Has BJP's Hindutva campaign 'using' Shah Rukh Khan reached health ministry?

While whipping up passion on communal lines, the BJP government not just seems to be turning a blind eye to a health campaign, but also playing a sly game of dividing Bollywood.

According to a report in The Indian Express, the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) is awaiting approval from the health ministry for videos it shot in December with Shah Rukh Khan to promote awareness about eye ailments — "Eye Hear You" campaign.

Union health minister JP Nadda is reportedly unhappy that he had not been consulted at an earlier stage when it could have been shot with someone else. And this someone else is none other than Hrithik Roshan.

The ministry's "first choice", Roshan, played the role of a blind man in the recently released Kaabil. Officials also say that the ministry had originally planned to associate the campaign with the release of the movie.

"However, procedural delays meant the campaign plan could not be finalised in time for it to be released along with Kaabil. So the ministry chose to do the campaign with Shah Rukh instead," a health ministry official was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

So, is it true that the Raees versus Kaabil frenzy was not merely a box-office battle but an attempted Hindu versus Muslim hysteria by the BJP?

Because that kind of explains why BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya entered the pre-release campaign (of the two movies), and tweeted: “Jo Raees desh ka nahi, wo kisi kaam ka nahi. Aur ekj Kaabil deshbhakt ka saath, toh hum sabhi ko dena hi chahiye (The rich who don’t belong to the country are of no use. The able patriot is the one we should all support)”.

The not-so-subtle swipe was not the only instance. He later went on to compare Shah Rukh Khan with India's most-wanted fugitive Dawood Ibrahim.

Is the BJP's stance motivated not by the quality of movies, but only actors and their religion?

Muslim actors like Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan have been attacked as "anti-nationalist" in the past as well because of their religion. The BJP general secretary had asked his supporters to boycott Dangal because Aamir Khan had spoken about Kiran Rao’s fears of growing religious intolerance in India.

What started as a "national patriotism campaign" (against the Islamic Republic of Pakistan), fired over the shoulders of "anti-nationalists", is now threatening to become a serious health hazard.

From party policy, the agenda to prop up Hindutva now seems to have officially entered ministry corridors and being used as a government tool to gather momentum for the Hindu supremacy movement.

Amid all this, sadly it's a campaign for awareness about eye ailments — on conditions like glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy that lead to loss of vision — that has become a casualty.

The party surely seems to be losing its vision, forget bad and worse governance.

Also read: Why Kailash Vijayvargiya is attacking Shah Rukh Khan's Raees and BJP is not stopping him