Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah has publicly criticised Mumbai University after being uninvited from a student event just hours before it was scheduled, calling the decision insulting and dishonest.In a strongly worded article in the Indian Express titled “When a university speaks power to truth”, Shah detailed how he was dropped from the Jashn-e-Urdu programme organised by the university’s Urdu department on February 1, allegedly without explanation or apology.According to Shah, he was informed late on the night of January 31 that his presence was no longer required. What followed, he wrote, was even more troubling, the audience was told that he had declined to attend.”The university, after informing me that I needn’t attend… decided to rub a little salt in by announcing that I had refused to be there,” Shah wrote, rejecting the claim outright.Shah suggested that the real reason for his disinvitation lay in his public criticism of the current political climate.Referring to comments reportedly made by a senior university official, he challenged the accusation that he “openly makes statements against the country,” asking for evidence of any remark in which he had run down India.”Sure, I have never praised the self-proclaimed Vishwaguru,” Shah wrote, adding that he has been critical of the Prime Minister’s conduct and the actions of the ruling establishment.In the article, Shah expressed concern over what he described as shrinking freedoms, the treatment of student activists, and the broader social atmosphere, invoking George Orwell’s 1984 situation writing “not singing the praise of the “great leader” is considered sedition”, to underline his unease with what he called constant surveillance and “24 hours of hate.” “This is not the country I grew up in and was taught to love. The “thought police” and “doublespeak” have been deployed in full force, as has surveillance,” he wrote.