Kabir Khan: Need to address JNU attacks; have dinner meetings later

Kabir Khan

While Delhi reeled under an atmosphere of violence as masked miscreants attacked Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students and teachers on Sunday night, Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways and Commerce, was busy hosting a "scrumptious dinner" for Bollywood folk at a five-star in Mumbai. The apparent apathy of the government is not lost on filmmaker Kabir Khan, who was one of the many Bollywood personalities invited by Goyal for the pro-Citizenship (Amendment) Act meeting.

Piyush Goyal

"I did not go because I was busy," says Khan, who has been a vociferous critic of the CAA. The attacks that took place at JNU last night, and at Jamia Millia University last month, are all the more personal to him as his father was a professor at JNU, and he, an alumnus of Jamia Millia. "If goons can enter premier universities of the country and hit students and teachers, then what are we even discussing? The visuals of those goons laughing and [attacking them] break your heart. These are the larger issues that we need to [address urgently]. We can always have dinner meetings later."

Masked men attack JNU

Khan is one of the rare few from Bollywood who has taken a firm stand against the CAA, citing that it threatens the secular fabric of India. "Getting religion into politics and our social affairs is tragic." Tell him how the high and mighty of the industry have maintained a studied silence on the subject, and he argues, "It's their choice. How do we know what their fears are? [In the past], those who have spoken up have been attacked and no one was there to defend them. If you can't defend them, don't push them to talk. Too much is being made of why Bollywood is not reacting."

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