Hindi film lyricist Manoj Muntashir found himself in the middle of a controversy on Twitter on Thursday after he shared a video in which he compared the Mughal emperors to “dacoits”.
Manoj Muntashir, who has penned the lyrics of some popular songs over the years, has become the centre of controversy on Twitter, after he shared a video, where he compared Babur, Akbar and the Mughal emperors to dacoits. While a section of social media praised Muntashir for his comments, another section including prominent Bollywood celebrities such as Richa Chadha and Neeraj Ghaywan slammed the 45-year-old for “seeding hatred” through the video.
In the one-minute-long video titled ‘Who Are Your Ancestors?’, posted on the microblogging platform on August 24, Muntashir is declaring that the country had been brainwashed and roads were named after “glorified dacoits” like Akbar, Humayun and Jehangir.
Some people, including filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, also spoke in his support.
As the outrage spread, 'Mughals' started trending on Twitter with more than 20,000 tweets on the topic.
Husain Haidry, another lyricist writer, claimed this wasn't the first time Muntashir was "spreading hate or lies” and it won’t be the last. Mask has been off since well over a year. This is not an out-of-the-blue video. Anyway, spewing anti-Muslim venom, instead of being punished, has now been incentivised by the government and the society...," the 'Mukkabaaz' lyricist wrote.
Muntashir later took to social media to thank all those who supported him for sharing the video.
(With Inputs From PTI)