BOSTON—Indian Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap on Saturday said that BJP, Congress or any another political party is okay, but neither Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor BJP President Amit Shah.
“I just really, genuinely hope that Mr. Modi does not come back to power. I don’t mind BJP coming to power, but not Mr. Modi and Mr. Amit Shah,” Mr. Kashyap told INDIA New England News while he was visiting Boston to speak at India Symposium, organized by students of Babson College, one of the top business schools in the United States.
He said even BJP leaders like union minister Nitin Gadkari or Rajnath Singh can come forward, but not Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah.
“I don’t like the idea of the communal divide that is going on India,” Mr. Kashyap said. “It troubles me a lot.”
He said what he does not like is “us versus them” or Hindu v/s Muslims and that he absolutely hates it.
“What is very hard to fight is hate because it has human price to pay,” said Mr. Kashyap, adding that he has problem with “whole thing of hate” which is being deliberately pushed in.
He said a lack of education in India has made people too vulnerable and that they will believe anything that is being sold to them and they start believing that the other is the enemy.
“This is something that I have a lot of problem with,” Mr. Kashyap said.
Late last month about 100 members of the Indian film fraternity on issued an appeal urging Indians not to vote for the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The filmmakers, mostly known for their independent cinema, posted the appeal on the website www.artistuniteindia.com, with a message stating that the filmmakers have come together to “protect the democracy of the country”.
The 103 signatories include well-known names like Vetri Maaran, Anand Patwardhan, Sanalkumar Sasidharan, Sudevan, Q, Deepa Dhanraj, Gurvinder Singh, Pushpendra Singh, Kabir Singh Chowdhry, Anjali Monteiro, Praveen Morchhale, Devashish Makhija, Aashiq Abu, and editor Bina Paul among others, according to a report from IANS.
“Our country is going through the most testing times ever. Though culturally vivid and geographically diverse, we have always stayed united. As a nation. It has indeed been a great feeling to be a citizen of this wonderful country… But all that is at stake now.
“Fascism threatens to strike us hard with all its might if we don’t choose wisely in the coming Lok Sabha election,” the statement read.
They also pointed out the reasons behind their decision to take a stand against the political party. Some of the reasons are “unleashing of polarisation and hate politics; cow vigilantism; marginalisation of Dalits, Muslims and farmers and increasing censorship”.
“As we all know, ever since the BJP came to power in 2014, things have changed. And only for the worse,” the appeal read.
The filmmakers said that patriotism is the BJP’s “trump card”.
“Any individual or institution that raises the slightest dissent is labelled ‘anti-national’. Patriotism is how they grow their vote bank.”
The statement concluded with an appeal.
“We urge all of you to do everything in your capacity to keep this harmful regime from coming back to power. Let your mandate be to choose a government that respects the Constitution of India, protects our freedom of speech and expression, and refrains from all kinds of censorship.”
