Anupam Kher leads march to President’s House against intolerance protests

“It’s a very symbolic march and we are going to meet the Honourable President and give him a memorandum”, Bhandarkar told ANI.

Countering the protests by writers and artistes against “rising intolerance, Bollywood actor Anupam Kher on led a march to Rashtrapati Bhavan alleging that the “award-wapsi” campaign was to defame the country by projecting a “wrong” picture of the situation”.

Kher, who is a BJP supporter, on Saturday morning led a “March For India” to Rashtrapati Bhavan to protest against the voices being raised over “intolerance” in the country.

According to an NDTV report, their reporter Bhairavi Singh was abused, heckled and then chased.

The channel’s crew was reportedly pushed around and chased.

Apart from people from the film industry like Madhur Bhandarkar, Ashoke Pandit, Priyadarshan, Chandraprakash Diwedi, Malini Awasthi, Gajendra Solanki, people in large number joined Kher in what was tagged as March for India.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted in her support later in the day, and the Aam Aadmi Party condemned the march and the episode.

Kher has emphasised that “there is no intolerance in India” and that “vested interests were out to malign the country”. A few people have coined the term “growing intolerance”. Many people have not been able to join us but their spirit is there.

“Those who are returning their awards and saying in chorus that there is an environment of intolerance were already against this government”. Not every Indian thinks like that.

Booed by the audience last week, Kher, undeterred by the negative response, went on to say that, “people have an agenda and can not handle a chaiwala becoming a PM”.

The Kher-led delegation described the protests by writers and others after return of their awards as a bid to “tarnish” the image of the country and derail the development initiatives of the Prime Minister.