Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has rallied behind Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan after BJP and VHP leaders called him ‘traitor’ for his comments on growing religious intolerance in India.
Kejriwal tweeted, “We r all proud of you.@iamsrk Hope your words help to make a tolerant, inclusive and progressive India.(sic)”
Delhi CM’s support appears to have been necessitated by series of increasingly disparaging comments made by VHP and BJP leaders against the star.
On Tuesday, the controversial VHP leader Sadhvi Prachi called him anti-national demanding the star to move to Pakistan.
Later in the evening, another top BJP leader, Kailash Vijaybargiya, in a series of tweets called the star a traitor.
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The senior BJP leader from Madhya Pradesh said, “Shah Rukh Khan lives in India but his mind is in Pakistan. His films earn crores here but he sees India as an intolerant nation.”
His another tweet said, ” Shah Rukh Khan lives in India but his heart is in Pakistan. He earns crores in India and yet he sees intolerance here. If this is not sedition, then what is it? India is on the verge of becoming a permanent member of the United Nations (Security Council), but everyone including Pakistan are conspiring to derail it.”
Shah Rukh, while speaking to a news channel, had said, “Just for symbolic gesture yes, if I have to. But, there’s intolerance, there’s an extreme intolerance. I think there’s growing intolerance. People just put words in the air even before thinking. And here’s a secular country. Here’s a country…We keep talking about modern India, we keep talking about progress and we keep talking about new India. Ours is a 25+ country, if we don’t allow our youngsters to be secular, they are not going to stand for it. It’s stupid to be intolerant. Being religious intolerant and not being secular is the worst crime you can do as a patriot.”