Chetan Kumar, the Kannada actor and activist, received a notice on Tuesday from the Basavanagudi Police Station, Bengaluru, to appear for inquiry regarding his social media post ‘against Brahminism’.
The actor took to Twitter and, sharing a picture of the notice, wrote that he will be visiting the police station on Wednesday morning. “Our fight for equality and justice in accordance with Constitutional values continues!” he further added.
The complaint based on which Chetan received the notice has been filed by Pavan Kumar, Ex-President of the BJP Vishwa Yuva Morcha.
Chetan, who has been vocal about caste politics on social media, tweeted about Brahminism on June 6 quoting BR Ambedkar and Periyar. Earlier, in a two-part video, he had also spoken about how Brahmins are using religion and caste for vote bank politics and how Ambedkar’s ideology has been gradually killed. He also said there’s a need to restore the ideologies of Buddha, Ambedkar, Periyar and Basava, and walk on their path.
Following these tweets, the Karnataka State Brahmin Development Board submitted a complaint against the actor on Wednesday, demanding an unconditional apology and alleging him of using “derogatory comments against the Brahmin community.”
Speaking to Silverscreen India on Wednesday, Chetan had said he had not received any notice from the police at that time, and added, “I have only quoted the thoughts and statements of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and vachanas from the Sharana movement in the 12th century Karnataka and other pro-equality champions. Everything I have quoted is in the public domain. I have repeatedly articulated that our fight is against Brahmanism and inequality in its totality; it is not against those accidentally born into the Brahmin caste or into any caste/religion.”
On Friday, in a series of tweets, Chetan again wrote about how Brahminism “still exists on systemic and ideological levels amongst those of all castes and many religions in South Asia. Panacea to such structural inequality is rational egalitarianism of Buddha/Basava/Sharanas/Ambedkar/Periyar/Bahujan icons.”
“In [the] history of Brahminism, privileged castes have been unproductive and unscientific; Dalit-Shudras have been rational, democratic, productive. Today, undercurrent of social unrest is undeniable. Brahminism can be ‘uprooted’ when civil discord translates into transformative politics,” he further tweeted on Saturday.
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Chetan, who was born and brought up in the US, also shared his personal views in a Deccan Herald article published on Friday about why he talks about the evils of caste and added that he faced racism in the US.
Following this, another complaint was filed by a member of the Vishva Hindu Parishad against the actor for allegedly hurting their religious beliefs on social media. The complainant accused him of “raking communal caste sentiments and caste conflagrations resulting in social disharmony in a country with pluralistic ethos” and sought to deport the actor to the US and revoke his Indian Residential Permit.