Chennai : Coming out strongly against those returning their awards over the “intolerance” row, actor Kamal Haasan today wondered if such acts would achieve anything as he invoked Mahatma Gandhi saying even he did not give back his Law degree to protest against the Britishers.
Standing firm in his stance and dismissing accusations of being “irresponsible and callous” for not returning his award, the superstar said the act of returning awards would not lead to a solution. “Gandhiji stood against the Britishers, his law degree was conferred by the English men, should he have given it back? What are you going to achieve by giving back awards?,” Haasan, who turned 61 on Saturday, said.
“The honour given to me is not given by the government, it was given by the jury, I will not humiliate them,” he said. “If intolerance is growing, I am giving voice against it, this is that voice, it is suffice if this is done, I say this without any discrimination on party lines, this voice will raise whenever there is suspicion that our freedom will be taken away,” he said at a function organised here to celebrate his birthday.
“I will raise voice if a suspicion arises that my right to freedom of speech and that of my friends and brothers will be infringed,” said Haasan, who has thrice won the National Award for Best Actor. There is, however, no need to launch a political party for such a purpose. If such a view was expressed, “people asked if I was coming to politics, it is not required.”
On the beef row, the Padma Bhushan-awardee said, “if you do not like beef, don’t eat, I was eating it, but now I have decided that I will not eat animals bigger than me,” he said, adding, choice of food should be left to the people. “Don’t give menu card to others,” he said. “I have been accused of irresponsibility and callousness when I said I will not return my award,” he said adding, however, he would raise his voice against intolerance.
Stating that he respected the jury who chose him for the award, he said they were people endowed with intelligence who had thought that he was worthy of the award. “I salute them and have taken the award. If I have something against the government, there are so many podiums including this one,” he told reporters here. —PTI
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Intolerance ‘new Partition’ in progress: Tushar Gandhi
Kolkata: The simmering controversy over intolerance in India is not only affecting the nation’s image globally but has emerged as a “new Partition in progress”, which is splitting the country based on ideological differences, feels Tushar Gandhi, great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.
The author and peace activist is concerned not because he is a descendant of the Mahatma, but as a citizen of a democracy which is sliding into a “mobocracy”. He not only agrees with those who have likened the current situation to Emergency, Tushar says the hatred is being spread much more effectively.
“It (Emergency) was brutal, it was an evil but what is happening today is also an evil. The problem is the venom that is being spread is being spread much more effectively than by the dictatorship that was during Emergency,” asserted Tushar, who finds the Narendra Modi-led central government’s silence on recent events like the lynching of a Muslim man in Dadri of Uttar Pradesh over beef, the murder of Kannada rationalist scholar M.M. Kalburgi, “unacceptable”. “Even if they were incapable of actually solving the crime they could have made at least an appearance of being disturbed by it but their silence actually emboldened the radical elements.”
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