While Bollywood Maintains A Cautious Silence Hasan Minhaj Rants At Modi Government For CAA

American Indian  comic  virtuoso and  political commentator Hasan Minhaj has made some scathing comments against PM Narendra Modi  regarding the the controversial Citizen Amendments Act.

 In a recent episode of his Netflix news based show Patriotic Act, Minhaj is heard spitting venom against the  BJP .

He says, “The other country that has made serious authoritarian moves is India. Since our last update, Prime Minister Modi has gone mask off on Muslims. In August, he revoked the special status of the formerly autonomous Muslim majority state of Kashmir. He moved in thousands of troops and cut off the region’s internet access. Most Kashmiris still don’t have internet…..For Modi, messing with Kashmiri Muslims was just the start. He effectively stripped two million people of their citizenship, most of them Muslim. And now, his party passed a law to fast-track citizenship for migrants, except Muslims. Do you realise how crazy this is?” Minhaj says in the episode.”

While the  statements  an  unbelievable  of political  ignorance and  cockiness(“messing with Kashmiri Muslims”  is hardly the language  of a  mature  commentator),Minhaj’s rant can be dismissed as  a attention-seeking gimmick. 

However  Indian celebrities out West are being put in a tight spot by the Western media, being made  answerable  for  the Indian government’s new  policy/law regarding migrants.

A  prominent Bollywood  cinema performer who spends  a  lot of time shooting abroad told me, “I am avoiding the  media here(in the US) because  the minute you step into that zone you are basically negotiating a  landmine  with bombs planted  on  it. They want to corner  you,  make you say things you will regret later. It’s a tightrope walk I want to avoid.”

Actors in India aren’t finding it easier to  dodge  CAA-related questions. Salman  Khan while promoting Dabangg 3 and  Akshay Kumar  for  Good Newszz have found themselves in  very uncomfortable situations vis-à-vis the Indian media.When Rajinikant while promoting his latest  film Darbar  was asked about the student unrest he  gently reminded the  questioning  journalist that the platform promoting a film was  not the proper place  for such questions.

Diljit Dosanjh has  turned out to be the smartest dodger  of political  questions. Whenever he’s asked a question he doesn’t want to  answer he  gives a didn’t-understand  blank look.