Gauahar Khan questions criticism of global support to protest, says Indian celebs backed Black Lives Matter

Gauahar Khan disagreed with the view that people from outside India should refrain from commenting on the ongoing farmers' protest.

Actor Gauahar Khan questioned the criticism of international support to the ongoing farmers’ protest. There was an outpouring of global support for the agitation after pop singer Rihanna, teen activist Greta Thunberg and others drew attention to it.

Gauahar Khan reminded everyone of Indian celebrities' support to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Gauahar disagreed with the view held by many that people from outside India should refrain from commenting on its internal matters. She tweeted, “#blacklivesmatter ..... oh that was not an Indian matter , but mostly every Indian celebrity tweeted in support . Because obviously All lives should matter ..... but Indian farmers ????? Doesn’t their livelihood matter ?????”

Last year, many Bollywood celebrities, including Kareena Kapoor Khan, Deepika Padukone, Karan Johar, Priyanka Chopra and Tiger Shroff, raised their voice against racial injustice when George Floyd died after being pinned down by a Minneapolis police officer.

On Wednesday, the external affairs ministry issued a statement that ‘vested interest groups’ were trying to mobilise global support against India. Without taking any names, the ministry criticised ‘sensationalist social media hashtags and comments’ by ‘celebrities and others’.

After the external affairs ministry’s statement, a number of Bollywood stars including Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Karan Johar and others put out similar tweets about the ongoing farmers’ protest, with many of them using hashtags such as ‘India against propaganda’ and ‘India together’.

Gauahar was recently seen in the Amazon Prime Video series Tandav, which has been at the centre of a controversy for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. Multiple criminal cases have been filed against the makers and actors. Director Ali Abbas Zafar issued an apology on behalf of the team and at least two contentious scenes were deleted.