Naseeruddin Shah participates in 'state complicity in hate crimes' event, says 'taunts I received are nothing compared to lynching victims' pain'

Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah on Sunday expressed solidarity with the family members of those killed in incidents of mob lynching in the country. Speaking at a national convention on the theme of 'state complicity in hate crimes' in Mumbai's Dadar, Shah said the victims and kin of mob lynchings have suffered a lot.

The event was organised by Democratic Youth Federation of India. "I feel proud to be with them (kin of victims) in this programme and salute their courage. They have faced a lot more than us in their life. We have faced not even two per cent of their sufferings," he said.

The actor said he had often been often criticised for his remarks. "Some called me a traitor, some asked me to go to Pakistan. But these taunts were nothing in comparison with the pain of those people who suffered mob attacks," he said, adding that his admiration, sympathy and company will always be with these people.

In the past, the actor had been criticised sharply over his comments on rising incidents of mob violence in the country. He had said that the death of a cow was being given importance over killing of a policeman in mob lynching in Bulandshahr. Shah had said that he was worried for children in today's India because he imagines a situation where his children may be surrounded by an angry mob and asked: "Are you Hindu or Muslim?" His comments had then drawn sharp reactions from political quarter.

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Lynching Debate

On July 22,as the cases of mob lynching incidences increasing in different parts of the country, Lawyer Mahmood Pracha along with Maulana Syed Kalbe Jawad Naqvi said that they would install camps to assist people from the Muslim, ST and SC communities to procure firearms. In a press brief, both the lawyer and Shia Muslim cleric said that the camps would be held in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow on July 26 for self-defence purpose, further accused the RSS of puppeteering mob lynching against the minority communities. 

Maulana Kalbe said, "We will tell you the legal method of how to fill-up the form and how do we apply for the license and no other talks will be held of teaching how to operate these weapons. We are talking about our Imambara. If anything of such things happens elsewhere, it's not our responsibility." "This is happening because RSS is doing all these lynchings in a conspired way. The common man is not doing this, there are only some people doing this who are either directly or indirectly working on their directions," Pracha added.  

Taking into consideration the soaring cases of mob lynching in India, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi had demanded a new law against mob lynching to the Home Minister Amit Shah at the Parliament on Friday.  The MP from Hyderabad questioned the government for not bringing a law on mob lynching despite the order from the Supreme Court. Furthermore citing the Bihar mob lynching incident of Friday and the Jharkhand lynching of Tabrez Ansari claimed that there is 'so much hate' against the Muslim community. 

He said, "I want to ask the Home Minister, last year the Supreme Court asked the government to make a law on mob lynching. Why aren't you making it? We saw what happened in Bihar today. We saw what happened with Tabrez Ansari in the past few days. There is so much hate towards Muslims in the country. The lynchers hit them, the Police takes them to the hospital but the hospital does not care for them, they don't look at them in the judicial custody." 

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(with PTI inputs)