Mumbai : The Indian film industry is a citadel of secularism where there’s no scope for communal bias, says veteran writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar.
“I had joined the film industry in 1965 on a salary of 50 rupees a month. In these 53 years, not for a second I have experienced or even seen any communal bias in our industry. This film industry is the citadel of secularism. Bigots, don’t try to pollute it,” Akhtar tweeted on Wednesday.
Akhtar’s comment comes amid a raging debate which got sparked by a social media user’s tweet questioning Bollywood star Aamir Khan’s right to play Lord Krishna in the actor’s proposed screen version of the “Mahabharata”.
When a Twitter user questioned Akhtar on the correlation of Rs 50 and secularism, the critically acclaimed writer commented: “This is to establish that even when I was economically in a very humble and socially in a very vulnerable position, then too I didn’t feel any discrimination at least on any communal grounds.”
—IANS
If Mr. Akhtar’s assertion regarding the non-practice of religious prejudices in service, jobs, and other amenities is true how come he and his wife (Shabana), although apparently declared….. aka, non-religious, were denied housing in the neighborhood they wished. When they brought their claim, as he is doing here, people rebutted, “both of you have Muslim names, so, for our purposes, “you are Muslims”. What does he say about this? Regarding housing, religious discrimination is very common both in Mumbai and New Delhi. During my last visit to Patna, in 1997, the district magistrate (DM) was a Muslim. He didn’t live the official residence because of security concerns. He opted to reside in a Muslim “ghettoized area”. I find it hard to believe that there will ever be “prejudice-free” secular India. I had faced these during partition riots, as I found in 1997, and that too, supposedly known as “heaven for Muslim-Jadav”. Let us be just and fair. None will be spared. Neither Javed Akhtar nor Mohammad Hassan in a riot-torn environment. People of the like of Gujarat (2002) will spare none.