Hating Muslims has become fashionable: Naseeruddin Shah

Naseeruddin Shah has been a constant critic of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, along with the growing Islamophobia in India.

The actor recently talked about how Islamophobia had become "fashionable" and that the government is clearly tapping into this for their own benefits.

When talking with The Indian Express, Shah would say, "Oh sure, these are worrying times absolutely. The kind of stuff that's pure, undisguised propaganda is being lapped into and it's a reflection of the zeitgeist of the times. Muslim hating is fashionable these days, even among educated people. It's what the ruling party has very cleverly tapped into this nerve. We talk about secular this, democracy that, so why are you introducing religion into everything?"

He would also go onto express his thoughts about how "undisguised propaganda" is being peddled to the masses via art. Shah would say, "The mood on-screen is a reflection of what's happening on the ground: unabashed Islamophobia, which is being used to get votes in elections. I mean how spineless is the election commission of ours? Who doesn't even dare utter a word? If there had been a Muslim leader who had said, 'Say Allah Hu Akbar and press the button', things would have hit the fan."

"But here our Prime Minister goes ahead and says things like this and yet he loses. So, I have hope that this will wear off. But it's definitely, at the moment, at its peak. It's been a very clever card played by this government, and it has worked. Let's see how long it continues to work," Shah concluded.