Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah has never been one to mince words to cater to other people’s political sensibilities. In an opinion piece for The Indian Express, he alleged this was the reason he was “disinvited” from an event organised by the Urdu department at the University of Mumbai.
The actor claimed he had been invited to the university’s Jashn-e-Urdu festival on February 1, something he was “greatly looking forward to because it meant interacting with students”. He said the management informed him he “needn’t attend” the event on the night of January 31.
Shah said no reason was provided, much less an apology, and that the university told attendees he had refused to attend. He quoted an unnamed senior university official saying he was disinvited because he “openly [makes] statements against the country”.
The actor challenged the official to “produce one single statement of mine in which I run down my country”. He said that he had “never praised the self-proclaimed ‘Vishwaguru’” — a term used by supporters to describe Prime Minister Narendra Modi — and that the PM’s narcissism offended him.
Shah said the PM hadn’t done anything he found impressive in 10 years, calling out India’s ruling elite for a lack of civic sense and care for minorities. He ended his article by comparing the state of India to George Orwell’s 1984, saying, “This is not the country I grew up in and was taught to love. The ‘thought police’ and ‘doublespeak’ have been deployed in full force, as has surveillance.”
At another event in the Indian city of Hyderabad on Thursday, the actor regretted that his invitation was revoked, saying, “I have always loved students. When I am around students, I truly feel young again.” The Hindu reported him telling the audience, “I felt like a bin bulaya mehmaan kisi ki shaadi main ghus aaya hoon. Baraat waale samajhte hain main dulhan ki taraf se hoon, and dulhan waale samajhte hain main baraat ki taraf se hoon (an uninvited guest who has wandered into someone’s wedding, where the groom’s side thinks I belong to the bride’s family and the bride’s side thinks I belong to the groom’s).”
He told the crowd, “the calamity I wanted to bring down upon Mumbai University, I thought I would instead unleash upon Hyderabad”.
The organisers of the Jashn-e-Urdu issued a clarification on Thursday, saying Shah had not been invited to their event and was instead scheduled to recite poetry at Urdu Jalsa, another event being organised at the university on the same date. The statement also said his invitation had been rescinded in line with “university guidelines”.
Posts from the Bazm E Ahbab foundation, which organised the Urdu Jalsa, featured the actor prominently.
Shah has long been a vocal critic of PM Modi and his right wing Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) brand of politics. In July, he defended Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh when the singer was chastised for appearing alongside Pakistan’s Hania Aamir in his film Sardarji 3.
Earlier, he said the BJP was “cleverly tapping into” hate towards Muslims for political gains. He also said Bollywood was pushing a “jingoistic agenda”, comparing current Indian film trends to propaganda in Nazi Germany.
He has also written opinion pieces against India’s measures to record children’s religion at their birth based on the faith of their parents and the removal of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poems from Urdu textbooks.
