Actor Naseeruddin Shah, who was recently in the news for calling Virat Kohi ‘the worst-behaved cricketer in the world’ said he is worried for his children in today’s India and imagines a situation where they would be surrounded by an angry mob and asked: “Are you Hindu or Muslim?"
He said: “My children will have no answer. Because we chose not to give a religious education to our children."
In a video message posted on YouTube by Karwan-e-Mohabbat India that ‘poison had been spread’ and that it will be ‘difficult to capture this genie back into the bottle’.
He said, referring to the recent Bulandshahr violence: “There is complete impunity for those who take the law into their own hands. We have already witnessed that the death of a cow has more significance [in today's India] than that of a police officer."
His comments were put online by Karwan-e-Mohabbat (Caravan of Love), a collective that claims to focus on highlight and combat instances of hate crimes and lynching.
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Naseeruddin Shah's comments were put online by Karwan-e-Mohabbat India (Caravan of Love), a travelling activist collective that is focussed on highlight and combating instances of hate crimes and lynching.
He added: “I was given a religious education...But Ratna [Pathak Shah, Naseeruddin's wife] did not get any religious education...[And] we chose not to give a religious education to our children.”
He said he believed ‘good and evil have nothing to do with religion’ and said: “So I fear for my children...Because if a mob gathers around them and asks them are you a Hindu or Muslim, they will not have any answer...Because they have no religion. I am angry and I believe every right-thinking man must be angry and must not fear."
Reacting, RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha wrote: “Nasiruddin Shah [sic] should first ask Rohingyas to leave Hindustan as according to him India is unsafe for him and his family," Sinha said in a tweet before suggesting that Shah was becoming part of a "sinister design of anti cil [civil] society propaganda. His statement shows his low thinking.”
