Anupam Kher blasts Left, UPA govt for his ouster

A day after being sacked as the censor board chief, actor Anupam Kher today dismissed allegations that he was an "RSS man", and attacked the left parties for his "humiliating" removal, saying that he was "dumped by those in power for a mere 60 seats (in the Lok Sabha)."

He has also sent a legal notice to the CPM General Secretary asking him to withdraw his allegation or face a defamation suit.

"They are so dependent on Surjeet that if asked to bend, they crawl," he told newspersons here, squarely accusing the veteran CPM leader for his ouster.

Surjeet had written against Kher in his party paper 'People's Democracy', terming him as one of the various appointees of the NDA government, who should be removed from their posts in the "desaffronisation" campaign.

Hitting out at the Congress-led UPA for the "humiliation", Kher alleged that he was made a "scapegoat" and wondered how some Central ministers worked "while in jail or while running away".

"How can I be dubbed as an RSS man, when I had even cleared the movie 'Final Solution' on the Gujarat riots, which, to some extent, is anti-BJP?" Kher queried. He said that he was fighting for his honour. "I do not give the government the permission to insult me."

Claiming that he was not associated with any political ideology or organisation, Kher said that the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) was run without any kind of interference under him. "I am the only person in the history of the censor board who has passed films without prejudice."

At the same time, he admitted that the post he held was at the mercy of the government of the day. "I think they have every right to remove everybody," he said, objecting to the "abrupt manner" of his removal.

He also said that neither the present government nor the previous one had in any way interfered with the functioning of the CBFC. "I will give them a clean chit," he said.