Mumbai, Jun 30: Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah has been diagnosed with pneumonia and admitted to a hospital here, actor-wife Ratna Pathak Shah said on Wednesday.

Naseeruddin Shah, 70, was admitted to Khar Hinduja hospital on Tuesday. The actor has a "small patch" of pneumonia in his lungs and is currently undergoing treatment.

"Yes (he has a) small patch and all under control. (He is) Responding well to treatment so hope he'll be discharged soon," Ratna Pathak Shah told PTI.

The multiple National Award-winning actor was last seen in the 2020 drama "Mee Raqsam" and the acclaimed Amazon Prime Video series "Bandish Bandits".

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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.