Naseeruddin Shah says disinvited from university event due to his political views

Mumbai: In what sparked off a controversy, actor Naseeruddin Shah claimed that an invitation extended to him to address the Jashn-e-Urdu organised by the Urdu department of University of Mumbai was withdrawn at the last moment perhaps for his political views and that he has never praised the self-proclaimed “Vishwaguru” and have been critical of the way he conducts himself.

Saying that it is not the country he grew up in, Shah also equated the situation with George Orwell’s 1984, a fictional novel which centres on totalitarianism, mass surveillance and repressive regimentation of people and behaviours.

The University of Mumbai has refrained from commenting on the claim that he had made in an article that has appeared in the Op-Ed pages of a prominent English daily.

The 75-year-old Shah, who is a recipient of the coveted Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan award besides numerous other accolades, gained more by working with students than from any teacher of acting.

“The Jashn-e-Urdu organised by the Urdu department of Mumbai University for February 1, from which I was disinvited at the last moment, was an event I was greatly looking forward to because it meant interacting with students. The university, after informing me that I needn’t attend (on the night of January 31, and giving no reason for it, forget an apology) obviously considered this not insulting enough. So they decided to rub a little salt in by announcing to the audience that I refused to be there,” Shah wrote.

Shah, who is an alumni of National School of Drama (NSD) in New Delhi and Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, said that the decision to disinvite him perhaps was for his views.

“It's not really surprising they didn't have the courage to state the truth - that I 'openly make statements against the country', (if they were covert I suppose that would be all right) or, at least, that's what a senior university official reportedly said. If he's not merely toeing the line and actually believes that statement, I hereby challenge the gentleman in question to produce one single statement of mine in which I run down my country,” Shah said in the hard-hitting article.

“Sure, I have never praised the self-proclaimed “Vishwaguru”. In fact, I have been critical of the way he conducts himself. His narcissism offends me and I haven’t been impressed by a single thing he’s done in 10 years. I have often been critical and continue to be so of many things the ruling dispensation does. I have often lamented the lack of civic sense and consideration for the other in our country,” he said.

Shah went on to add: “I have been vocal about several other issues because these are things that trouble people like me about the direction in which we seem to be headed, where student activists are held for years without trial but convicted rapists/murderers are frequently granted bail, where cow vigilantes have a free hand to maim and kill, where history is being rewritten and the content of textbooks revised, where even science is being fiddled with, where a Chief Minister, no less, talks of harassing the 'Miyas'. Just how long can this hatred be sustained?" he wrote in the op-ed.

“This is not the country I grew up in and was taught to love. The 'thought police' and 'doublespeak' have been deployed in full force, as has surveillance. The "two minutes of hate" have turned into 24 hours of hate. Would it be too far-fetched to equate the situation with George Orwell’s 1984, in which not singing the praise of the ’great leader’ is considered sedition?" he wrote.

Teltumbde’s talk cancelled

In a similar event, a book discussion featuring scholar and writer Anand Teltumbde the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival (KGAF) was cancelled on Tuesday night following directions from the Mumbai Police. Teltumbde was to be in discussions with journalists and writers Neeta Kolhatkar and Naresh Fernandes. The session, titled ‘Incarcerated: Tales from Behind Bars’, was scheduled for February 5. Teltumbde, who is an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Koregaon Bhima case and is currently on bail, was slated to speak about his memoir, ‘The Cell and the Soul: A Prison Memoir’.