Kher slams Kejriwal for making people laugh at tragedy of Kashmiri Pandits

Bollywood actor Anupam Kher, who played a key role in The Kashmir Files, has hit out at the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for making ‘crude and insensitive’ remarks about the Vivek Agnihotri film. Kher accused the Delhi CM of trying to make people laugh at the tragedy of Kashmir Pandits.

Kher’s outburst comes in the backdrop of the ongoing verbal war between the CM and the BJP over the latter’s strong support for the film. In a recent TV interview, Kher said he was “deeply hurt” as an entertainer and as a Kashmiri Hindu for the crude and insensitive remarks made by the Delhi CM. Kejriwal did not think about the lakhs of Kashmiri Hindus who were thrown out of their homes, the women raped and people murdered, he told the TV channel.

Kher said that Kejriwal was trying to do a ‘stand up comedian’s job’ in the Delhi Assembly and that even an illiterate person doesn’t talk in such a manner.

Responding to the demand to make the movie declared tax-free in Delhi, the Delhi CM had earlier suggested in the Assembly that the film can be uploaded on YouTube, and the movie will become free and everyone will be able to watch it. “Some people are earning crores in the name of Kashmiri Pandits and you (BJP) have been sticking posters of the film,” he said.

According to Kher, every Indian should respond to Kejriwal’s statement by going to watch the film in the theatre and collect more money and connect with more people from Kashmir.

Also read: Not a single Pandit returned to Kashmir during BJP rule: Kejriwal

Further, Kher was upset that Kejriwal called it a propaganda film. According to Kher, the film has gone beyond tax-free, it’s a movement. And to rub salts on wounds of people who have suffered for the last 32 years is unbecoming of a CM.

Kher accused Kejriwal of not seeing the film and trying to play to the gallery in the Delhi Assembly. He trying to do a stand-up comedian’s job over there, said Kher, adding that Kejriwal should not come across as a caricature. Instead, he is a real and educated person, an IRS officer and an uneducated person also doesn’t talk like this. It was not done, he added.

Moreover, Kejriwal was crude, insensitive and he didn’t think about the lakhs of Kashmir Hindus who were thrown out of their own homes, the women raped and people murdered. The people behind him were laughing and it was shameless, said Kher in the TV interview.

Meanwhile, Kejriwal had also criticised the BJP leaders for promoting the film. He pointed out that in the last 25 years, since the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, there have been BJP governments at the Centre for 13 years, including the last eight years. “Has any Kashmiri Pandit family been rehabilitated in this period? Not a single family has returned to Kashmir,” he said on Saturday.