MUMBAI: While the BJP-led Indian government has been propagating hate against Pakistan, artists across the borders have called for cordial relations between the countries.
Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan recently penned a letter in The Indian Express on the 13th anniversary of the 26/11 attacks that took place in Mumbai. In the letter, the Bollywood megastar talked about incidents that reunited both countries across the borders, despite differences.
The Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham star, in the piece, wrote about the impact of Indian cricketer Virat Kohli’s hug for Pakistan cricketers Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam during the recent T20 world cup.
“For, the stories we tell can often become larger than us, and they can skip lightly across borders, sometimes riding on cricket, sometimes through film. Sometimes they nestle in the warmth of the hug that went viral, that India’s captain Virat Kohli gave to Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam, after the men in green defeated the men in blue in the first game of the T20 World Cup that concluded in Dubai recently,” he wrote.
He spoke about another moment that brought the two countries together, the “smashing success” of the 2015 Salman Khan-starrer Bajrangi Bhaijaan. He described it as “a cross-border tale about empathy and compassion, an Indian man’s struggle to reunite a Pakistani child with her family.”
“Freedom from fear means that we are more at ease with our neighbour,” he wrote. “No terrorist must be allowed to change the way we are in the dark, or with our neighbour, or ourselves. No single act of terror must be given the power to destroy the interconnectedness of our stories, our plural solidarities,” he added.
Dia Mirza reacted to Bachchan’s piece and wrote, “A truly wonderful piece by Amitabh Bachchan. ‘Freedom from fear means that we are more at ease with our neighbours, and also with ourselves.’”
