Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah has publicly criticized Mumbai University after being uninvited from a student event just hours before it was scheduled, calling the decision insulting and dishonest.
In a strongly worded article in the Indian Express titled “When a university speaks power to truth”, Shah detailed how he was dropped from the Jashn-e-Urdu programme organized by the university’s Urdu department on February 1, allegedly without explanation or apology.
According to Shah, he was informed late on the night of January 31 that his presence was no longer required. What followed, he wrote, was even more troubling, the audience was told that he had declined to attend. “The university, after informing me that I needn’t attend... decided to rub a little salt in by announcing that I had refused to be there,” Shah wrote, rejecting the claim outright.
The actor, who has frequently engaged with students over his four-decade-long career, said the event had held special meaning for him because of the opportunity to interact with young learners. He described teaching and engaging with students as some of the “most joyous and educational experiences” of his professional life, adding that he had gained more from such interactions than from formal teachers of acting. Shah suggested that the real reason for his disinvitation lay in his public criticism of the current political climate.
Referring to comments reportedly made by a senior university official, he challenged the accusation that he “openly makes statements against the country,” asking for evidence of any remark in which he had run down India. (ANI)
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