On 21 June 2026, Akhtar was quick to put a stop to some online provocation. He made a point of being an atheist and let the user have it with, ‘My qaum are all Indians, including you.’ While it was in the wake of a post he made about Donald Trump, the row had more to do with the kind of identity talk you see in India these days than American politics.
The exchange that triggered the reply
It started with Akhtar having words with Trump over his assertion that Italian PM Giorgia Meloni had ‘begged’ for a photo. Akhtar put it to him: why would a head of state with any sense of self do that? And what sort of man makes a show of it at a presser?
The replies on X were not long in coming. One person tried to make it about Akhtar’s ‘community’ with a couplet. Akhtar was having none of it. He made it plain once more that he doesn’t follow any religion and told the poster to leave him out of it.
‘An atheist doesn’t believe in any religion,’ he said, and then put it in a way that made the whole thing clear: 'My qaum are all Indians, including you.‘
Why his stance matters online
You can see a pattern in how he handles things on X. Even after years of saying he is a hard-line atheist, people will still make assumptions. With this, he put the focus back on where it should be: on being a citizen and part of something larger, rather than on labels.
The Trump post was in keeping with what he has said in the past – if a leader is spinning untruths, you call them on it. In the post, he noted that Trump had just put another one on the list and wondered if there was any propriety in making such a display of it in public.
Here is how it went down:
– Akhtar had a dig at Trump’s claim regarding Meloni.
– Some user made it about his community.
– Akhtar set the record straight on his atheism.
– And then he said, ‘My qaum are all Indians, including you.’
Another sharp response to unsolicited advice
He didn’t let it go at that. When someone else chimed in to tell him to hush and get back to writing songs, Akhtar was right back: ‘Go, fly a kite. What gives you the right to hand me this kind of advice? Who are you, and what have you done with your life?’
It was his way of making it known that as a public figure, he doesn’t have to sit on his hands when it comes to politics. He won’t have strangers telling him what to say and what not to.
Track record beyond film credits
This isn’t anything new for Akhtar. Outside of his work in films and with poetry, he was a nominated Rajya Sabha member for six years between 2010 and 2016. The screenwriter and lyricist is also a Padma Bhushan recipient, no less.
Then in 2020, he was the first Indian to be given the Richard Dawkins Award for standing up for secular values and critical thought. It’s a fit for the way he sees the world and has no trouble saying so on X.
What comes next
If you read between the lines of this latest tiff, you can see where he is headed. For one, he will keep on calling out what he sees as false narratives from leaders, even if it means some heat. For another, he is not going to let anyone put his opinions in a box based on his faith.
For those of us on social media in India, it’s a good example of how a celebrity’s take on politics can turn into a proxy for a much bigger culture war. Akhtar’s answer was an attempt to bring it back to common ground, to say that being a citizen is what counts.
The trolling may not stop, but he has drawn a line in the sand. By making it known he is an atheist and that his community is every Indian, he has made a personal slight into a statement on who we are and how we should conduct ourselves online.
