New Delhi: Countering the protests by writers and artistes against “rising intolerance”, Bollywood actor Anupam Kher on Saturday led a march to Rashtrapati Bhavan alleging that the “award-wapsi” campaign was to defame the country by projecting a “wrong” picture of the situation.
“India is a very tolerant country. Some people have coined the term ‘growing intolerance’. They are very few. Not every Indian thinks like that. We are secular people. We do not believe in pseudo-secularism, selective outrage or selective patriotism,” Mr Kher, who is the spouse of BJP MP Kirron Kher, said.
“We had a meeting with a lot of writers, artistes, filmmakers and they also believe that there is no intolerance in the country. This march is a symbolic gesture on part of a lot of people over here who say India is one and free of intolerance,” the 60-year-old said.
Many filmmakers and artistes from the fraternity, including Madhur Bhandarkar, Ashoke Pandit, Priyadarshan, Manoj Joshi, Abhijeet Bhattacharya and writer Madhu Kishwar joined the march to hand over a memorandum signed by more than 40 personalities including actress Raveena Tandon.
Mr Bhandarkar, a National Award winner, alleged that those involved in the protest over intolerance had opposed Prime Minister before he was elected, which raised questions about their intention.
“The projection that is happening for the past few days is very sad. The people who were against Modiji during elections are the same people who are coming out right now,” he said. Filmmaker Priyadarshan said the act of returning the awards is “childish”.
Meanwhile, police had to rescue a news channel reporter and its crew after people protesting against those returning awards surrounded and heckled them during the march.
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