Naseeruddin Shah Alleges Facebook Took Down His Post

New Delhi: Punjabi singing sensation and actor Diljit Dosanjh’s decision to back the release of his new film Sardaar Ji 3 outside India drew support from Indian award-winning actor and superstar Naseeruddin Shah in the form of a social media post on Facebook.

But Facebook, the star has alleged, has taken down the post.

The alleged taking down of the Facebook post raises deeper questions of what “freedom of expression” can be expected from social media behemoths.

There has been no statement from Facebook on this. It is unclear whether it is governmental pressure or Meta’s decision that has prompted the disappearance of the post.

Shah’s Facebook post had said, “What these goons want is to put an end to personal interaction between the people of India and Pakistan. I have close relatives and some dear friends there and no one can stop me from meeting them or sending them love whenever I feel like it. And my response to those who will say ‘Go to Pakistan’ is ‘GO TO KAILASA’,” Kailasa being a reference to fugitive Nithyananda's ‘United Nations of Kailasa’ enterprise, which he claims is a “sovereign entity as per international law”.

Naseeruddin Shah's post, now gone, in support of Dosanjh.

Sardaar Ji 3 came under fire for having as Dosanjh’s co-star Pakistani actress Hania Aamir. This decision was naturally made by the producers and director before the four-day India-Pakistan skirmish, but the filmmakers withstood the pressure to go with an informal ban on Pakistani actors following the Pahalgam attack.

Also read: Diljit Dosanjh’s Stardom Now Threatens the Gatekeepers of Indian Nationalism

The producers of Sardaar Ji 3, citing financial stakes, decided to release the film exclusively overseas on June 27, foregoing an Indian release.

Dosanjh defended this pragmatic decision, pointing out that the film’s production predated the diplomatic rupture and that the subsequent backlash was entirely beyond their control.

Javed Akhtar and Imtiaz Ali have also come out in his support.

In a piece in the Indian Express, Shah has said he feels no need to prove his patriotism. He writes that “I was born in India into the fifth generation of a Muslim family, my wife into an even older Hindu one and we hope our children can be a combination of the best of both. My father refused to go to Pakistan when his brothers left, he was certain India had a future for us just as I feel it does for my offspring. This is a dream that cannot be abandoned.”

He also addressed the criticism he faced for supporting Dosanjh and the lack of solidarity from within the film industry. “I wasn’t expecting any – they all either have too much to lose or they disagree,” he writes.

His brother, retired army officer Lieutenant General Zameeruddin Shah, has backed his brother’s comments and said that Naseeruddin and he grew up in an India “insulated from the bigotry”.

Zameeruddin Shah writes that “I find the same wonderful ethos in my interaction with most army colleagues. There will always be some who are different because of the anonymity of WhatsApp”, referring presumably to the expression of sharp Hindutva views from some of those within the armed forces.

This is not the first time that films with Pakistani actors have come under scrutiny and have been attacked. The recent past, with sports ties and cultural ties being in a freeze, has got colder as the government of India went ahead and imposed blanket bans on Pakistani social media handles, both governmental and non-governmental.

But with India first banning Pakistani YouTube channels, then unbanning them briefly and then again banning them generated a lot of confusion regarding its official position.

Indian official sources have added to the confusion by saying that the Pakistani hockey team would be allowed to come to India and play.

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