Anurag Kashyap was among the first few Bollywood celebrities to condemn the violence against Jamia Millia Islamia University students, and speak up against Citizenship (Amendment) Act. The filmmaker has now received flak on Twitter for saying that he also protested against the Mandal Commission in the 1990’s.
Replying to a tweet which asked Anurag if he had ever joined any protest, he wrote that he was there at the August Kranti Maidan, supported the Anti-Corruption protests by Anna Hazare, and also took to streets to protest against the Mandal Commission, 27 years ago.
This statement of his did not go down well with a lot of Twitter users and activists, and they called him a ‘casteist’ for agitating against caste based reservations in government jobs. The Mandal Commission in VP Singh’s government aimed to reserve 27 per cent public sector jobs for Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and a lot of young people hit the streets protesting against the same.
Following the flak he faced, Anurag Kashyap responded to tweets to apologise for taking part in those protests, and clarified saying ‘he didn’t know then what he was out for’ and that he isn’t a casteist.
He followed by rendering a public apology for the same, and tweeted, “My tweet in response to an accusation about me, where I talked about having participated in Mandal commission protests has offended a lot of people. I unconditionally apologise for the teenager that I was and I totally stand for the rights and reservations forSC/ST/OBC.”
“Then I was a lot of things I am not today, I have not been that man for the longest time,but today I know what I am fighting for and I want to focus on that.I am not always politically correct & I don’t claim I understand everything. But this fight I do know.”Anurag Kashyap
Anurag had been off Twitter for a while but returned after the acts of violence towards the students of Jamia Millia University during their protests. Calling the government ‘fascist’, the filmmaker said that he cannot stay silent any longer. Also in a veiled reference to Bollywood, Anurag added that it makes his angry to “see voices that can actually make a difference stay quiet.”
Kashyap has been vociferously tweeting against the CAA, and also the attempts to suppress the protests happening across the nation
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