Hrithik rumour feeds on anti-India sentiment

But all this seemed to have little impact on the streets of the capital today where mob fury took its own course.

The toll in yesterday’s police firing went up to three, about a hundred people were injured, including 30 policemen, and demonstrators today stoned houses in the busy New Road market area. And targeted the plush residential neighbourhood of Baneshwar, dominated by the Marwari community, most of whom are now Nepali citizens.

Protestors targeted vehicles with Indian number plates and attacked many passers-by, including Indians. According to a report, the Indian Airlines flight from here to Varanasi was cancelled since the crew couldn’t reach the airport on time given the protests on the streets.

Nepal’s Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister R C Poudel issued a national appeal not to do anything that might strain relations with India. “I appeal for calm as these typed of violent activities only damage the nation,” he said. The government-owned Nepal Television also telecast the statement by Hrithik in which he denied having ever made such remarks.

In the fog surrounding the controversy, if there’s one thing that was clear, it was the realization of how simmering anti-India sentiment among a vocal section of the population can so easily boil over.

For Nepal, this isn’t new. First, it was film actress Nanda, and then actor Dharmendra who made disparaging comments against the Nepalese some three decades ago. The protest against their remarks then was relatively low key but their films have been banned ever since.

But the Hrithik controversy comes at a time when bilateral relations have been clouded with suspicion and mistrust, aggravated after the hijacking of the Delhi-bound Indian Airlines Flight last December. In fact, since then, Kathmandu has been accusing the Indian media of fuelling this sentiment by protraying Nepal as a “den for Pakistan’s ISI.”

Besides businessmen, several daily-wage labourers, mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, live in Nepal. Despite occasional hostility, there have been no incidents of organized clashes or attacks on the Indian community so far.

However, the anti-Hrithik hysteria, being whipped up by left-wing students’ organizations, could very well snowball. For the time being, however, the government’s intervention seems to have cooled tempers a bit.

Incidentally, the Nepal government had alleged that the Indian media, particularly a weekly magazine, had published entirely unverified “intelligence’ reports to project Nepal as a “rogue state.” This came close to an Indian TV channel reporting that one of the hijackers was a Nepali.

DPA, DEC 25: Hrithik Roshan should have seen it coming. The heart-throb of millions in the sub-continent wasreported to have said in a recent television interview that he disliked Nepal and the Nepalese. Roshan wasreplying to a query as to which country he disliked the most.

The Rising Nepal
Dec 26: During a talk show on Star Plus channel on December 14, Hrithik Roshan had allegedly said that he did not like Nepal and the Nepalese.

The Kathmandu Post
Dec 26: The Indian heart-throb who sky-rocketed to stardom with his debut film, had reportedly commented that the people he hated the most were the Nepali people.The TV channel on which the interview was aired could not be confirmed.

Simi Garewal: Host of Star’s Rendezvous with Simi Garewal: told The Indian Express that he didn’t utter a word about Nepal either on or off the record.

Star: Hrithik spoke thrice to Star — once before the release of Kaho Na Pyar Hai, before his wedding, and to Simi Grewal on Star Plus. Nepal didn’t figure in any of these, a spokesman said.