I am prepared for a social boycott: Anupam Kher

In the backdrop of the ‘award wapsi’ protest against ‘intolerance in the country’, Anupam Kher stands out as the voice of counter argument, despite all the criticism that has come his way. The veteran actor is even organising a protest march — ‘March for India’ — that will see him meet President Pranab Mukherjee.
“I am just an ordinary citizen of this country who believes that India is tolerant and this march just aims to reiterate that faith,” said Anupam, who was in the city for the staging of his play Mera Woh Matlab Nahi Tha on Thursday.
Over the last couple of weeks, Anupam has become the face of the anti-award wapsi campaign. “We are making a mockery of our country! International media is running headlines like ‘India is no more a tolerant country’, ‘Democracy in danger’. Really? The country has become intolerant in the last 14 months?
What about the Emergency (1975-77), or the Sikh Massacre, or when the Kashmiri pandits were thrown out of Kashmir — weren’t all these cases of intolerance? There are unfortunate things that happen in any country — 26/11 was unfortunate, Prashant Poojary’s killing was unfortunate, but to sum all these up and call the country “intolerant” is a way of embarrassing the nation in front of the world.”
He calls those returning their awards “pseudo intellectuals and pseudo secularists” and says all of this a scam. And he has some serious questions for them: “Why did they receive the awards in the first place when it was given to them during the ‘intolerant’ times like the anti-Sikh riots or the Gujrat riots? So, basically, from 1947-2014, nothing made them feel that we are an intolerant nation?”
He particularly pulls up “Dibakar Banerjee’s award fraud”. “He returned an award that didn’t even belong to him! It belonged to the producer. Dibakar got the National Award for two films. He returned the award for Khosla Ka Ghosla made by a poor producer, but not the one that he received for Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, because the producer for this film was Walt Disney. When I caught his lie, he said, ‘Maine apne hisse ka award wapas kiya hai’. So, tomorrow I can say so and so has got a Padma Bhushan, and I am returning my hissa from that award ’cos I think India is intolerant!”
So how else should one deal with these concerns? “Initiate a dialogue. Why didn’t they make a delegation to meet and discuss their concerns with the PM. Had the PM said ‘No’, then returning awards would make sense. But the way things have been happening, I can only call it elitist goodaism.”
He even labels his experience of being booed at the Mumbai Litfest as “elite goondaism” when he expressed his views on ‘Freedom of speech is in imminent danger’. “I asked the organisers to make it ‘Is freedom of speech in imminent danger?’ for which I was booed and I do think it was a paid audience there.”
One of the biggest criticism levelled against Anupam and his stance is the fact that his wife Kirron Kher is a member of the Bhartiya Janata Party. “That’s so irrelevant. I have earlier spoken for India Against Corruption movement. I have also spoken against BJP MP Yogi Adityanath, who likened Shah Rukh Khan to Hafiz Saeed because SRK spoke about intolerance. My wife does not need my support; she is quite a fiery lady capable of looking after her interests.”
Anupam, although fearless, is prepared for what could be a “social boycott”. “May be mujhe films nahi milengi or I will face social boycott. But I can handle it. For me, it was important to speak up now, and I am doing that.”