Is The Call For The Pakistani Ban In Bollywood Justified? Mahesh Bhatt Responds

“Call me  a diehard romantic but I still hope pray and fantasize about peace in the Asian subcontinent.Someday peace will prevail. However the mother of all questions is, are we at war with Pakistan? By all means, take  a firm no-nonsense stance against the extremists, the ISI, the Mujahideen, the Laskar-e-Taiba, and the Pakistan military which is perhaps covertly promoting such intrusions into our country. By all means,take note of the Hafiz Saeeds . They are another ballgame completely. But channels of peace talks have to be kept open even when relations between the two countries hit the worst  of times.Even in the American relations with North Korea there was room for talks.

There is a kind of compassion in certain religious tenets which talk of nursing the wounds of the maimed and the seriously injured. The artiste is part of the healing process. I don’t think we should shut down all doors between the two countries.Also, it is the right of the government of India to decide who should and who should not come to this country. Is the country going to be run by the rule of the law or by the whims and fancies of a handful of people?Once a foreign national enters  our land with through proper legal and constitutional channels  it is our duty to protect him. We are obliged to honour the idea that a guest is God when he enters in our space. Have we asked Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India to go back?Why terrorize artistes? It’s a oft-repeated nightmare for artistes and actors to be thus targeted .It does not augur well for India to tell them to go back in 48  hours. By all means give a bloody nose to those who are perpetrating terror on our country but refrain from targeting the people  of the two countries. I think the diktat should come from India. If they tell us to cease working with Pakistani artistes we have to fall in line. No arguments about it.”