MUMBAI: Civil rights activist and Bollywood actor Shabana Azmi drew fire from Hindus and Muslims for her controversial remarks that Indian politics have been unfair to Muslims. Joining issue with Shabana, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remarks that it was her comments that were "unfair."
On Saturday, Shabana said that Indian Muslims are in a "safer place" as they have a "stake and space in Indian democracy" as compared to Muslims in other parts of the world, but she is unhappy that there is still discrimination against the community.
Accusing Indian politicians of promoting a stereotype image of Muslims, Shabana, in an interview with television journalist Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN's "Devil's Advocate," also blamed the community paying attention to fundamentalists.
Shabana invited the ire of senior BJP leader Venkiah Naidu, who said that the remarks were extremely unfair and uncharitable against the country and the majority community.
Muslim scholars and leaders also took Shabana to task. Maulana Mustakeem Azmi, the Jamiat-ul-Ulema general secretary in Mumbai, said that if she is being discriminated in her attempts to buy a house in Mumbai then how could she say she lives in a democracy? But Shabana defended the rights of housing societies have their own rules, even if they discriminate against outsiders.
