Actress Shabana Azmi, who came under fire for her recent remark that if anyone criticises the government they are dubbed anti-national, on Tuesday tweeted that all fundamentalists are 'mirror images of each other'.
The actress questioned the uproar over her remark, which she made while addressing a gathering in Indore on July 6, where she was feted for her work for women's empowerment.
'So much uproar over my one remark?' Shabana tweeted. 'Didn't realise I was so important in the eyes of the right wing. Muslim fundos also passed fatwa against me 4shaving my head for @IamDeepaMehta film ‘Water’ 2which @Javedakhtarjadu response on record was SHUT UP. All fundos r mirror images of each other.'
On Saturday, Shabana, without naming any political party or ideology, had said that people should not be afraid to speak their mind in the interest of the country. 'If we do not point out the flaws, how would the conditions improve?' she had asked.
'But the atmosphere now is such that if you criticise, especially the government, you are immediately branded as anti-national. We should not be afraid of this. Nobody needs their certificate,' she said.
Actress Swara Bhasker came out in support, saying that it is 'shameful' of people to target an artiste of Shabana's calibre. 'It is shameful how an artist(e) of the profile and calibre of Shabana Azmi ma'am is being relentlessly targeted with fake allegations by people who have not contributed 1/100th of what she has to modern Indian popular culture and discourse. More power to you ma'am,' Swara tweeted.
She wrote that her father, poet Kaifi Azmi, had returned his Padma Shri when the Congress was at the Centre. Kaifi Azmi, she said, protested against a UP minister who had said that those asking for Urdu to get second-language status 'should be paraded on a donkey with their faces blackened'.
