India is everything to me: Akshay Kumar on decision to renounce Canadian passport
New Delhi, Feb 23: Bollywood star Akshay Kumar, who has often faced criticism over his Canadian citizenship, says India is everything to him and he has already applied for a change of passport.
He feels bad when people say things without knowing the reason for him taking up Canadian citizenship, Akshay said in an interview in the first episode of the new season of Seedhi Baat on Aajtak.
"India is everything to me... Whatever I have earned, whatever I have gained is from here. And I'm fortunate that I get a chance to give back. You feel bad when people say things without knowing anything...," the 55-year-old star said.
Akshay, known for his films such as "Hera Pheri", "Namastey London", "Toilet: Ek Prem Katha" and "Padman", also spoke about a lean phase in his career when he delivered more than 15 flops. This was in the 1990s. The poor box office performance of his films pushed him to apply for Canadian citizenship, he said.
"I thought that 'bhai, my films are not working and one has to work'. I went there for work. My friend was in Canada and he said, 'come here'. I applied and I got in.
"I had just two films left for release and it is just luck that they both became superhit. My friend said, 'go back, start working again'. I got some more films and I kept getting more work. I forgot that I had the passport. I never thought that I should get this passport changed but now yes, I have applied to get my passport changed and once I get the renounced status from canada..."
Akshay's citizenship became a topic of debate after an interview with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April 2019 just before the Lok Sabha elections.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
