On May 9, an old interview of filmmaker Anurag Kashyap went viral on social media in which he called Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal a dangerous man and compared him to Cambodian dictator Pol Pot. The interview resurfaced at a time when Times Now journalist Bhawana Kishore, cameraperson Mritunjay Kumar and driver Parmender Singh Rawat are fighting a legal battle in Punjab.
In the interview with YouTuber Samdish, Kashyap said he saw the signs of what Kejriwal would become in the future. Samdish asked him to choose between Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi. Kashyap replied he would definitely not choose Kejriwal. When asked the reason, he recalled the time when Kejriwal was just an RTI activist during the time when he had not entered politics.
He said, “There was another person called Shekhar who used to work with him [Kashyap was possibly talking about RTI activist Shekhar Singh]. They were both sitting side by side on the stage. Shekhar or someone had asked him a question; he replied to the question and pointed at the crowd’s reaction. At that moment, I realised that this man was playing in the crowd. He will play to the crowd.” When Kejriwal had not entered politics, he and Shekhar had appeared in several interviews and debates on News Channels.
Samdish asserted that playing to the crowd was necessary for his profession, to which Kashyap pointed out he was talking about the time when Kejriwal was not a politician but an activist. He added, “He [Kejriwal] followed the exact thing that I had expected that he would get into politics. Before he got into politics, my and my ADs [Assistant Directors] had a long discussion where I spoke about him turning out to be like this. And that is exactly what he has become. And I said, you give him power, and he’ll be worse. That man is Pol Pot.”
For those who are not aware, Pol Pot was the dictator of Cambodia who ruled the country between 1975 and 1979. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, around a million people were killed under the leadership of Pol Pot.
Kashyap added, “Pol Pot was the dictator of Cambodia. The man who thinks he knows what is right for people with good intentions and will restrict everyone. That kind of a man who thinks he’s doing it for them, but he’s not. He will only impose his opinions, and for him, there is only one correct way to live life, which is what he thinks is correct. I find him more dangerous.”
Kashyap ignored the question about what he thinks about Rahul Gandhi. He continued, “The problem is not what you are before you get power. The problem is what you become after you get power. Name one leader who can take criticism. A leader who’s gotten critiqued on social media and has not tried to silence the critic?”
The case against Times Now’s journalist Bhawana Kishore
Bhawana Kishore was booked under SC/ST Act after the car she was travelling in the district Ludhiana of Punjab got into an accident with an e-rikshaw in Ludhiana. The woman riding the e-rikshaw accused Bhawana, Parmender and Mritunjay of abusing her and accused Bhawana of using casteist slurs in a complaint filed with Ludhiana Police. Based on her complaint, Bhawana and the other two were booked and sent to judicial custody by the Special Court for 14 days. Later, Punjab and Haryana High Court granted all of them bail till May 22. The court said prima facie the accusations under SC/ST Act against Bhawana did not make out as she did not know the victim before the accident.
