Anupam Kher slams JNU students for making hero out of ‘accused on bail’
18 March, New Delhi
Attacking JNU students, held under sedition charges and later released on bail, noted actor Anupam Kher Friday wondered as to how those, who are coming out of prison on bail, can be welcomed as ‘heroes’ on campus.
Addressing a gathering of students inside controversy-hit JNU campus amid loud slogans of ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Jai Hind’, he said, ”How can some students make a hero out of someone who is out on bail? People who are out on bail cannot be welcomed on campus as heroes.” Kher was in JNU for a special screening of a movie titled ‘Buddha in Traffic Jam.’
He said the release of accused students must not be celebrated with victory marches and asked if those coming on bail were some great personalities like Sachin Tendulkar and Saina Nehwal.In a speech, laced with barbs, Kher added Bhagat Singh was their hero and not those who protest against India and put in clear words that students come to universities for studies and not for politics.
Dubbing the raging debate over issues like saying or not saying ‘Bharat Maata Ki Jai’ ‘baseless,’ the actor said these days there was a fashion to talk against the country.”It is the same country that gives them freedom to express dissent in such a way,” he said, adding that media must focus on positive things rather than covering negative things.Without naming JNU students’ President Kanhaiya Kumar, he launched scathing attack on him, warning him not to play politics against the nation.”
He has been in Delhi and JNU for a lot of years, but his family is still poor. Why?” he said.In an apparent attack on Left and it leaders, the noted actor said those who wanted ‘Azadi’ from hunger, poverty and social disparity themselves did nothing to eradicate them.
”They say that they come from poor families, but what had they done to bring the families out from poverty,” Kher said, adding that it was easy to raise slogans but difficult to work for their eradication.He concluded his speech with ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai.’