Mumbai: Poet, lyricist and writer Javed Akhtar has hit back at Pakistani actress Bushra Ansari over her comments against him after the Pahalgam terror attack. Akhtar had condemned the attack in strong words.
Soon after the attack, Akhtar had said: “Yeh baat humein bhulni nahi chahiye, yeh mamooli baat nahi hai. (We shouldn’t forget this).”
Ansari attacked him on social media and said: “Humare writer so-called, unko toh bahana hi chahiye tha. Actually, unko toh makaan kiraaye pe nahi milta tha Bombay mein (Our so called writer is even refused a flat in Mumbai).”
“Chaloji chup kar jaaye aap. Naseeruddin Shah bhi toh hai, who chup baithe hai na? Aur bhi toh chup baithe hai na? Jiske dil mein jo hai woh rakkha rahe. (Please stay quiet just like Naseeruddin Shah. Others are also quiet, you too be quiet please),” she had added.
In an interview to Lallantop on Friday, Akhtar finally broke his silence on this.
“Who are you to tell me when to talk and when not to. There is this Pakistani actress, Bushra Ansari, she often talks about me. She once advised me to keep quiet. She said something like, ‘Naseeruddin Shah stays quiet, you should too.’ My question to her is: ‘Who is she to tell me when to talk and when not to? Who gave you this right and why do you expect me to take your advise,” he said.
“We may have several internal problems (in India), but if an outsider comes to comment, I am an Indian. Why do they forget that? I won’t keep quiet,” Akhtar said.
When asked about Ansari’s comments about a house in Mumbai, Akhtar replied: “Yes right, Shabana (Azmi) and I have been sleeping on the streets lately. Kya yaar, ab kya bole?”
He elaborated on how the story of a house in Mumbai got around.
“About 25 years ago, Shabana wanted to buy a flat for investment purposes. But the broker said that the owner will not sell his house to a Muslim. But, do you know why he refused? He refused it because his parents stayed in Sindh from where these Pakistanis shooed them away. Anyone with a wound that big and deep, will react the way the owner reacted. If that day, Shabana was refused a flat, it was not because she was a Muslim, but it was because the owner was displacing his revenge someplace else for what his parents went through. So who is she (Bushra Ansari) to take a dig at this, and ask me to keep quiet? They must look into their own doings before commenting,” Akhtar said.
