Mumbai: Just days after a group of eminent citizens wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling for an absolute end to the increasing incidents of lynching of minorities and hate crime, 61 celebrities from various fields on Friday responded with a counter statement against "selective outrage and false narrative".
The July 23 letter by 49 "self-styled guardians and conscience keepers" expressed selective concerns and demonstrated a "clear political bias and motive", said the statement signed by actor Kangana Ranaut, lyricist Prasoon Joshi, dancer Sonal Mansingh and filmmakers Madhur Bhandarkar and Vivek Agnihotri among others.
"It (the July 23 letter) is aimed at tarnishing India's international standing and to negatively portray the prime minister's untiring efforts to effectuate governance on the foundations of positive nationalism and humanism which is the core of Indians," the statement read.
The document of selective outrage, it said, comes across as an "attempt to foist a false narrative with the intention of denigrating the democratic ethos and norms of our collective functioning as a nation and people".
On July 23, 49 personalities, including filmmakers Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap, Shyam Benegal and Aparna Sen as well as vocalist Shubha Mudgal and historian Ramchandra Guha, expressed concern at the number of "religious identity-based hate crimes" and noted that Jai Shri Ram' has become a provocative war cry with many lynchings taking place in its name. They stressed how there could be "no democracy without dissent".
"We, as peace-loving and proud Indians, are deeply concerned about a number of tragic events that have been happening in recent times in our beloved country," the letter dated July 23 said.
The signatories of the letter faced much abuse online. Veteran filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan was asked to go to the Moon if he cannot bear the chanting of 'Jai Shri Ram' in India and elsewhere. Adoor retorted back with a jest that "BJP leaders want him to go to the Moon because Pakistan must be filled by now."
Many times in the past, leaders of the saffron outt had urged people who stood against its ideology to go to Pakistan. "If there is a Chandrayaan-3 mission and if they issue me a ticket, I would be happy to grab that opportunity as I can move around the orbit," Adoor said in a lighter vein.
Stating that the signatories of the letter to the prime minister do not belong to any political party, Adoor said there was nothing in the letter to provoke the BJP. He said Gopalakrishnan's statement was justifying mob lynching. "It should not be justied by anyone. Gopalakrishnan should rectify his mistake and apologise," he said.
"Our letter was in protest against the use of Shri Ram's name as a war-cry. It has become a trend to attack those belonging to religious minorities over frivolous issues and force them chant 'Jai Shri Ram'. The attackers believe that they could get away with the crime because they won't be identied individually from a mob. But perpetrators of such crimes deserve death penalty," Adoor said.
"Lord Ram is an epitome of humanity. These mobs are actually insulting him," he said. "The BJP leader is saying that I insulted Lord Ram. Only a crooked mind can come up with such interpretations," he said.
Expressing his concern that such incidents of lynching could lead to communal riots, Adoor said the
Narendran Modi government, which has begun its second term, should find a solution to the menace.
Kerala State Chalachitra Academy chairman and filmmaker Kamal condemned the BJP leader's statement.
Echoing Adoor's reaction, Kamal said the BJP leader might have wanted to send Adoor's to some heights as he has won high honours such as Phalke award and Padma Bhushan.
"Gopalakrishnan said Adoor signed the statement as he wishes to get something from the government. I feel embarrassed to listen to a Malayali speaking like that. How can we call him a politician? He's a criminal and anti-national," Kamal told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram.
In January 2017, Kamal had come under a similar attack from BJP leaders.
In a statement on Friday, 61 signatories questioned the silence of the July 23 letter writers on their silence "when tribals and the marginalised have become victims of Naxal terror".
"They have kept silent when separatists have issued dictates to burn schools in Kashmir, they have kept silent when the demand for dismembering India, for making pieces of her - Tukde Tukde - were made, they kept silent when slogans chanted by terrorists and terror groups were echoed in some leading university campuses in the country," the statement said.
Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi asserted that Dalits and minorities are safe in the country. He said that those "yet to recover from" the defeat in the Lok Sabha polls are trying to communalise "criminal incidents".
"No one should communalise criminal incidents. Dalits and minorities are safe in this country. Those who are yet to recover from the defeat of 2019 Lok Sabha polls are trying to do it."
"We have seen the same thing after 2014 (elections) in the name of 'award wapsi', this is just part two of that," the minister said, referring to the protest by writers against the government's alleged silence on violence and rising intolerance.
The 61 who have signed Friday's statement include academics such as Debashish Bhattacharya from Visva Bharati in Santiniketan, Avadh University vice-chancellor Manoj Dikshit, Anirban Ganguly of the Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation as well as MP and journalist Swapan Dasgupta and yesteryear actor Biswajit Chatterjee.
(with inputs from PTI)
