Poet Javed Akhtar
New Delhi: Over 150 distinguished citizens from all walks of life came forward on September 7, 2021 in support of poet Javed Akhtar and actor Naseeruddin Shah, and condemned the Sangh Parivar of intimidating the duo for their recent comments on Taliban and Islam respectively.
“We, the undersigned, support unequivocally the recent interview given by author and poet, Javed Akhtar to the media in the context of the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan. We strongly condemn attempts to intimidate him and affirm his right to speak his views. We strongly disagree with those in the sangh parivar, led by a BJP MLA and other elements from the same wider parivar who have objected to the understanding of right wing supremacists, be it of the Muslim or Hindu kind,” they stated.
The signatories included former Navy Chief Admiral Laxminarayan Ramdas, Documentary film maker Anand Patwardhan, former Director General of Police of Gujarat B.Sreekumar, film writer Anjum Rajabali, Prabhat Patnaik, Prof Emeritus, JNU, Tushar Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi’s great grandson), Zoya Hasan, Professor Emerita, Jawaharlal Nehru University, among others.
They claimed that in an interview to a private news channel, Javed Akhtar spoke with clarity and passion. “We agree with his statement that irrespective of the religion in whose name they claim to speak, right-wingers — be they Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christians — share a common majoritarian world-view. This is particularly evident when it comes to their views on the status of women in the family and in society. The Taliban are but an extreme and violent version of the same common fundamentalist mind-set. It is not for nothing that many in recent years have referred to violent elements from the sangh parivar as the ‘Hindu Taliban’,” they said.
They further added: “It is not insignificant that around the same time as the venal reactions to the interview by Javed Akhtar, sections of the Muslim community who have raised similar objections to recent comments by actor Naseeruddin Shah. In his video clip which went viral, Shah is specifically addressing the Indian Muslim community where he is warning Muslim compatriots against rigid forms of Islam, advising an espousal of modernity. Shah is only re-iterating the long, vibrant and tolerant tradition of Indian Islam that has been in recent decades afflicted by the Saudi-exported Wahhabi Islam, a trend that large sections of Indian Muslims recognise and also deplore.”
– global bihari bureau
