Actress Raveena Tandon says she has always had an "activist streak" in her but has no plans of joining politics.
"I'm the kind who can't toe any party line and have problems with almost every political party. There's no party I have come across whose ideology matches with mine. There are people whom I believe in now, but I just prefer to be a free voice," she said.
The 42-year-old actress believes in having an opinion than lose it in the din of party politics. "I'm not going to be told what I can or should say, or what my sensibilities are. If my sensibilities say that something is wrong, but the party says, 'waah-waah', I just can't do that. So I would rather be a voice which is not scared of anyone than join politics and lose it," added Raveena.
According to her to bring about a change in the country, citizens must start by "being the change" they want to witness.
“We can criticise all we want, but if goons keep getting elected because of powers like 'bhaigiri' or 'moneygiri', then we don't have any right to complain. We lose the authority because we put them there. Until like-minded people come together, the system will not change and will continue like this," she said.
Raveena says she has often been criticised for praising leaders for doing their job well on social media and remains indifferent to it.
"I don't care. I don't even read the tweets. I'm not interested in playing the victim. I say what I want to when I want to, whether the people like it or not. But trust me, everybody gets trolled. We actors get trolled even while shooting on the streets. We have faced all this, the abuses and comments people pass when we shoot for songs. You all are facing it for the first time, but we've been facing it for a long time. As I said, the basic mindset (of the people) needs to change," she claimed.
"Yes, there are people who I think are doing good work, while people around them might not be doing (such) good work. That doesn't mean I'm supporting a particular party. Today, if you say you are proud of your Prime Minister or President, you will be trolled. We used to be proud when we said that Indira Gandhi was the first woman PM of India. But today, it is like taboo. Praise Modiji or Rahul Gandhi and people will say that you are politically inclined," said Raveena.
The actress, who stars in the recently released revenge thriller 'Maatr', regrets that rape is rampant in the country, and stresses that criminals are not afraid of the law anymore and that our country needs a strong legal structure. "We come from a land where women were worshiped as goddesses.
Where has that respect gone now? We talk about moving towards a new, progressive, liberal and educated India. Then why are mindsets not changing? Had these things happened 60 or 70 years ago, we'd understand. But not now," she concluded