BOMBAY TIMES (July 27, 2019)

IT IS SHOCKING THAT SO MUCH VIOLENCE SHOULD BE PERPETRATED IN THE NAME OF RELIGION! THESE ARE NOT THE MIDDLE AGES! THE NAME OF RAM IS SACRED TO MANY IN THE MAJORITY COMMUNITY OF INDIA. AS THE HIGHEST EXECUTIVE OF THIS COUNTRY, YOU MUST PUT A STOP TO THE NAME OF RAM BEING DEFILED IN THIS MANNER

Forty-nine celebrities from different fields including singer Shubha Mudgal, actor Konkona Sen Sharma and filmmakers Shyam Benegal, Anurag Kashyap and Mani Ratnam, among others, have written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over incidents of lynching in the country.

In the letter dated July 23, the celebrities have said that “exemplary punishment” should be meted out “swiftly and surely” in such cases.

“The lynching of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities must be stopped immediately. We were shocked to learn from the NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) reports that there have been no less than 840 instances of atrocities against Dalits in the year 2016, and a definite decline in the percentage of convictions,” the letter read.

“Further, 254 religious identity-based hate crimes were reported between January 1, 2009, and October 29, 2018, where at least 91 persons were killed and 579 were injured (FactChecker.indatabase (October 30, 2018). The Citizen’s Religious Hate-Crime Watch recorded that Muslims, (14 per cent of India’s population) were the victims in 62 per cent of cases, and Christians (2 per cent of the July 23, 2019 population), in 14 per cent of cases. About 90 per cent of these attacks were reported after May 2014, when your government assumed power nationally.”

The celebrities went on to say that while Prime Minister Modi has criticised lynching cases in Parliament, merely that is “not enough.”

“What action has actually been taken against the perpetrators? We strongly feel that such offences should be declared non-bailable, and that exemplary punishment should be meted out swiftly and surely. If life imprisonment without parole can be the sentence in cases of murder, why not for lynching, which are even more heinous? No citizen should have to live in fear in his/her own country,” the letter further read. The celebrities have highlighted that ‘Jai Shri Ram’ has become a “provocative war-cry” in the present day that leads to law and order problems, and “many lynchings take place in its name.”

“It is shocking that so much violence should be perpetrated in the name of religion! These are not the Middle Ages! The name of Ram is sacred to many in the majority community of India. As the highest Executive of this country, you must put a stop to the name of Ram being defiled in this manner,” they said in the letter. The celebrities in the letter also said, “there is no democracy without dissent.”

“People should not be branded ‘anti-national’ or ‘urban Naxal’ and incarcerated because of dissent against the government. Article 19 of the Constitution of India protects freedom of speech and expression of which dissent is an integral part,” the letter read.

“Criticising the ruling party does not imply criticising the nation. No ruling party is synonymous with the country where it is in power. It is only one of the political parties of that country. Hence anti-government stands cannot be equated with anti-national sentiments. An open environment where dissent is not crushed only makes for a stronger nation,” it added.

The celebrities concluded the letter saying, “We hope our suggestions will be taken in the spirit that they are meant - as Indians genuinely concerned with, and anxious about, the fate of our nation.”

The list also includes names like filmmakers Ketan Mehta and Aparna Sen, actors Riddhi Sen and Soumitra Chatterjee and historian Ramachandra Guha.


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THE SELECTIVE OUTRAGE AND AMNESIA OF THIS GROUP MAKES US BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE WORKING TO A CERTAIN AGENDA AND ARE ONLY PLAYING INTO THE HANDS OF THOSE FORCES THAT ARE OUT BALKANISE INDIA AND TO DESTABILISE HER. THIS GROUP HAS ALSO REPEATEDLY EXPRESSED DISDAIN FOR THE FAITH OF THE MAJORITY

Sixty-two personalities, including actor Kangana Ranaut, CBFC chief Prasoon Joshi and filmmakers Madhur Bhandarkar, Vivek Agnihotri, have written an open letter against the “selective outrage and false narratives” of celebrities who had earlier penned an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over lynching incidents in the country. Titled ‘Against Selective Outrage & False Narratives,’ the letter terms those who wrote about mob-killings as “selfstyled guardians and conscience keepers” and charges them of political bias.

“An open letter which has been published on July 23 2019, and addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi has astonished us. Forty nine selfstyled ‘guardians’ and ‘conscience keepers’ of the nation and of democratic values have once again expressed selective concern and demonstrated a clear political bias and motive,” the letter by 62 personalities reads. It terms the letter on lynching incidents a “document of selective outrage” that 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.”

“The signatories to the ‘open letter’ have, in the past, kept silent 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,” it added.

Altogether, they have said that for the 49 celebrities, who earlier wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, “it seems the freedom, unity and integrity of India can be bartered away in the name of freedom of speech and expression.”

“But for us, the unity and integrity of India, her freedom is sacrosanct and anyone who questions these, who works to dilute or destroy these, who conspires to disturb these need to be resisted. Some of the signatories to the ‘open letter’ have a record of acting as mouthpieces and ideologues for insurgents, separatists and terrorists in the past. Their concern, therefore, smacks of dishonesty and opportunism,” they said.

The letter added that, “The Constitution of India certainly gives the right to dissent but not the right to try and break India apart. To disguise the propensity for subversion by the name of dissent is a dangerous trait,” the letter reads, “We would urge everyone to give up being selective and condemn lynching, discrimination and desecration of religious places with equal vehemence when they occur. Instead of indulging in grand-standing, personalities with a social and public profile ought to generate greater awareness on the need to tackle and eliminate the mind-set that leads to lynching.”

They have further stated that the open letter by the 49 celebrities “comes across to us as an attempt to mock the mandate of the marginalised, to create a false sense of fear and siege and to try and derail India’s march towards collective empowerment of all sections of society. It is clearly an attempt to defame the nation. WE DO CONDEMN the conspiracy.” In the letter, the 62 celebrities have also stated that the 49 people, who wrote to the Prime Minister, “did not display the courage to stand beside women who were opposed to and are struggling against the regressive Triple Talaq tradition and did not speak out for the need of equality and empowerment in this case.”

“The selective outrage and amnesia of this particular group makes us believe that they are working to a certain agenda and are only playing into the hands of those forces that are out Balkanise India and to destabilise her,” they said.

“This group has also repeatedly expressed disdain for the faith of the majority in India. They have repeatedly heaped derision on those who believe in Lord Ram and who derive strength and solace by chanting his sacred name. This letter is a disguised attempt to pour disdain on the subalterns for whom faith and worship are defining dimensions,”the celebs added.