Eminent lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar has said being an Indian citizen, the views of actor Priyanka Chopra supporting the Centre''s recent decision on Kashmir will "obviously be an Indian point of view".Akhtar was commenting on a Pakistani minister''s demand for the removal of Chopra as UN Goodwill Ambassador for Peace, accusing her of supporting the Indian government''s decision on Kashmir.
"If her comments have upset the Pakistani establishment, they can do whatever they wish," Akhtar told the reporter son the sidelines of a literary event here Wednesday night.
Tensions between India and Pakistan spiked after India abrogated the provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution to withdraw Jammu and Kashmir''s special status and bifurcated the state into two Union Territories.
In a letter, addressed to UNICEF Executive Director HenriettaH Fore, Pakistan''s Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari had said the Bollywood actor supports the Indian government''s policies on Kashmir.
She further alleged that Chopra is in favour of a"nuclear war" between India and Pakistan."Ms Chopra has publiclyendorsed this Indian government position and also supported the nuclear threatissued to Pakistan by the Indian Defence Minister. All this goes completelyagainst the principles of peace and goodwill that Ms Chopra is supposed touphold as an UN Goodwill Ambassador for Peace," Mazari wrote in theletter.
Speaking about the actor, Akhtar said, "I know PriyankaChopra personally. She is a cultured, decent and educated person and the factremains she is an Indian."If there is some kind of a controversy anddifference in point of view between an average Indian citizen (like PriyankaChopra) and the Pakistani establishment, obviously her point of view will be anIndian point of view."
To another question, Akhtar said, while he is trolled almostevery day on social media, "for the last two-three days there are lot ofhate messages because I have made my comment and aired my point of view onImran Khan''s tweet and some people are upset with me."
He said when "religious bigots" of bothcommunities abuse him, he is convinced that what he says is right."The dayone of them will stop abusing me, I will wonder what is wrong with me,"Akhtar commented.
He had recently tweeted, "Imraan saheb. I will beungrateful if I dont show my gratitude for your concern about the Indianminorities. I cant imagine, if you care so much for others how compassionate nprotective you must be towards the Hindus, Christians , Ahmadiyas, Mohajir nBlochs of your own country."As his tweet invited a vicious attack on themicro-blogging site on Wednesday, Akhtar had replied, " ... I am a secularrationalist Nationalist proud Indian who is inconvenient to both Hindu andMuslim communalists."
Asked to comment on the present situation in the KashmirValley, Akhtar said, "I am not aware what is going on. As a matter of factmost of us don''t know because there is hardly any information available. Weare yet to get details.We know that there was some curfew, there were somerestrictions, so on and so forth," he said.
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