AsiaNet-Pakistan Premier Editorial Content and Press Release Distribution Service
New Delhi, May 30, 2023 (PPI-OT): Veteran Indian actor, Naseeruddin Shah, has said that hate against Muslims in India has become “fashionable” and is being cleverly tapped into by the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government. Naseeruddin Shah, who has been an open critic of the BJP-led communal Indian government and the growing Islamophobia in India, in an interview with The Indian Express said, “Oh sure, these are worrying times absolutely. The kind of stuff that’s pure, undisguised propaganda is being lapped up and it’s a reflection of the zeitgeist of the times. Muslim hating is fashionable these days, even among educated people. It’s what the ruling party has very cleverly tapped into this nerve. We talk about secular this, democracy that, so why are you introducing religion into everything?”
The actor also expressed his opinion on how “undisguised propaganda” is being peddled into the masses through art. The mood on-screen is a reflection of what’s happening on ground: unabashed Islamophobia which is being used to get votes in elections, he added. “I mean how spineless is the election commission of ours? Who doesn’t even dare utter a word. If there had been a Muslim leader who had said, ‘Allah Hu Akbar bol ke button dabao’ (Say Allah Hu Akbar and press the button), shit would have hit the fan.”
“But here our Prime Minister goes ahead and says things like this and yet he loses. So, I have hope that this will wear off. But it’s definitely, at the moment, at its peak. It’s been a very clever card played by this government, and it has worked. Let’s see how long it continues to work,” he further said.
For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549
Fax: +92-51-4861736
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Website: www.kmsnews.org