In the name of Freedom
-Arya Shubham Verma
In India, It is a common practice
from ancient times that People who give up their materialistic wealth and work
for the society are considered as God’s like Rama, Buddha and Mahaveera. By
Followed the ancient tradition of India, few Indian writers decided to give
away their awards for the sake of the society and so called “Freedom of speech”.
But the question is, “Can we compare them with Rama, Buddha or Mahavira?” You
will get the answer after reading this Article.
This all buzz has started after
some politically motivated Intellectuals returned their awards to Indian
government and blame the government as communal. It might be right or wrong but
I thought I should do some research on it than I will decide whether the
government is communal or not. In my research I first started my research with
the history of intellectuals who had returned their awards and I took some
famous names who initiated this campaign of returning awards in the name of
“Oppression of Freedom of speech” and “Communalism” and after my research I
found some interesting facts about these intellectuals that I am sharing with
you one by one:-
1) Nayantara
Sahgal:-
She is a member of the Nehru–Gandhi family, the second of the three
daughters born to Jawaharlal Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. Her mother Vijaya
Lakshmi Pandit served twice as President of the Indian National
Congress during the Independence Struggle. [Source:
Wikipedia]
She expressed disappointment in Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and the Sahitya
Akademi's silence and said she was returning her award in "support of all
Indians who uphold the right to dissent".
“Some have also rightly asked why
she had no qualms about accepting the award just two years after thousands of
Sikhs were massacred in 1984 under the watchful eye of the Congress party that
her extended family has practically owned like a mafia since the independence.
How could Ms. Nayanatara accept the award from a government headed by a
person who, instead of reining in the murderous mobs, had said, “When a big
tree falls, the earth shakes,” in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination
and the subsequent genocide unleashed upon the unsuspecting Sikh population?
Despite being a Kashmiri Pandit (at least according to official records,
although references on the Internet tell something else) the writer inside her
never rebelled against the Congress government at the Centre that never took a
single step to stop the Kashmiri-Pandits’ ethnic cleansing in the Kashmir
Valley.”
Source: http://indiafacts.co.in/where-was-nayantara-sahgal-when-india-actually-needed-her/
Source: http://indiafacts.co.in/where-was-nayantara-sahgal-when-india-actually-needed-her/
Note: She is closely
linked with congress top leadership and people of India can easily understand her bias or opposition against BJP.
2) Uday Prakash:-
He was a passionate young member
of the CPI, and then grew close to the CPM, till the early 80s.
He’d been to jail several times before he came to JNU.
He’d been to jail several times before he came to JNU.
Uday Prakash bemoaned the
attitude of the national academy of letters over the murders of Marathi writer
Govind Pansare and Kannada writer Linganna Satyampet. "The Akademi
organises a tamasha of sorts, presents you an award and forgets about you. When
something like this happens, there is no word of consolation and support from
them. Writers are a family but they don't seem to care," he said.
Note: He always opposed
BJP and all right wing institutions from the time when he was member of CPI. So
it is clearly visible that he has a bias against BJP from past and now also he
is continuing with his anti BJP ideology.
3)Ashok Vajpeyi:-
Uday Prakash
[One of those who returned award] finds Vajpeyi unworthy of the two awards and
calls him a "power broker" disguised as a poet. "Nobody takes Vajpeyi
seriously in Hindi literature. History will remember him as a culture czar who
doled out patronage," says Prakash, who was co-editor with Vajpeyi of
Poorvagraha, a Madhya Pradesh government-funded literary journal founded by
Vajpeyi.
A promising Hindi poet in the
'60s, Vajpeyi joined the IAS in 1965. Consistently patronised by Arjun Singh in
Madhya Pradesh, Vajpeyi's power grew when Arjun Singh became chief minister in
the '80s and he became the state culture secretary. He set up 11 cultural
institutions, 10 of them in Bhopal itself. These extended his influence beyond
the literary sphere into the visual and performing arts. His was the last word
in the appointment of their trustees and office-bearers.
Vajpeyi told NDTV: “When he saw a senior writer like Sahgal taking a stand, he felt more writers should
support her.”
Ashok Vajpeyi too has given
back the prestigious award and targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his
silence on recent incidents of violence.
Note: He is also closely
linked with Congress and he got several posts in government during congress
regime and you can find several articles of Hindi writers which talks about his
Politics in Hindi literature. So it is clear that he is also opposing BJP
because he is not getting that many facilities now which he was getting at the
time of congress.
4)Sarah Joseph :
She joined the Aam Aadmi
Party in 2014 and contested the 2014 parliament elections from
Thrissur. [Wikipedia]
On 10 October 2015, She returned
the Sahitya Akademi Award based on her political perception that there is
"fear and lack of freedom under the present government." [Wikipedia]
“She has won much critical
acclaim for her Ramayana Kathakal, a subversive reading of the Ramayana.
It is a questioning of Rama's dharma from diverse, yet converging,
points of view. She raises the questions of justice and injustice, war
and peace, and the relationship between love and power, which is the central
theme of the epic.” [ She hurts Hindu sentiments during that time and got
awarded by left wing institutions for her Rational thinking on Rama]
Sarah Joseph, the Malayalam
writer willingly accepted her award from the BJP government in 2003 barely a
few months after the Godhra-Gujarat riots; her personal aggrandizement, the
glory of the award seems to have pushed her principles to the back burner at
that time.
Note: She contested the 2014 election against BJP
and she is a member of AAP and she might have some political ambitions for
future and this act is purely politically motivated because she did not return
any award during 2002 riots.
4) Ghulam Nabi Khayal:
Ghulam Nabi Khayal on Tuesday decided to
return his Sahitya Akademi award in protest against the growing intolerance in
the country. "I have been watching the situation across the whole of India
for the last one-year since the BJP took over at the Centre. Certain incidents
have been taken places which are aimed at spreading communalism and division in
the country." he said.
He also said- "The Bhartiya
Janata Party (BJP) is a party of illiterate people.”
Note : He is closely
linked with Kashmiri separatists who always oppose Indian government and he is
also linked with some Pakistani diplomats.
Photograph of Gulam Nabi with Parvej
Mussharaf from his Facebook profile.
So he also has biased against
Narendra modi and BJP.
5) Rahman Abbas:
He returned the Award four years later
along with two other awardees Nayantara Sahgal and Ashok Vajpeyi in protest of
the governance of Narendra Modi. [Wikipedia]
“Abbas's first Urdu novel, Nakhalistan
Ki Talash (2004), written when he was 24,[clarification needed] created a storm
in conservative Urdu literary circles, and protests by religious conservatives
forced him to resign from his post as lecturer in a junior college in the heart
ofMumbai. The novel tells the story of an young educated Muslim man whose
increasing alienation in a post-1992 Mumbai leads him to a Kashmiri terrorist
organization. He finds his cultural identity blurred during the rise of
right-wing and hate-filled politics in India at the turn of the 21st century.
He tries to demonstrate his identity and historic self, ultimately leading to
his tragic and mysterious end. Abbas was arrested on charges of obscenity
following the publication of this novel.”
Source: [ http://www.bbc.com/urdu/miscellaneous/story/2005/12/051228_fictionurdu_2005_sen.shtml ] and Wikipedia
Note: In his novel he has
clearly mentioned his views that are totally against Right wing so he is also
one of those who had earlier bias towards BJP and now they got the chance to
protest.
6) Ajmer Singh Aulakh :-
“As an intellectual Ajmer Singh
Aulakh was influenced from Marxist ideology and mainly his sponsors were
leftist and socialist groups.”
News agency ANI quoted Aulakh as
saying, "I am protesting against the Prime Minister's silence over the
recent killing of a man in Dadri, over rumours of cow slaughter and the murder
of author M M Kalburgi."
He also said that the issues and
incidents have been increasing since the BJP government is in power.
Note: He is also blaming
BJP government for the incident of Dadri which happened in Samajwadi party
ruling UP and MM kalburgi murder which happened in Congress ruling state
Karnataka.
So, these are few intellectuals
who give up there awards after blaming Modi government for killings of Dardri,
MM kalbargi, Dabholkar and Pansare.
Now, I want to tell you some
details about these killings:-
1) Dadri
incident [28 September 2015] :- This happened in UP which is ruled by
Samajwadi party and the CM of state is Mr. Akhilesh Yadav. Now, the question is
–“Why these so called intellectuals did not raise questions on CM of UP or
ruling party?”.
2) Narendra
Achyut Dabholkar was assasinated on 20 August 2013 in Pune Maharashtra. At
that time ruling party was Congress in both state and center and the case is
under CBI. Again, so called intellectuals blamed Modi for it.
3) Malleshappa
Madivalappa Kalburgi was shot dead in the morning of 30 August 2015 at his
residence in Dharwad district of Karnataka by two
unidentified men.
Professor K M Marulsidappa, states "Kalburgi’s
murder is less likely to implicate conventional Hindutva groups, and more
likely to involve the fine rivalries and high political stakes within Lingayat
caste politics."
His case is also not solved till yet. The
ruling party in Karnataka is Congress. But again people are blaming Modi.
4) Govind
pansare was assasinated on 16 February 2015 in Maharshtra. It was BJP
ruling state. After the attack, Maharashtra Chief
Minister, Devendra
Fadnavis, said the police were trying to apprehend the attackers and
road blocks had been established. On 16 September 2015, one Sameer Gaikwad, 32,
was arrested from Sangli. On 17 September 2015, the police arrested four more
persons - a woman from Mumbai, presumed to be Gaikwad's girlfriend; a man
from Pune;
and two men from Goa.
Now, in
this case 5 people are arrested and police is working on it and chief minister
[BJP] is supporting the police than also so called intellectual are blaming on
Modi government that he is not doing anything.
So, after
knowing the complete truth about writers and incidents any common man can
easily figure out the politics behind award returning.
Now, I want to give you
some more facts that these incidents happened in India but no left wing
intellectual or congress man returned their awards for that. Check out the list
:-
1) Vedmitra
Chaudhary:-
An Armyman, Ved
Mitra Chaudhary, was beaten to death by six men who were harassing a girl at
Rohta road near the cantonment area Thursday. He succumbed to his injuries at
the Army Hospital. The officer had gone to get milk from a dairy when the
incident took place on August 13.
2) Sanjeev
got killed in Bihar for Marrying a Muslim girl:-
On 23 March
2015, Dainik
Bhaskar reported a case of abduction and murder due to inter-religious
marriage in Hajipur, Bihar. The deceased (Sanjeev) married a Muslim girl four
months ago. It is alleged that angry relatives of the bride, along with some
villagers, abducted the bride and bridegroom.
around 100
people attacked the house of Sanjeev. After brutally thrashing Sanjeev and his
brother, they abducted Sanjeev and his wife. On Sunday afternoon, people found
the body of Sanjeev close to the village of the bride.
People have
found the body of Sanjeev, but the bride is still missing. The incident
has created tensions in both the villages, and the boy’s side is preparing to
take revenge.
Source :- http://www.opindia.com/2015/03/hindu-man-brutally-killed-for-marrying-a-muslim-girl-in-bihar/
3) Anil
Pande:- [Sunday 7 June Mumbai Bhandup]
The accused were playing cricket, when Pande's dog caught hold of the
ball and chewed it. When one of accused tried to get the ball off its mouth, he
received bruises as the dog charged at him," a police release
said. Angry over this, the accused went to Pande's residence and brutally
assaulted him with swords and knives.
4) Fatwa
against AR Rehman by Raza Academy is a Mumbai-based outfit representing Barelvi
Sunni Muslim :- [ 15 Sept 2015]
Mumbai's Raza Academy has issued
a fatwa issued against musician AR Rahman for being part of the Iranian
movieMuhammad: Messenger of God.
5) Attack
on Tasleema Nasreen:- [9 Aug 2007]
Lawmakers and members of
the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party attacked her at the press club
in Hyderabad at the launch of a Telugu translation of one of her novels.
6) Attack
on PETA activist Muslim women in Bhopal, Mob chase them and beat them:-
The attack happened outside a mosque as the
campaigners carrying placards with the message, Make Eid Happy for All: Try
Vegan, approached it while on their way to the city centre for a rally as part
of an animal protection awareness campaign.
Image from AFP
It is alleged that they were chased, pelted with
stones, and abused. One woman activist, Benazir Suraiya, who was wearing a
hijab made of leaves was physically roughed up. Police had to be called to
rescue her, and restrain the mob.
7) Prashant
Poojary ( A Bajrangdal activist was killed) : 10 Oct 2015
According to the information reaching here, six
persons in two motorcycles came to the market around 7 a.m. when Prashant
Poojary (29), the deceased, and his father were selling flowers. They attacked
Poojary with sharp weapons and fled, even as he collapsed on the road.
Some more:-
- · On December 1, 2006 Krishna (Biju), an RSS activist killed in Thiruvanantpuram by CPI(M) supporters.
- · On December 17, 2006 BJP activist P.S. Sujith murdered in Engandiyur town of Thrissur district by CPI(M) supporters.
- · On January 20, 2007, RSS activist Ravi killed in tirur by NDF supporters.
- · On 12 January 2007, BJP/BMS activist Shaju(30) killed in kalletumkara near Thrissur District by CPI(M) supporters.
- · On 5 March 2007, PP Valsaraj Kurup(37) was murdered by CPI(M) supporters.
- · On 16 March 2007, RSS activist murdered in Thanur in Mallapuram District by NDF supporters.
- · On 24 April 2007 an RSS Taluk Karivayak G. Chandran murdered in Vettiyar near Mavelikkara by CPI(M) supporters.
- · On August 16 2007, K. Pramod(33), RSS/BJP activist killed by CPI(M) supporters in Thallassery, Kannur district.
- · On 22 October 2007, BJP activist Sunil Kumar killed in Kodungallur by DYFI supporters.
- · On 2nd November 2007, an RSS/ BJP activist Vinod kumar(35) was killed near Manalayam junction at Chadayamangalam in Thiruvanantpuram by NDF supporters.
- · On 23 December 2007, RSS mandal Sharirik Shikshan pramukh Vinod(25) killed by NDF supporters.
- · On 5 March 2008 Rss activist Nekhil killed in Thallesary Kannur by CPI(M) supporters.
- · On 7 March 2008, RSS activist Surendran killed in Kannur by CPI(M) supporters.
Numbers
shows that less Communal incidents
happen in Modi govt as compare to Congress rule :-
Data from the Ministry of Home Affairs on
communal violence tells a very sobering tale. As summarised here, there were
668, 823, and 644 incidents of communal violence nationwide in the years 2012,
2013, and 2014 respectively, the last three full years for which we have data.
In each of these three years, UP recorded 118, 247, and 133 communal incidents,
which resulted in 39, 77 and 26 deaths respectively, and, 500, 360 and 374
injuries respectively.
http://www.newslaundry.com/2015/10/14/think-india-has-become-more-communal-under-modi-the-numbers-will-disappoint-you/?utm_content=bufferb0c8f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Now, I think it
is sufficient data to understand the politics behind award returning. In the
name of Freedom of Speech some different kind of ideological driven people are
targeting Modi because their NGOs are not getting funds now and they are not
getting high posts and positions in government which they enjoyed in previous
governments. So, they are opposing the government. If we talk about “Freedom of
Speech” than they are continuously writing against Modi and expressing their
views against BJP in every news channel and still they are propagating that
government is oppressing their Freedom of Expression its nothing but
“Hippocracy”.
Note:
In the end I want to clarify that-“I am not saying all intellectuals who
returned awards are bad or politically motivated but only few famous people who
initiated this movement are politically driven and because they created that
Anti Modi wave than some innocent writers also returned there awards. Now, it
is the time, when everyone including communist intellectuals should think about
it that Congress used them against BJP as they used Muslims and Christians as
their vote bank, because congress has no intellectuals left so they used the
“left wing intellectuals” for their political benefit and, now also congress is
doing the same. So intellectuals should become actual intellectuals and should
think about it and instead of blaming on Modi for every single thing, you
should work for the betterment of the society. Forgive me if someone get hurted
but -I am also using my “Freedom of Expression” to spread the truth in society.
“My
English could be weak but points are strong”
Regards,
Shubham
Verma
Political
Researcher
theshubhamhindi@gmail.com
Nayantara Sahgal openly protested against Indira Gandhi during her times. So how can we say that just because she comes from a Congress family, she supports them blindly?
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