New Delhi: Renowned music conductor Zubin Mehta has alleged that The Times of India removed just one line from an interview he recently gave to the newspaper – in which he said that he wishes Muslims in India are able to live in peace forever.
Mehta made this remark towards the end of a free-wheeling conversation with Karan Thapar about growing up in Bombay. Thapar asked the conductor what he thinks of “the sort of country we’re becoming”, particularly in relation to the treatment of minorities, especially Muslims.
“Listen, I’ll tell you frankly,” Mehta replied. “I gave an interview to The Times of India over the phone from Los Angeles two weeks ago. A very good interview; and I read it, it was verbatim perfect. The last sentence I told the man, and I met him recently, and he admitted, they took out the last thing I said: ‘I hope my Muslim friends can live in peace forever in India.’ And that was not printed in The Times. It was cut off, and the writer couldn’t give me a reason why.”
“They don’t want to offend Mr. Modi and the government,” Thapar responded.
“How would that offend anybody? …This morning I read that they were burning churches in Pakistan. One has to get over this madness of religious persecution. Hopefully, things will change,” Mehta said.
Mehta then went on to speak about the situation in Israel, saying that he hopes the government there will change very soon. The current situation there, he said, “is unbearable”.
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