Politics should be kept away from Indian Army: Actress Nimrat Kaur

MUMBAI: "The Test Case" actress Nimrat Kaur's father was killed by Muslim militants, but she says her mother kept them away from an anti-Islamic environment and brought her up to have a liberal mind. She also said there should be no political interference in the Indian Army.

Nimrat plays the role of a combat soldier in the web series "The Test Case".

On last week's terror attack in Jammu where militants stormed an army camp, Nimrat said: "I think politics should be in its area and should not enter into the Indian Army, just the way the Indian Army does not enter politics. See, in our country, it is very easy to grow up in an anti-Islamic environment, especially for people like us.

"Because my father's life was taken by militants who were Muslims, there were many occurrences where people said 'Muslims are like that, violence exists in their religion, they kill people' and all other hate thoughts. But my mother always shut them up and took us away from those people because she wanted us to be grow up with a liberal mind."

The actress was present along with producer Ekta Kapoor on the talk show "The Town Hall", hosted by journalist Barkha Dutt, here on Thursday.

On her growing up days in an army cantonment, in a secular environment, Nimrat said: "See, identifying a Sikh is very easy. A Sikh man has a turban and facial hair... that is in our religion. Keeping that aside, I have seen or faced no difference between me and my friends in the army cantonment... We all were given same ration, same food, same space on living all was the replica of each other.

"We had mandir-masjid-gurdwara next to each other, with no difference. Inside the cantonment, the environment is so secular that until after my father's death when my family shifted to Noida, I did not realise religious difference exists."

The conversation will air on Mirror Now.