Earlier this month, the Narcotics Control Bureau(NCB) raided a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast and arrested along with other people Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, in connection with drug seizure. Soon after Aryan was arrested, ‘Liberals’ and Islamists fell over themselves to give a communal flair to a routine procedure by the narcotics watchdog and judiciary, alleging that Aryan was arrested because of his Muslim identity.
Leftist propaganda of using SRK’s religious identity to attack the Centre
Several left-leaning ‘Liberals’ and Islamists bemoaned that SRK’s son was arrested and denied bail because he is a Muslim and because his father had made an unremarkable, vague comment a few years back on the alleged ‘rising tolerance’ in the country. They alleged that SRK is paying the price for ‘being a Muslim in India’ and for his impertinence of ‘speaking against the central government’.
The entire cacophony surrounding Aryan Khan being arrested and kept in prison because of his religion is to malign the country—to prove that hatred against Muslims in India is so prominent that even eminent personalities are not spared. This narrative jibes perfectly well with the hackneyed liberal propaganda of portraying the Modi government as the enemy of the Muslims.
Ever since Gujarat riots broke out in February 2002 in the wake of the heart-wrenching Godhra train burning, Narendra Modi, then Gujarat CM, had been the object of ire of the liberal firmament. He is constantly vilified as someone who harbours visceral hatred for Muslims. Since he became the Prime Minister in 2014, the animosity liberals have against PM Modi has only intensified. They have routinely hurled unsubstantiated allegations against PM Modi and his government.
The recent attempt to link Shah Rukh Khan’s Muslim identity with the routine judicial process against Aryan Khan is another such effort by liberals to show that India is jaundiced against its Muslim population, however ironic it may sound. SRK rose to fame and has become a superstar in the same country.
This is quintessential ‘McCarthyism’ that the Indian liberals and Islamists are masters at, where they project their own guilts and shortcomings onto their opponents to hide their own vices.
The ‘McCarthyism’ of liberals in projecting their guilts and follies onto others
The liberals and Islamists, across the globe, revel in pigeonholing and segregating people into narrow ethnonational groups and identities because their blinkered minds cannot imagine a world where this classification is not central.
Since their own narrow outlook confines them to identify people based on their race, colour, religion, caste, etc., and accordingly declare them as privileged or oppressed, they believe that same is done by others around them as well, including ordinary Indians, rather Hindus, who they think is entirely obsessed with identifying Shah Rukh as a ‘Muslim superstar’.
Instead, it is the liberals and Islamists themselves who have invoked SRK’s religion to insinuate that action taken against his son Aryan Khan is religiously motivated. For liberals, Shah Rukh Khan as well as other Muslims are just dispensable commodities, who could be expended to further their propaganda of defaming the central government.
Hindus have never viewed Shah Rukh Khan or for that matter any other Bollywood actor, sportsperson, distinguished individuals, etc. from the prism of religion. Shah Rukh Khan is a superstar and his unmatched popularity, earning millions over the years in a Hindu-majority country is a testament to the fact that Hindus have never identified the actor by his religion.
The actor has played the role of a Hindu in most of his movies. For Hindus, SRK’s religion is a personal matter and not a factor that influences in any way their love and admiration for him.
Liberals actually hate SRK for not hating Modi enough
Similarly, SRK is quite popular among BJP supporters as well. Neither has the actor ever lashed out against the BJP and RSS—something which the liberals probably secretly hate him for and perhaps wish him the worst. However, the important thing to note here is that it is the liberals who associate him with his religious identity and think, as a Muslim, he does not hate the BJP or Modi enough.
SRK had once spoken about the rising intolerance in the country. During an interview in 2015, after much prodding from Barkha Dutt, Shah Rukh succinctly spoke on religious intolerance, saying that it would lead the country to dark ages. His statements had caused an outrage momentarily, and since then the actor had decided to not speak up on matters that are nothing but propaganda. Actually, he has avoided making overt political statements.
SRK’s dignified silence on a host of issues since the intolerance imbroglio rattled the Liberals and Islamists beyond measure. They were angry with SRK and Bollywood for not weighing in on the Muslim victimhood narrative that they had so carefully crafted. Moreover, Khan was also seen taking selfies with PM Modi. In 2002, Khan also brought to life a poem titled “Kya Khoya Kya Paya” by India’s one of the most prolific wordsmiths and then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
It is the liberals who actually hate Shah Rukh Khan for not being venomously critical of the Modi government, for not being someone like Anurag Kashyap who does not mind disregarding logic and rationality in his criticism of the BJP. And they are projecting their hate on others so that they could present a misleading notion of institutional prejudice against Muslims.
Islamists hate SRK for celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi
In addition to liberals, the Islamists also hate Shah Rukh Khan for not being an “ideal” Muslim. Recently, SRK had shared a picture of a Ganesha idol installed at his home during Ganesh Chaturthi. The move rattled Islamists on Twitter, including the verified ones, who descended upon the actor’s timeline to acquaint him with the teachings of Islam.
The actor celebrates Ganesh Chaturthi at home every year and gets hatred from Islamists for not being ‘Muslim enough’.
Many called him ‘Shirk’ and ‘Kafir’ and many fundamentalists believe that kafirs and ‘non-believers’ deserve to be punished with death. Murtad is apostasy and apostasy is also to be punished with death, as per the Holy Quran, they argued. Several others decried the actor and asked him to convert alleging that idol worshipping is a sin in Islam.
This is not the first time that Shah Rukh Khan has been attacked by Islamists for celebrating a Hindu festival. This was the fourth year in a row that the Islamists have slammed the actor for going against the Islamic principles that call for the prohibition of idolatry and ordains punishment for celebrating festivals of other religions.
In order to hide this unbridled hatred for SRK, the ‘toilet cleaners’ of ISIS must float an imaginary theory where the actor is hated for his identity, not by the Islamists, but by the Hindus. The recent attempt to perpetuate the Muslim victimhood narrative in connection with the judicial action against Aryan Khan is an effort in that direction.
The idea that India hates SRK for being a Muslim is a figment of the ‘Liberal’ imagination, something that they desperately want others to believe so that they can mask their own abhorrence for SRK for not subscribing to their views about PM Modi and his government and indulging in celebrations of Hindu festivals.
