Organised, brutal riots worse than Gujarat inevitable in West Bengal, says actor Prakash Belawadi
Deletes post later
Bengaluru: Renowned actor Prakash Belawadi on Tuesday courted controversy after he said in a Facebook post that a large-scale Hindu-Muslim riot worse than the Gujarat riots of 2002 was inevitable in West Bengal. He also added that it was already too late to stop it from happening.
In the post, Prakash recalled an incident from 2002 when the Gujarat riots took place and added “On that morning of 27 February, when 59 pilgrims were burnt alive in a train at Godhra, a liberal friend, with whom I am no longer friends, called me from Ahmedabad: That will teach these Sanghis a lesson, he said or something to that effect. I said the retaliation would be swift and terrible. It was…”
Stating that the Gujarat riots were practically one-sided given Muslims made up only 8% of Gujarat’s population, he said it will be different in West Bengal as its 30% population is Muslim. He went on to add that it will not be a factor to stop the riot from happening and that it will come “in the fullness of time”.
“Of course, that riot was practically one-sided since Muslims made up only 8% of the population in Gujarat. In West Bengal, it’s different: the Muslim population is over 30%. The retaliation won’t be swift. But make no mistake, it will come in the fullness of time, a Hindu-Muslim riot. When it does, it will be tragic, brutal, and organized. The state govt which seems cool about it now, and the liberals who seem to think the Sanghis deserve it, will have a reckoning” he said while adding “It’s already too late to stop it. It is sickeningly inevitable”.
The post anguished users who were quick to object to it prompting Prakash to delete the post. “Now that the argument is going ad hominem, I’m going off FB for a few months. Bye,” he wrote before deleting the post.
When Vartha Bharati contacted Prakash on the matter, the actor disconnected the calls saying he will not comment on the issue.
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IndiGo cancels flights to Tbilisi, Almaty, Tashkent, Baku till Jan 28
New Delhi (PTI): IndiGo has cancelled its flights to Tbilisi, Almaty, Tashkent and Baku till January 28 due to the prevailing situation in Iran.
"We remain vigilant to developments in the region around Iran and are proactively reviewing flight operations, with safety being our highest priority," the airline said in a post on X on Sunday.
In view of the prevailing situation and after careful assessment, IndiGo said it was cancelling flights to and from Tbilisi (Georgia), Almaty (Kazakhstan), Tashkent (Uzbekistan) and Baku (Azerbaijan) on January 26, 27 and 28.
For these destinations, the airline flies over the Iranian airspace and due to the current situation, it is avoiding that airspace, an official said.
Generally, the duration of flights from India to these cities is in the range of six to seven hours. The airline operates flights with its A320neo aircraft on these routes that do not have the range and fuel holding capacity to operate on longer alternative routes.
IndiGo on Sunday cancelled flights between Delhi-Tbilisi and Mumbai-Almaty.
Tensions have escalated between Iran and the United States, and there are apprehensions that the situation could result in a military conflict.
