Javed Akhtar Says Hindu Are The Most Tolerant And Decent Majority In The World

Earlier this month, Bollywood lyricist Javed Akhtar in an interview with a news portal had said that the Taliban are barbaric and their actions are reprehensible but those, supporting the RSS, VHP, and Bajrang Dal are similar. After his statement, in which he compared the Taliban to the RSS, a controversy was triggered against the legendary lyricist. However, in the same context, he has written a statement in Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana.

Javed Akhtar in one of his articles said that Hindus were the most decent and tolerant majority in the world. Akhtar also said India could never become Afghanistan as it is naturally not fundamentalist. Talking more about it Javed Akhtar, in his recent interview said, that Hindus are the most decent and tolerant majority in the world. He also emphasized that India can never become like Afghanistan because Indians by nature are not extremists. It is in the DNA of the Indians to be moderate, to keep to the middle of the road.

Javed Akhtar wrote, “I have always opposed right-wing hardliners from all religions. I have always said that all hardliners from all religions are the same.” In response, BJP’s youth wing took out a protest march and, BJP leader Ram Kadam said the party would not allow his movies to be screened in the country till he apologized. Not only this but, a Saamana editorial too targeted Javed Akhtar for his statement and cautioned him against speaking anything about the RSS.

In his latest statement in Saamana, Javed Akhtar wrote that he has taken a stand against Muslim hardliners on issues such as triple talaq also. He has been given security twice for attacking hardliner Muslims even when no one else was talking about these issues, is what he wrote. Continuing further, he wrote, “I don’t want to allow Hindu right-wing supporters to hide behind the false propaganda that I don’t counter hardliners among Muslims and their regressive thought processes.”

Javed also said that the Taliban want to create a state based on Islam and the Hindu right-wing wants to establish a Hindu state. Both the Taliban and Hindu hardliners are against rights and freedoms for women, Akhtar said.