Actor Naseeruddin Shah has termed the Mughals as “refugees” and stated that Mughals have contributed a lot to this country. He said, “Mughals have given many historical monuments and glorious history to the country. The Mughals gave tradition of music, dance and painting. We do not talk of Taimur, Nadir Shah because they came and went lying down but the Mughals did not loot us, they remained here. The Mughals came here to make it their homeland. You can call them refugees if you want”.
There has been an uproar over this statement of Shah. A user wrote on social media – “Mughals came first as refugees and made refugees to those who were from here”. Another user wrote – “Invaders are always invaders. We cannot count them as our nation builder. Our education system was also very good before the arrival of these invaders. India is not famous only because of those buildings”.
Another user wrote, Before 2014, you only thought as an actor. Never paid attention to your religion. And now you are scared. One user wrote – “Migrant would have been a better word and not refugee. The buildings, culture, dance, music, literature do not belong to Mughals”.
When Naseeruddin Shah was asked ,what is the feeling of being a Muslim in ‘Narendra Modi’s India’. In response to this, he said- “I feel very bad. Not even a joke is tolerated here. I don’t feel insecure here because this is my country. Muslims are marginalized and made useless. They are on the way to make Muslims second class citizens and this is happening in every area”.
Actor Naseeruddin Shah has expressed fear of civil war in the country. He said that everything in the country is being done to intimidate Muslims. Shah believes that those who are calling for genocide of Muslims are calling for civil war in the country. He said that ruling party is promoting separatism and Aurangzeb is being maligned.