I have never felt any discrimination: Naseeruddin Shah

New Delhi, Sep 4: What do Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah have in common? Well, they are both Muslims and an instrinsic part of Bollywood. But similarities end here itself. Because when it comes to the issue of treatment meted out to the minority community in the country, they hardly see eye to eye. Reacting to filmstar-MP-social activist Shabana's statement that Muslims in India are treated as second class citizens, Naseeruddin has said being a Muslim himself he has never felt any discrimination.

''I have never felt any discrimination. I have never been refused housing in Mumbai. I have lived there in all kinds of conditions from a paying guest, sharing space with six people to having two apartments of my own. I have never had these problems,'' Naseeruddin said in an interview to a TV channel.

Talking to 'India 60 Minutes' on NDTV 24x7, aired last night, Naseeruddin said: ''I think that when the occasion arises, anyone is discriminated against. I can cite instances when Hindus have been discriminated against; forget about Christians, Sikhs, Parsis and so on.

''I don't say that these problems(faced by Muslims) don't exist, but I don't think that Mulsims are exclusively the victims.'' In a recent interview to a TV channel, Shabana had said Muslims often had to face discrimination in Indian democracy.

UNI