been announced forbidden is various areas across the country, notably in certain cities of Gujarat. Parents from all over India have been calling for help, contacting the authorities to give out a solution before everything has gone too far.

Meanwhile, the community of gamers disagreed with the ban, arguing that there are more worth-banning applications around such as Tik Tok, which has been accused of child sexual exploitation. Besides, they pointed out activities that will certainly cause bad influence like alcohol consumption and smoking have not been banned yet. Therefore, the restriction on PUBG is completely unreasonable.

Asheeta Regidi, whose expertise is in cyber law, noted that the shortage of regulation in gaming in India indicates that the government is acting randomly without a plan. Moreover, the act of banning games only shows their unstructured manner. Instead, to face ongoing problems and mitigate those issues, proper guidelines and regulation should be enforced.

The future of PlayerUnknown’s Battleground Mobile is no longer bright for Indian players as the game now faces bans in some cities in the country. Some people have even been arrested for playing PUBG Mobile. There are many reasons why the government decides to ban this game, including the negligent learning situation of students in the country, the harms that players face when they spend too much time on PUBG Mobile.

The case of two people from Hingoli, Maharastra died from crashing a train while playing PUBG Mobile became an alarm bell for government involvement. After so many similar incidents, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights sent a petition requesting the intervention of the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to prevent this situation.

Rajkot, Surat, Gir Somnath, Bhavnagar, and Ahmedabad are the cities that officially issued a ban on PUBG Mobile. The accidents and negative effects on players all over India are clearly not the responsibility of PUBG Mobile. After all, this is a game and built with the aim of bringing entertainment to people in a healthy way.

A month ago, people blamed PUBG Mobile for making Indian students not focused on learning and making the results worse. However, before the arrival of PUBG Mobile, the children lost their focus on their learning when they spent a lot of time playing outdoor activities like football or cricket.

Vijay Gopal, currently running a forum in Hyderabad with other activists, said their thoughts on the government's PUBG ban. They claim that PUBG Mobile makes players addictive and leads to negative effects. But other applications like Tiktok or Musical.ly are similar, it also has some impact on users.

There are cases like some individuals in Mumbai hanging on local trains and having a fatal accident, but we cannot blame the game for their death. It is important that everyone understands that everything that happens depends primarily on the people and surroundings. This game does not always bring trouble and adversely affect India. In fact, through bringing esports in India, PUBG Mobile has brought more jobs to the people here and helped the youth in the country promote their names to the world.

Young citizens of the country like Carryminati and Mortal are playing this game and bringing pride and honor to their homeland. Yet many activists still believe that this game only brings bad effects to the country. The bias will not improve this situation, many gamers hope that the government and activists should carefully review the decision and hope that the PUBG Mobile ban is not one of the best measures.

PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlefields) Mobile is a huge hit among the young internationally since the day it was released in 2017. It is also very well-known in India. However, things have good sides and bad sides. While PUBG is a rage in the gamer community, bringing a great deal of fun to many people, there have been several cases where its players are too addicted that they end up hurting themselves and people around them.

Playing games in excessive amount can cause people to shun social life and hurt people around them

According to a recent report, in Punjab, India, there was a 15-year-old boy who is extremely addicted to PUBG that it leads to his negative action toward his father. He stole Rs 50,000 from his father’s debit card in order to have money to purchase a game controller – pad as well as some items and gear in PUBG Mobile.

It was a huge shock for the father as he lost Rs 50,000 without notice. He did not even receive the One Time Password (OTP) sent to his phone. After turning toward the Cyber Police station for help, he found out that his cash was spent on purchasing game controller pad, costumes and custom skins on PUBG.

After holding an investigation, his teenager son was found to be the culprit. When confronted, the boy had to admit what he had done. He sent money from the debit card to his friend’s Paytm account during the night, receiving and deleting the OTP as soon as it was sent to his father’s mobile phone.  However, he didn’t know that all transactions could be spotted easily even without the OTPs.

The complainant has stopped the charges as he found the offender was his son.

There are many worse incidents that happened and noted in India. An 18-year-old teen even committed suicide when he was not allowed to buy a smartphone to play the game. In another case, a man assaulted his future brother-in-law just because the latter couldn’t find the phone charger cable fast enough in order for him to continue with his game.

PUBG Mobile was banned completely in 2 months, from March 9 to April 30, in Surat and Rajkot, 2 cities of Gujarat. The reason is that academic exams will be conducted during this time.

PUBG was banned in two cities in India for 2 months

Those who violate the ban stand to face legal repercussion according to Section 37 (3) of the Gujarat Police Act as well as Section 144 of the Criminal Procedural Act, 1973 (Act No. 1 of 1974), under the authority of Rajkot City Police Act, Rajkot City Police Commissionerate, in order to maintain security along with public safety, reads the circular.