India is currently mourning the loss of at least 38 police personnel in a terrorist strike yesterday in Pulwana district of Jammu & Kashmir.
Asked for his opinion on the attack, filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra said, “Everybody is angry. We know that. We also know we shouldn’t forgive this. But it is too difficult to comment, at least at this stage, because the mood of the country is different. I only pray there is lasting peace.”
Mehra, who was at a media interaction for his upcoming film Mere Pyare Prime Minister, said everyone’s hearts go out to the families of the slain personnel. “You don’t need to say that,” he said. “My heart goes out to the soldier even when he is [just] standing there. I have seen their lives. Our lives are very different.”
Mehra also touched upon the aggression of news anchors who are calling for war. “Yesterday we were in such a bad state,” he said. “We were all shaken. I was watching news from 8 pm to 12 midnight. It was like, kya ho raha hai yaar [What’s going on]? More than half the news anchors had turned it into a tamasha for TRPs!”
The filmmaker believes aggression is necessary but not for destruction. “It needs aggression but to bring peace,” he remarked. “That should be the motive. The motive is not revenge. Else it will keep going on.”
Mehra appealed to the country to stand behind the government in this hour of crisis. “The biggest offices in the country are right now handling the problem,” he said. “We have to trust them. They will do the right thing, what needs to be done. They represent us. Our complete support is with them. They will do what they have to do.”
A lot of people will also try to use the situation to their advantage, he added cryptically.