Johar stirs row over intolerance

“I hope literature gets more coverage this year than the cooked-up controversies,” exclaimed William Dalrymple, co-director of Jaipur Literature Festival during the inaugural session on Thursday.

However, by morning his wish was blown away by politically hot winds over some inadvertent and innocuous comments by filmmaker Karan Johar.

Despite categorically stating that he didn’t want to court any controversy, Johar landed right into the middle of it. Worse, it happens to be the raging debate on “intolerance” that has charged political atmosphere of the country.

In conversation with his biographer Poonam Saxena and Shobha De, at the evening session on day one of Jaipur Literature Festival, Karan was cautious enough to declare that he did not want to fight the “governance” by speaking out on “intolerance” like his colleagues in Bollywood industry did last year.

“Look what happened as a result of anyone who said anything on it. I make movies; I’m fighting megalomaniac movie stars every day. Do I need to fight the governance ”

Yet, once in flow, inadvertently, he ended up making a couple of controversial remarks. Sample this: “We are in a tough country to talk about our personal self. Talking about one’s personal life in today’s time can land you in jail and I feel really sad about it because being a public figure you are expected to helm a certain movement, talk about freedom of expression which is the biggest joke in the world right now.”

And, he didn’t stop at that. “Democracy is the second biggest joke. How is there freedom of expression I am a filmmaker and I feel bound on every level. I feel like there is always some kind of legal notice awaiting me.” Referring to the controversy over the AIB roast, staged in Mumbai last year which involved the western concept of insult comedy, Johar said, “I’ve become some kind of an FIR king.”

No sooner, his words made the headlines, the Congress lapped up his comments to hit out aga-inst the Modi government, accusing it of stifling freedom of expression.

Congress leader Manish Tewari said, “This government of Modi is against intellectuals. They are ag-ainst liberal voices. The tension is increasing from everywhere. Other than Anupam Kher, who is a pawn for the government, all other artists, painters, filmmakers are saying th-at this government is against intellectuals.”

Union minister Mahesh Sharma retaliated saying, “The whole world is seeing that India is the most tolerant country.”

Also hitting back at Congress, his ministerial colleague Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, “Those who are raising questions on India’s tolerance have no knowledge about the country’s culture and traditions. They are illiterate. It is true that issues of intolerance crop up the moment elections are announced.” It wouldn’t help Johar that he also said that he is “always looking for scandal” as that keeps him in the news, something he loves about the business of showbiz.

“This keeps me in the news. I have no extramarital affair to talk about...so I think I’m looking for scandal,” he said.