Javed Akhtar campaigns for Kanhaiya in Begusarai

Noted poet and Bollywood lyricist Javed Akhtar on Tuesday disapproved of Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu urging Muslims to unite and vote against the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asserting that a mind occupied with ones religious identity can never make an informed political choice.

Addressing an election meeting here, Akhtar who did not mention the Punjab minister by name but dropped ample hints to suggest that he was speaking about the former test cricketer and said, "I do not expect much from them (BJP) who believe in mixing politics with religion. But you cannot speak this language when you are swearing by secularism."

Sidhu, who made the remarks earlier this month at a rally in Katihar, has been banned for 72 hours by the Election Commission of India as a punitive measure.

Akhtar, who was here to campaign in favour of CPI candidate Kanhaiya Kumar, said, "We must keep it in mind that wherever religion is mixed with politics, human rights and civil liberties become the first casualty. Look at any part of the world the Middle East, Europe or Latin America and you would find a similar trend."

Training his guns at the BJP, he said, "You profess to champion the cause of Hindus. Do you not realize that among the country's homeless, unemployed and poor Hindus outnumber other communities? What do you have to offer to them except the promise of building a temple somewhere?"

Scoffing at the party that has been in power for five years, Akhtar an avowed rationalist and atheist remarked the BJP is a peculiar outfit. All other political parties, be they the Leftist ones or those subscribing to any other ideology, have a frontal organization which may have its other wings. Here, the party itself is just a wing that of the RSS.

And what has been the RSS and its history. They, along with Mohd Ali Jinnah's Muslim League, were the biggest collaborators of the British when the struggle for Independence was underway. We need to understand their dislike for Nehru. The Muslim League, which was traitor like the RSS, got its reward with a separate country to rule in the form of Pakistan. These people got nothing, Akhtar remarked sarcastically.

You deride the country's liberals with labels like 'tukde tukde' gang and descendants of Macaulay. These epithets fit you best since you want to divide the country into sectarian lines and it is you who have been responsible for executing the British idea of two-nation theory, Akhtar who is married to actress Shabana Azmi daughter of renowned poet and a card-carrying Leftist Kaifi Azmi alleged.

Taking a dig at Giriraj Singh, who is the BJP candidate from here, he said, "This gentleman asks all those who are opposed to Modi to go to Pakistan. In 2014, when Modi's popularity was at its peak, 31 percent had voted for him which means even then 69 percent of Indians were against him."

If Giriraj Singh's advice is taken seriously by such Indians, Pakistan's population would rise manifold and people will not find enough space on its soil to stand.

He also said Kanhaiya, a former JNU students union president who is facing a sedition charge, is paying the price for standing up for truth and asked voters of Begusarai if you are thinking of not voting for the young man, vote for Giriraj instead of wasting your vote on Tanveer Hassan (RJD candidate).

Say Assalam Aleikum (the Islamic form of greeting) to Giriraj and tell him you are voting for him. That way he would at least be grateful to you. If you vote for Tanveer, he will win anyway. But he would not give you any credit for that either, said Akhtar at the meeting where academician-turned-political activist Yogendra Yadav was among those present.