Forty nine artists and intellectuals have written a letter to honourable PM Narendra Modi, where they’ve openly addressed the lynching of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities. They’ve also stressed upon that there is ‘no democracy without dissent’.
Filmmakers Aparna Sen, Shyam Benegal, thespian actor Soumitra Chatterjee, singer Shubha Mudgal, historian Ramchandra Guha are among the aforementioned personalities who have noted that ‘Jai Shri Ram’ has been reduced to a ‘provocative war cry’.
“The lynching of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities must be stopped immediately. We were shocked to learn from the NCRB 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,” the open letter reads. It further asks, “you have criticised such lynchings in Parliament Mr Prime Minister, but that is not enough! What action has actually been taken against the perpetrators?”
The letter even urges the BJP cadres going about ‘defiling the name of Ram’ to consider how the name is sacred for a majority of the Hindu community.
This has obviously triggered the intolerance debate, which has raised its head more than a few times in the BJP era. It began with a group of filmmakers returning their national awards to protest against the atrocities being committed against the marginalised communities.
In the lead up to the 2019 general elections, a collective of filmmakers had urged the general public to not vote for the Modi government. However, there were also many famous names (including the Khans of Bollywood) who came out in support of PM Narendra Modi.
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