NEW DELHI: Bollywood screenplay writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar slammed a netizen who called him a ‘son of a traitor’. The verbal battle began when Akhtar posted a sarcastic comment about Joe Biden ahead of the 2024 US Presidential Elections, joking that he had an equal chance of becoming the next President of the USA.
“I am a proud Indian citizen and till my last breath I will remain so but I have one common fact with Joe Biden. Both of us have exactly equal chance of becoming the next president of USA,” wrote Javed Akhtar on X, formerly known as Twitter.
A social media user, Vivek Sharma, replied to Akhtar’s post, “Your father was instrumental in making Pakistan have a nation just for Muslims, then in the guise of a progressive writer he chose to remain in India. You are the son of a Gaddar who divided our nation on the lines of religion. Now u say anything but this is the truth.”
Akhtar is renowned for his outspoken opinions on various subjects. On Saturday, July 6, he responded sharply to a user, stating, “It is difficult to decide whether you are ignorant or a complete idiot.”
The screenplay writer of ‘Sholay’ emphasized his family’s long-standing allegiance as proud Indian citizens, highlighting their involvement in the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, a significant early resistance against British rule.
“From 1857 my family has been involved with the freedom movement and has gone to jails and Kala Pani when most probably your baap dadas were licking the boots of Angrez sarkar (sic).” he wrote.
The 79-year-old writer is the son of lyricist and poet Jan Nisar Akhtar, a prominent figure in the Progressive Writers’ Movement in pre-Partition India, and Safiya Siraj-ul Haq. His great-great-grandfather, Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi, was a freedom fighter sentenced to life imprisonment in the Cellular Jail, where he passed away in 1864.