'We don't deserve you': Barkha Dutt writes moving open letter to Shah Rukh Khan

After Shah Rukh Khan was targeted by several leaders of the right-wing for his remarks on religious intolerance in the country, journalist Barkha Dutt wrote a moving open letter to the Bollywood actor, supporting him and saying the country didn’t deserve a person like him. In the letter which was published in Hindustan Times, Dutt wrote that this wasn’t the first time Khan had faced attack from the right-wing because of his views on religious intolerance. [caption id=“attachment_2498740” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Barkha Dutt (left) and Shah Rukh Khan. GettyImages[/caption] “When we met five years ago in Mumbai you were angry. Because then too, like now, the lunatic hate brigade wanted to banish you to Pakistan. (Lucky them, I say.) You were being asked to say sorry for your view that Pakistanis should be allowed to play in the Indian Premier League. And you gutsily refused. Your film My Name is Khan was just going to be released; the Shiv Sena had been attacking theatres screening it,” Dutt wrote in her letter. She also praised him for being one of the few “among the biggest and most glamorous stars” who had the guts to speak up on the heated issue of religious intolerance. Dutt also wrote that she herself had been criticised by right-wing leaders for asking Khan questions on creative freedom and tolerance. Shah Rukh Khan had earlier said that he supports the artists who have returned their awards and believes they are brave. “I respect the people, if they have a call that makes them feel that if the gesture is going to turn things around, I think it’s very brave, very honest, very clean. As far as I am concerned, I’ve never participated in something as huge and as meaningful, as they have. But if it calls for it yes… symbolically, yes, it is important if you feel cinema is suffering, then here’s my national award… I stand by the people who take a stand.” he had said. Dutt’s open letter comes at a time when Khan has been viciously attacked by right-wing leaders, with some of them even ridiculously comparing him to terrorists, calling him anti-national and a ‘Pakistani agent’. Right-wing leaders then lashed out at him over his statement. BJP MP Yogi Adityanath compared him to Pakistani terrorist Hafiz Saeed , the mastermind of the Mumbai terror attack. In another controversial remark, Adityanath, the MP from Gorakhpur, had said that Khan should remember that if a “huge mass” of people in the country would boycott his films, then he would also have to wander on streets like a “normal Muslim”. Senior BJP leader from Madhya Pradesh Kailash Vijaybargiya had also attacked Khan on Twitter . “Shah Rukh Khan lives in India but his mind is in Pakistan…Shah Rukh is now singing in the same tune of intolerance along with Pakistan and other anti-India forces,” Vijaybargiya had said in a series of tweets. Controversial Hindutva leader Sadhvi Prachi had called Khan a "Pakistani agent" , who should be sent to that country. “Shah Rukh Khan is an agent of neighbouring coutry Pakistan as he reflects their (Pakistan’s) ideology. Such a man should go to Pakistan,” she said while talking to reporters in the court complex in Muzaffarnagar. (With agency inputs)