Saif calls Sonu tweets ‘aggressive’, gets much flak online

The azaan controversy begun by Sonu Nigam’s tweets just won’t go away. Now actor Saif Ali Khan (right) is facing brickbats online for telling the media that Sonu’s tweet was “aggressive”. However, Saif has also said that “amplification of sound comes from insecurity”.

Sonu had started an online war last week by posting against the early morning call for prayer sent out from mosques on loudspeakers. He also called it “forced religiousness”.

In an interview with The Indian Express, Saif has said, “It’s fine to express your views on the decibel levels. I think that tweet was a bit aggressive though, initially. And I do think religion should be a private affair and we should be a secular country.” Before that, he said in the interview, “As a minority, you’d like to make your presence felt and hopefully accepted. If someone says that [a practice] should be extinguished, it’ll make some people [a] little uncomfortable. As a precursor to some sort of [a holocaust... it’s the first thing you think of. There’s a bit of fear there.”

Online comments have taken little note of his moderate tone. One poster named G Bhatt writes: “Saif Ali Khan who chose the barbaric ‘Taimur’ name for his son out of insecurity fears too? What a sham this idiot.” Then Kusumanjali Singh writes: “Saif do u hv guts t criticise stonepelter?? Hv u ever condemed the act of stonepelter on our gr8 indian army? So u r condeming sonu’s tweet!”

Asked for a comment, Saif texted us: “I don’t like saying something then prattling on about the same thing.