LONDON: Popular film actress Shabana Azmi has said the controversy over the ANC leader Nelson Mandela kissing her on cheeks at a function in Cape Town last month is an attack on secular liberals.
I question their credentials to speak for Islam. These people are looking for a chance to further their notoriety. This is an attack on secular liberals Azmi aid in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph hero.
Asked if she would give her critics the apology they sought Azmi 43 and one of Indias most talented actresses said absolutely not.
She said at the ceremony I made a speech then gave my award (to Nelson Mandela). | find it disgusting to talk about this but all he did was give me a slight peck on both cheeks.
The controversy started after photographs of the Mandela-Azmi kiss appeared in Indian newspapers Badrul Islam an academic wrote a letter to a newspaper accusing Shababa of disgracing Islam
Paying tributes to Nelson Mandela the film actress whom the interviewer described as Jane Fonda Vanessa Redgrave and Emma Thompson rolled into one said the ANC leader greatly admired India.
For years his posters have adorned the wall of my home Shabana said adding that the ceremony at Cape Town where she presented Newsmaker of the year award to Mandela was a bonding of the ANC with India Mandela reassured her about the future of South Africans 750,000 people of Indian origin and Pledged that the country was for Everyone.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 14, 1994
