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Bollywood actor
Emran Hashmi |
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Mumbai: After Shabana Azmi
and Javed Akhtar, now bollywood actor Imran Hasmi says he has been
denied a house in Mumbai because of his faith.
"Am I a criminal
or a terrorist?" asked an upset Emraan Hashmi Friday while alleging
he had been denied a house he wanted to buy in the upmarket Pali
Hill area of Mumbai because he was Muslim.
The actor, who was not given a no objection certificate (NOC),
believes the housing society in Pali Hill was hiding the real reason
for its refusal.
"This has political connotations, so they don't want to talk about
it openly. They told me yesterday that I can't get the NOC. I asked
them why aren't you giving me the certificate. Am I a criminal or a
terrorist or have I done anything illegal?" Emraan told reporters
here with his uncle and well-known filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt by his
side.
"It is strange that they don't tell you on your face that you can't
get a house because you are a Muslim. It would have been easier if
they would have told me openly. What they told me is that they can't
allow me to live there because I am a serial kisser and my presence
will have a bad influence on the children staying there.
"Being a celebrity if I'm facing problems in buying a house here, I
wonder what kind of problems others would have been facing. All the
time we are talking about secularism but with such incidents what
secularism are people talking about?" asked the actor.
Emraan
said someone suggested to him that he purchase the house in the name
of his wife Parveen, who is a Hindu. "I can do that, but why should
I do that?" he asked.
Bhatt said such discrimination was a serious problem plaguing the
country.
"Even 62 years after independence, the virus of communalism is alive
in an area like Pali Hill, which is known as India's Beverly Hills
where stars like Sunil Dutt lived and Dilip Kumar is still living
there.
It's a serious
problem and is the country ready to accept that communalism is still
surviving?" he said.
"There are also certain societies in the area that do not give NOCs
to non-Hindus," he said.
Emraan, who featured in films like "Murder", "Gangster - A Love
Story", wanted to buy a house in Pali Hill so that he could stay
close to his parents, but the actor was refused the NOC by Pali
Hill's Nibbana Cooperative Society.
He has filed a complaint with the State Minorities' Commission,
demanding action against the society members. The society reportedly
has mostly Hindus and a couple of Catholic families.
This is not the first time Hashmi has faced such a problem.
"I faced a similar situation in August 2007, when I was looking for
a house in the same area; residents and brokers told me I would not
be able to get a house because I was a Muslim. But I later managed
to get one," Emraan told a newspaper Thursday.
The Vice Chairman of the Maharashtra
Minority Commission, Abraham Mathai said, the commission has sent a
show cause notice to the housing society.
On the other hand, the secretary of
the housing society said, "They have not received any letter from
the Hashmi" and clarified "There is no ban on Muslims owning a house
in the complex."
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