62 celebs write to PM slamming 'selective outrage' on mob lynching
Recently, 49 great personalities wrote letter to the country's prime minister to stop the mob violence. Now 62 other celebrities have written an open letter accusing him of 'criticizing and opposing only in select cases'. The title of the letter is 'Against Selective Outrage and False Narratives'. Celebrities who wrote this letter include Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut, lyricist Prasoon Joshi, classical dancer and MP, Sonal Mansingh, player Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar and Vivek Agnihotri.
In this letter, it has been asked why the people remain silent when the Maoists target tribals. Further in this letter it has been written that when the separatists closed the school in Kashmir, then where were these people? In addition, raising questions about the sloganeering incident in JNU, why have they not even talked about the slogans of the country?
Let us know that in the wake of the rise in mob mobilization against the minority and the Dalit communities, many honorable personalities of India wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi following the establishment of the Narendra Modi government in 2014 in India. This letter was sent to PM Modi by 49 people from several areas including art, film, education and social workers. Those who wrote the letter included filmmaker Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap, Aparna Sen, Shyam Benegal, historian Ramchandra Guha, actress Konkona Sen Sharma, singer Shubha Mudgal and Iftekhar Ahsan.
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, "In fact under the Modi regime we see maximum liberty to differ, to criticise and to abuse the government and the dispensation in power - the spirit of dissent has never been stronger."
"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.
Prasan Joshi also gave a separate statement saying: "First of all, I must make it clear that human life for me is most important and I will never stand by anything which degrades or harms any human life .But the question here is rather different.
Prasan Joshi said,“I think in the garb of standing up for humanity a few of us are unfairly painting a biased picture and misleading people- specially the ones who are not so close to realities of our country and would be impressionable for, the remarks are coming from a few known people. I think its absolutely unfair to the hard work our government is doing in trying to bring a much awaited change in this country by creating equal opportunities for everyone irrespective of class, religion or any other identity.”
The letter was signed by the following personality:
- Prasoon Joshi, acclaimed lyricist, playwright, screenwriter
- Sonal Mansingh, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, acclaimed danseuse and Guru, Member of Parliament
- Kangana Ranaut, acclaimed film star
- Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Padma Bhushan, acclaimed instrumentalist, Grammy Award winner
- Professor Achintya Biswas former Vice-Chancellor Gourbanga University, eminent public intellectual, noted educationist.
- Dr Swapan Dasgupta, Member of Parliament, eminent journalist & public intellectual
- Rantidev Sengupta, eminent journalist, public intellectual, editor
- Madhur Bhandarkar, Padmashri, award winning film maker
- Vivek Agnihotri, film maker & bestselling author
- Ashok Pandit, acclaimed film maker
- Pallavi Joshi, actor & producer
- Dr Anirban Ganguly, Director, Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation
- Shri Binayak Bandyopadhyay, acclaimed poet
- Dr Saradindu Mukherjee, eminent historian, author
- Malini Awasthi, Padmashree, renowned folk artist
- Manoj Joshi, renowned actor
- Pratibha Prahlad, Padmashree, eminent danseuse
- Professor Manoj Dikshit, Vice Chancellor, Avadh University
- Sandhya Jain, noted columnist, author, public intellectual, Fellow, NMML
- Professor Abhijit Chakraborty, former Vice-Chancellor, Jadavpur University
- Dr Vikram Sampath, cultural historian, author, Fellow, NMML
- Professor Ruby Sain, Jadavpur University
- Dr Shyamal Basu, former Principal Kolkata Medical College
- Maj General (retd) P.K. Mullick VSM
- Professor Smriti Kumar Sarkar, former Vice-Chancellor, Burdwan University
- Professor Radharaman Chakraborty, former Vice Chancellor Netaji Subhas Open University, public intellectual
- Professor Dulal Chandra Ghosh, eminent educationist, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
- Biswajit Chatterjee, veteran film personality
- Subhadra, popular film and television actress
- Parno Mitra, film actress
- Ayanjit Sen, film producer
- Prithviraj Sen, writer and thinker
- Kanchana Moitra, film actress
- Dr Susovan Banerjee, former MLA,eminent physician, Bolpur, Member executive council Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
- Professor Sirajul Islam, professor of philosophy, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
- Basanti Devi, film actress
- Raj Bhowmik, film actor
- Bappaditya Chakraborty, film and folk drama producer
- Professor Debashish Bhattacharya, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
- Professor Pritam Prasad Roy, former professor, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
- Dr Abhinav Prakash Singh, Delhi University
- Kalyan Chaubey, former footballer
- Dr Rameshwar Mishra, professor of Hindi, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
- Prof.Iman Kalyan Lahiri, Jadavpur University
- Bani Kumar, film actor
- Saikat Mukherjee, film producer
- Tuhin Pal, film producer
- Professor Ganesh Malik, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
- Professor Anil Kumar Rai, poet & Pro Vice Chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Motihari
- Moumita Choudhury, film actress
- Pradip Kumar Mondal, film and television serial producer
- Milan Bhowmik, producer and director
- Rupa Bhattacharya, television actress
- Rita Ghosal, film and television actress
- Anitesh Bhattacharya, television actor
- Vinita Chatterjee, film actress, journalist
- Ranadeep Sarkar, film producer
- Sadhan Talukder, film producer
- Goutam Das, television producer
- Ram Nath Ray, litterateur
- Sujit Ray, journalist
- Piloo Bhattacharya, singer and composer