Aamir Hafiz's relatives cry foul!

The family of the eliminated Lil Champs contestant accuse the channel of religious bias

Last week 10-year-old Aamir Hafiz was on the numero uno position of the show Sa Re Ga Ma Pal Lil Champs (Zee). But he was eliminated yesterday. His elder brother Mohammad Firoz thinks that the channel has indulged in unfair practices and got Aamir eliminated because he belongs to the minority community.

He says, “There were four other participants on the show— a Punjabi (Rohan),  an Assamse (Anamika), another Pundit (Tanmay) and Aamir who is a Muslim. They don’t want the Muslim community to prosper. Otherwise, how could the top performer of the previous week get eliminated this week?”

He denies that Aamir performed badly, “Aamir has also done playback singing for the movie Bhootnath for composers for the movie are Vishal-Shekhar. My brother wouldn’t get any work, had he been a bad singer.”

A source present on the sets revealed, “Aamir’s brother and uncle created chaos. They claimed that Aamir was a far better singer than contestant Tanmay. They alleged that the channel was being unfair to the Muslim community. His uncle even stated that last year all the Pakistani singers in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007 were eliminated.”

However the channel has maintained a very composed outlook to the entire showdown. Aashish Kaul, executive vice-president, Zee Network said, “When people are eliminated, they get upset and angry. It usually happens. They see it as a form of defeat and refuse to accept that somebody else is better than them.”

h_rashmi@dnaindia.net