"Will think twice before i speak my heart": Actor Sai Pallavi amid row
Mumbai, Jun 18: Actor Sai Pallavi on Saturday said her recent remarks drawing a comparison between the Kashmiri Pandits' genocide in the 1990s and recent mob lynching incidents were taken out of context.
The 30-year-old actor is currently in the middle of a controversy for remarks that she made during an interview to a Telugu YouTube channel ahead of the release of her film "Virata Parvam".
Pallavi, who works in the Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam film industries, shared a video on Instagram to clarify her comments and said her intent was not to belittle any tragedy.
"In a recent interview I was asked if I was a supporter of the left or the right wing. I clearly stated that I believe I'm neutral. We need to be good human beings first before we identify ourselves with our beliefs. The oppressed need to be protected at any cost," she said in the video.
The actor said she saw filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri's "The Kashmir Files" three months ago and was disturbed by the "plight" of Kashmiri Pandits shown in the movie.
"I remember telling him (Agnihotri) that I was disturbed seeing the plight of the people at that time. And being someone that I am, I would never belittle tragedy like the genocide and the generations of people who are still affected by it," Pallavi added.
At the same time, the actor said she "could never come to terms with the mob lynching incident during COVID times" and was "shaken" by it for days.
"I believe that violence in any form is wrong and violence in the name of any religion is a huge sin," Pallavi said.
In her comments during the interview, which has also reportedly landed the actor in legal trouble in Hyderabad, Pallavi had talked about "The Kashmir Files" and compared it with the recent incidents of lynching of suspected cow smugglers.
"The film, 'The Kashmir Files', shows how Kashmiri Pandits were killed. Recently, there was an incident of a person being killed for carrying a cow because he was suspected to be a Muslim. After killing the person, the attackers raised 'Jai Shri Ram' slogans. Where is the difference between what happened in Kashmir and what happened recently?" she had said.
In her clarification, the actor, known for films like "Premam", "Maari 2" and "Shyam Singha Roy", said it was extremely disturbing to see many people justify the mob lynching incident online.
"I don't think any of us have the right to take another person's life. Being a medical graduate, I believe that all lives are equal and all lives are important," the actor added.
"I will be thinking twice before I speak my heart because I am anxious that my words may be misinterpreted," she said.
Pallavi further said she hopes that in future no person in the country has to be "scared of his or her identity".
"I hope a day doesn't come when a child is born and he or she is scared of his or her identity. And I pray that we are not heading towards that, at least. Fourteen years of my life, my school life, I remember everyday going to school and chanting, 'All Indians are my brothers and sisters...
"We as children would never differentiate each other based on culture or caste or religion. So anytime I speak, it comes from a very neutral ground," she added.
Pallavi went on to express disappointment over the relentless online trolling she was subjected to following the interview.
"I was very surprised to see that whatever I had spoken was taken in a completely different way."
The actor also thanked those "who stood by me in the last few days".
"I felt like they knew me for who I am. So thank you so much for making me feel like I wasn't alone," she said.
View this post on Instagram
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
NSA Sullivan to visit India to finalise important ongoing initiatives: White House
Washington (PTI): Outgoing US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will travel to India on January 5 and 6 for a final round of talks with his counterpart Ajit K Doval and other top government officials on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues and to finalise some ongoing initiatives.
His visit to India comes as the Joe Biden administration prepares to wrap up its four-year term.
Sullivan, 48, the youngest national security advisor when President Biden appointed him on January 20, 2021, would also deliver a major India-centric foreign policy speech at IIT, New Delhi during his last trip to India before leaving office.
Congressman Michael Waltz would succeed him on January 20, when Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.
"National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will be travelling to New Delhi, India, on January 5 and 6 for a capstone meeting with Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval," White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said on Friday.
"It will span a range of issues across the breadth of our partnership with India, from space, defence, and strategic technology cooperation, all the way also to shared security priorities in the Indo-Pacific and beyond," he said.
During the visit, Sullivan will also meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and other Indian leaders.
"He will also visit the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, where he will be able to meet with young Indian entrepreneurs and give a speech outlining the significant steps that the United States and India have taken together to strengthen our innovation alliance under the US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology, otherwise known as iCET," Kirby said.
This will be Sullivan’s final trip to the Indo-Pacific region as National Security Advisor.
"He’s very excited and looking forward to these conversations at this critical time," Kirby said.
The main purpose of Sullivan's visit will be a capstone engagement and dialogue with his counterpart, a senior Biden administration official told reporters during a conference call Friday afternoon.
The two national security advisors will take stock of the progress that the two countries have made over the last four years, which has been a historic and transformative period in the bilateral relationship, the official said.
They will also "continue to finalise some ongoing initiatives that were important priorities for us to wrap up to continue our technology cooperation through the end of the administration and to identify new opportunities that we hope with an upcoming team, will continue to take forward,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"From the views of the Biden administration, the US-Indian relationship has not only been one of the bright points and a real foreign policy priority and an area of legacy achievement for the Biden administration, but it is also a relationship where they have seen continued bipartisan support and momentum from administration to administration in the United States," said the official.
Sullivan's speech at IIT Delhi will highlight India's importance to US priorities in the Indo-Pacific region and worldwide.
“We see this as a partnership that is really not subject to huge partisan swings in the United States but has had a really enduring basis of support that we expect will continue to move forward,” said the official.
The US delegation led by Sullivan will also have members from other government departments.
“We will have the opportunity to meet with business leaders as well as young entrepreneurs in India, and really emphasise how much the progress that we have made in this relationship under the Biden administration is not only due to the work that has been done at a government to government level, but I think increasingly, due to the fantastic and strong relationships that exist at the people-to-people level, at company-to-company level, between the United States and India,” said the official.
“Overall, the message that we intend to leave with at the end of this trip is one of real gratitude for the friendship and the close partnership that President Biden and Prime Minister Modi have enjoyed over the last four years," the official said.
"We see a lot of opportunity in the future for the things that we have started with over the last four years, whether that is commercial space cooperation, looking at opportunities in the future for civil nuclear cooperation and more cooperation on green energy technology," the official said.
"We think all of these are poised, really, for exponential growth in the future. We are really proud that the Biden administration has put down such a solid foundation and made further growth possible,” the official said.
A second senior administration official told reporters that Sullivan will be taking up several issues with Indian officials on this trip.
The first one is advancing the civil nuclear partnership, looking at ways to advance cooperation around small modular reactor technology and other forms of civil nuclear cooperation.
The second issue involves addressing China's overcapacity, whether in the context of legacy chips or biopharmaceutical supply chains. It also includes aligning strategies on risks related to information and communication technology, as well as implementing protection measures focused on cyber technology.
The third includes discussions around artificial intelligence and national security following the conclusion of their own national security memorandum on AI and other regulations, the official said.
The fourth point to be discussed is promoting the new commercial space cooperation as the US finalised amendments to its own Missile Technology Control Regime for licensing policies.
Another issue to be discussed is unlocking funding for the US-India R&D partnerships under the university-based local challenges institute, the second official said.
