Renowned Bollywood lyricist and screenwriter Manoj Muntashir, who has famously penned the dialogues for the highly-debated film Adipurush this year, recently shared his opinions on the term 'secularism' and stated that if one is secular, they are expected to roam around with a skull cap on Eid.
It all happened when he sat down for an interview with Lallantop wherein he was asked if he was secular or communal. The lyricist went on to say that he was not secular and also questioned the move of the government to add the term 'secularism' in the Preamble.
"The word 'secular' was added to the Preamble of India in 1976 after it was amended. But as far as I know, Preamble is something which cannot be modified. Then what was the need to add the term? Were we ruled by the Church because of which we had to add it to our Constitution that we are a 'secular' country?" Muntashir questioned.
Calling it a political move by Indira Gandhi, Muntashir went on to say that there was no need to add the term 'secular' in the Constitution. He stated that the term actually holds importance for the government and other ruling bodies to make sure that each and every person in the country gets benefited from a scheme, irrespective of their religion, caste and creed.
"Being secular is the job of the government. My job is to follow the religious practices and beliefs that I am born with. But today, being secular means that you have to act in a certain way. Being secular means moving around with a skull cap on Eid," he stated.
"When you say you are secular, you are expected to change your way of living and practice certain things, which I am not comfortable with. Today, secularism means that I follow the religious practices of all the religions in this country. And if I don't do it, then people opine that I am not a good person," he added.
Muntashir mentioned that some of the closest people in his life, including his driver and other members of the team are Muslims and that he has no problem with the religion, but his problem lies in the definition of secularism in the current times.
