New Delhi: Seeking to counter protests over growing intolerance, Bollywood actor Anupam Kher today led a delegation of writers and artistes to the President and the Prime Minister, saying that ‘award-wapsi' campaign was part of a “political agenda” and a “conspiracy” to defame the country.
Kher, director Madhur Bhandarkar and painter Vasudev Kamath were among the members who marched to Rashtrapati Bhavan and handed over a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee.
The memorandum, signed by 90 personalities, including Kamal Haasan, Shekhar Kapur, Vidya Balan, Raveena Tandon and Vivek Oberoi besides, authors, former judges and musicians, alleged that those returning the awards were wrongly projecting the country as intolerant.
”Any brutal killing is condemnable. We strongly condemn it and expect swift justice. But, if some people use this and conspire to defame the country at international level, then we must think about it,” Kher said while reading out their letter to the President.
Later, leading a delegation of 51 writers and artistes, Kher met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his Race Course Road residence.
”The Prime Minister stated that Indian culture goes beyond tolerance, and talks of acceptance,” a PMO statement said after the meeting.
Kher had described the protests as one with a “political agenda”.
”Those people who returned their awards did not initiate any dialogue with the PM. They should have met PM first before returning their awards. Modiji said these protests tarnish the image of India outside and affect its unity,” Kher said.
Kher said no one has the right to call India intolerant and there is no country in the world, which is more tolerant than India.
”People want me to become defensive as they keep telling me, ‘You belong to BJP, your wife is from BJP.' Their motive is to defame the country. If there is a fight in the house, we have a dialogue but these people are upset without any reason and are not even having any dialogue. I got angry because foreign papers were calling India intolerant,” he said.
Bhandarkar, who joined the march, said, “The whole projection and narrative that is going abroad is wrong. It is a diverse country and of course there are incidents but we all condemn them. There is no two ways about it.”
Filmmaker Priyadarshan called the move of returning awards a political agenda.
”After years of tolerance, we have got a man (Narendra Modi) with a view. They don't want him to work. They want to sabotage what he is doing. There is a huge political agenda behind the act of returning awards,” he said.
In Chennai, Kamal Haasan reiterated his stand against returning the awards, saying such action will not lead to a solution.
At least 75 members of the intelligentsia have returned national or literary awards in an escalation of protests by writers, historians, filmmakers and scientists over “growing intolerance”, voicing fears that the country's robust democracy might be “coming apart” in the current atmosphere.
The BJP-led government has dismissed the protest as ”manufactured rebellion” and “politically” motivated.
(PTI)
Major Highlights:
* The President also said that our constitution is written on a secular fabric & we should respect that: Anupam Kher after meeting President
* President Mukherjee said that awards are not given by the government but by people of the nation: Anupam Kher
* PM Modi has agreed to meet us this evening at 6:30, we are thankful to him: Anupam Kher
* 'March For India' delegation meets President Pranab Mukherjee
* Manoj Joshi, Abhijeet Bhattacharya and writer Madhu Kishwar join the march
* Anupam Kher leads 'March For India' to Rashtrapati Bhavan
* People gather outside National Museum in Delhi for 'March For India'
* We all are with him (Anupam Kher), never thought it would turn so big: Ashoke Pandit, filmmaker
* We will meet the President, will also give a memorandum: Madhur Bhandarkar
* Its a symbolic march. Me and Anupam Kher will be leading the march: Madhur Bhandarkar, filmmaker
* Our message to the President is that India is a very tolerant country: Anupam Kher
* We are secular people, we don't believe in pseudo-secularism or selective outrage: Anupam Kher
* Every country goes through problems but nobody has the right to call our country intolerant: Anupam Kher
In the past two months, over 50 writers and filmmakers have returned their awards to protest the 'growing religious intolerance' in the country.
