Mumbai, July 26
Three days after a group of eminent citizens wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the lynching of minorities and hate crimes, 61 high-profile personalities from various fields on Friday responded with a counter statement against “selective outrage and false narratives”.
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 and 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 Indianess,” 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 Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap and Shyam Benegal 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.
In their statement on Friday, 61 signatories questioned the silence of the 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.
The civil society leaders had noted in the open letter to the prime minister that criticising the lynchings in Parliament is not enough.
The response, also signed by actor Pallavi Joshi, singer Malini Awasthi, film producer Saikat Mukherjee and former vice chancellor Netaji Subhas Open University, Radharaman Chakraborty, emphasised that the PM has spoken out repeatedly against lynching. — PTI
Why selective outrage: Prasoon, Kangana
- As many as 61 high-profile personalities, including actor Kangana Ranaut, lyricist Prasoon Joshi, dancer Sonal Mansingh and filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, responded to the July 23 letter by 49 eminent citizens
- Terming the open letter to the PM agenda driven, the celebrities came out with a statement questioning ‘selective outrage and false narratives’ and silence on killing of people for chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and Kashmiri Pandits’ exodus
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2JUOrIt
via Today’s News Headlines
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