Communalism in the country is alive and kicking: Mahesh Bhatt

Mumbai, Sep 11 (UNI) Stating that the scourge of communalism was alive and kicking in the country, noted film-maker Mahesh Bhatt has called for launching a nation-wide movement to meet the challenge.

''Communalism is alive and kicking even today. I have seen it knocking at my own door, when one of the under world dons called me up, threatening me and my daughter with dire consequences because we made a film on Muslims,'' Bhatt said here last evening while addressing a seminar on 'Communal Faces in Secular India', organised by the Urdu Press Club at Anjuaman-e-Islam in the Akbar Peerbhoy Hall.

Referring to his recently released film ''Dhokha'', which puts the spotlight on terrorists and the problems of Indian Muslims, Bhatt said, ''What I have shown in 'Dhokha' is only half the truth.

You can simply think what would have happened, had I shown the entire truth.'' Addressing the seminar, eminent journalist Amresh Mishra said that Maharashtra is on the verge of a Constitutional crisis as communalism in the state has become ''institutionalised.'' ''While the Indian Constitution does guarantee equal rights to all of its citizens, including the Muslims, in practice this is not so.

This is more apparent in Maharashtra, where communalism has penetrated to the extent of getting institutionalised,'' he said.

According to former Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, global imperialism has donned the new cloak and is now dominating over the world.

Quoting extensively from some of the speeches of late Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the Frontier Gandhi, wherein he urged the people to understand the prime reasons for communal riots, Admiral Bhagwat said, ''People should know the actual faces behind communalism.'' UNI