Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah has asked the Modi government to stop genocide of Muslims and warned that oppression could lead to civil war.

In an interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Shah said if attempts are made for Muslim genocide and ethnic cleansing, India’s 200 million Muslims are going to fight back.

He said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not care but ethnic cleansing of Muslims will trigger a civil war in India.

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While talking about the Mughals in India, he said that they “contributed” in the country and “came here to make this their homeland”.

“The so-called atrocities of the Mughals are being highlighted all the time. We forget that the Mughals are people who have contributed to the country. They are people who have left lasting monuments in the country…who have left the tradition of dancing, music, painting, literature. Mughals came here to make this their homeland. You can call them refugees if you like,” he said.

Shah, after this statement, earned a lot of backlash from the Indian social media, especially Indian Twitter. In a clip circulating on social media, the actor is seen talking during Thapar’s show on his YouTube channel. However, the clip omitted a few lines he said about the real marauders.

These lines from the original video were omitted in the clip: “No one talks about Taimur, no one talks about Mahmud of Ghazni, no one talks about Nadir Shah. I don’t think these people are conversant with that history. Those were the marauders who came, looted and left.”

The clip is being circulated widely in India and has made ‘Mughals’ trend on Indian Twitter.