It looks like Swara Bhaskar has got really tough competition from actor Naseeruddin Shah in terms of exhibiting shameless hypocrisy. After bringing the ‘Intolerance’ drama into the limelight once again with his rants on the Bulandshahr incident, Naseeruddin Shah recently appeared in a video uploaded by controversial human rights organization ‘Amnesty International’, as shown below:-
In 2018, India witnessed a massive crackdown on freedom of expression and human rights defenders. Let's stand up for our constitutional values this new year and tell the Indian government that its crackdown must end now. #AbkiBaarManavAdhikaar pic.twitter.com/e7YSIyLAfm
— Amnesty India (@AIIndia) January 4, 2019
In this 2 minute 14-second long video, not only did Naseeruddin Shah bash the Modi government for the alleged crackdown on human rights, but he also peddled white lies against the Modi government, in a bid to boost the Congress propaganda for the 2019 elections. He began with an innocuous explanation of the rights given to every Indian citizen, as enshrined in the Constitution.
To quote him, “In our country, those who helped save the homes, lands and livelihood of the poorest, those who speak not just responsibilities but of rights, and those who raise their voice against corruption-they are safeguarding that same Constitution.”
Naseeruddin then went on to wail on the undeclared emergency imposed on creative arts in this country. Invoking his ‘Intolerance 2.0’ rants from the Karwaan e Mohabbat video, he said further, “But now, those who demand rights are being locked away. Artists, actors scholars, poets are all being stifled. Journalists too are being silenced. In the name of religion, walls of hate are being erected. Innocents are being killed. The country is awash with horrific hatred and cruelty. “
The video ended with a question by Naseeruddin, which went as follows:-
“Is this where our Constitution is headed? Had we dreamt of a country where there is no space for dissent? Where only rich and powerful are heard, and where the poorest and most vulnerable are forever oppressed? Where there once was law, there is now only darkness.”
Truth be told, once I finished with this video, I remembered the evergreen quote from radical activist and thinker Malcolm X. He said, “If you’re not careful, these newspapers [and the media] will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are oppressing the oppressed.” With this video, Naseeruddin Shah is trying to do exactly that.
When he received brickbats for his previous comments on the minorities feeling scared in India, Naseeruddin Shah tried to evoke sympathy by declaring himself as an ex-supporter of PM Modi, as he said, “I had great faith in 2014, when he ascended to power. I won’t go so far as to say that my faith has been shaken. I still look forward to the future. I have no regrets about saying what I said. I do not backtrack at all.”
Is that really so, Mr. Naseeruddin Shah? It is an unfortunate fact that public memory of India is not very strong, otherwise, they would’ve known how much hatred and contempt this hypocrite of an actor has for PM Modi. As 2014 elections were drawing close, a website called Pheku.in was launched in a bid to expose the ‘reality’ of the then PM candidate, Narendra Modi.
Naseeruddin Shah, interestingly, was one of the prominent sponsors of this website, along with the likes of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and notorious Urban Naxal Kavitha Krishnan. To quote an excerpt from a report published by India Today,
“Pheku.in is a collective effort at producing not just breaking news and stories related to Gujarat but to serve also as a cleaning house for a vast array of material available on the internet,” said the website’s sponsors in a message. Some are well-known names such as actor Naseeruddin Shah, poet Ashok Vajpayee, activists Harsh Mander, and Kavita Krishnan, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and artist Vivan Sundaram.
They said the project “Began in small discussions in several cities, over emails and social networks, and will grow because of the thousands who feel the same need to examine and shine the cold white light of truth on the man and his lies.”
This is not all. Naseeruddin Shah also led an anti Modi campaign from behind the scenes, as some of the sponsors of the website mentioned also wrote open letters to the masses, including celebrities like Zoya Akhtar, Imtiaz Ali, Aditi Rao Hydari, Anjum Rajabali, Vishal Bhardwaj, Nandita Das etc., which appealed to them to vote for anybody but Modi. As such, this actor has been a repeat offender when it has come to shamelessly peddling lies against BJP or PM Modi.
The left liberals, who were roaring with the unprecedented victory in MP, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh, are now driven to the well, with back to back releases of films with an unapologetic tone, coupled by brilliant comebacks from NDA ministers as well as the PM himself, as seen on national media. As such, their attempt to remain limelight clearly reminds us of their negative promotion of NDA on absolutely the same lines in 2014. The rest, as they say, is history. Isn’t it Naseeruddin Shah?