Anusree Jana, Kolkata : Actors, filmmakers, activists and other renowned personalities sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address their concern over the growth of religious intolerance crimes.
The letter cited the statistical number of such incidents from NCRB database :“Dear Prime Minister… 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.”
These intellectuals criticised Prime Minister’s lack of firm action: “You have criticised such lynchings in Parliament Mr. Prime Minister, but that is not enough! What action has actually been taken against the perpetrators?”
This letter also highlighted the use of ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogan as a ‘war cry’ and they added the use of that particular slogan :“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,”
Many eminent personalities from West Bengal like Aparna Sen ,Soumitro Chatterjee, Adoor Gopalakrishnan,Rupam Islam, Anupam Roy, Parambrata, Riddhi Sen signed this letter and there are others Shyam Benegal , Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap , Konkona Sen Sharma, Shubha Mudgal.
Kishan Reddy,Minister of State for Home Affairs said in at Zero Hour of Loksabha that incidents of religious intolerance is undoubtedly low and he has given statistic that such incidents in 2013 were 823 whereas in 2018 the numbers are 708.
Subramanian Swamy Rajya Sabha MP said :“ There is no intolerance. This is ridiculous. What intolerance they are talking about? Has any of them been put in jail? Has any of them been prosecuted for something they didn’t do?”.And he also suspects an ulterior motive behind the letter:” I understand this has become a fashion now to catch international attention. There is some sinister motive behind this. If I was the Prime Minister, I would throw this in a wastebasket without even reading it,”
BJP Rajya Sabha MP GVL Narasimha Rao has said that the letter is ‘anti-Hindu’ and these people raised concern about selective incidents .He also said the letter attacked Hindu religion not Islamic Terrorism when terrorists attack for Jihad.
BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli said this letter is an action that put communal colour to religious hate crime: “Now it’s lynching, a lot of them are known to be sympathetic to the BJP. Some of them are even sympathetic to the left parties, and unfortunately, they give a communal colour to it. They will immediately write a letter if someone from one community is at the receiving end. If someone from other community is at the receiving end then they are silent, no candles, no letters, nothing. Stop communalising crime. Crime is Crime.”
BJP minister and Begusarai MP Giriraj Singh responded to this concern of Jai Shree warcry chant as an apt action: “I want to ask that what should we say if not Jai Shree Ram. A few days ago Kairana MLA said that don’t buy products from Hindu shopkeepers, then they said nothing. We will say Jai Shri Ram.”
West Bengal BJP President also suspects fishy motives behind the letter by the celebrities : “These intellectuals who have written a letter to the prime minister are anti-nationals. They are actually acting as stooges of Opposition parties who are trying to malign the BJP government,”he said.
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