Shashi Tharoor slams Vivek Agnihotri, Anupam Kher: Singapore has decided to ban the film ‘The Kashmir Files’ centered on Kashmiri Pandits. It has been argued that the film is provocative and shows only one side of Muslims. After the film was banned, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor took a dig at BJP.
Shashi Tharoor, sharing an article related to the ban on the film, wrote, “Singapore has banned the film promoted by the ruling party of India.” To this the film’s director Vivek Agnihotri said that Singapore is the world’s most regressive censor. “Even a romantic film like ‘The Leela Hotel Files’ was banned in Singapore. Please stop making fun of Kashmiri Hindu genocide.”
Attacking Tharoor, Agnihotri referred to a hotel in Delhi in which Tharoor’s wife Sunanda was found dead in January 2014 in a room. Agnihotri said Tharoor should apologize to the soul of his late wife.
Hitting out at Tharoor, Anupam Kher said, “Dear @ShashiTharoor! Your callousness towards #KashmiriHindus genocide is tragic. If nothing else at least for #Sunanda’s sake who was a Kashmiri herself you should show some sensitivity towards #KashmiriPandits & not feel victorious about a country banning #TheKashmirFiles!”
Later, in a statement, Tharoor, without naming Kher and Agnihotri, said that he had only tweeted factual news and had not commented on ‘The Kashmir Files’.
“At no point did I mock or disparage the sufferings of Kashmiri Pandits, of whose plight I am intimately aware, and to which I have repeatedly drawn attention over the years,” Mr Tharoor said.
The Congress leader said, “Dragging my late wife Sunanda into this matter was unwarranted and contemptible. No one is more aware of her views than I am. I have accompanied her to the destroyed ruins of her ancestral home in Bomai, near Sopore, and joined her in conversations with her Kashmiri neighbours and friends, both Muslim and Hindu. One thing I know, unlike those attempting to exploit her when she is not around to speak for herself: She believed in reconciliation, not hate”.