Hitting back at the letter to PM Modi by 49 celebrities on mob lynching, 61 personalities including Kangana Ranaut, Prasoon Joshi, Sonal Mansingh, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Madhur Bhandarkar and Vivek Agnihotri.
Hitting back at the letter to PM Modi by 49 celebrities on mob lynching, 62 personalities, including actor Kangana Ranaut, CBFC chief Prasoon Joshi and classical dancer Sonal Mansingh, have written an open letter against the "selective outrage and false narratives" of celebrities who had earlier penned an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over lynching incidents in the country.
Titled 'Against Selective Outrage & False Narratives,' the letter terms those who wrote about mob-killings as "self-styled guardians and conscience keepers" and charges them of political bias.
"An open letter which has been published on July 23 2019, and addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi has astonished us. Forty nine self-styled 'guardians' and 'conscience keepers' of the nation and of democratic values have once again expressed selective concern and demonstrated a clear political bias and motive," the letter by 62 personalities reads.
It terms the letter on lynching incidents a "document of selective outrage" that comes across as an attempt to "foist a FALSE NARRATIVE with the intention of denigrating the democratic ethos and norms of our collective functioning as a nation and people."
"It is aimed at tarnishing India's international standing and to negatively portray Prime Minister Modi's untiring efforts to effectuate governance on the foundations of positive nationalism and humanism which is the core of INDIANNESS," the letter read.
"The signatories to the 'open letter' have, in the past, kept silent when tribals and the marginalised have become victims of Naxal terror, they have kept silent when separatists have issued dictates to burn schools in Kashmir, they have kept silent when the demand for dismembering India, for making pieces of her -Tukde Tukde - were made, they kept silent when slogans chanted by terrorists and terror groups were echoed in some leading university campuses in the country," it added.
The new letter also includes names of Grammy Award winner instrumentalist Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, filmmakers Madhur Bhandarkar, Vivek Agnihotri and Ashok Pandit, actor Pallavi Joshi, folk artist Malini Awasthi, actor Manoj Joshi and film personality Biswajit Chatterjee among others.
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.
1. Prasoon Joshi
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Prasoon 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.
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."
2. Privileged few took this country for granted
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He added: "The privileged few who took this country for granted are in absolute denial about this change India is going through. They are ungraciously refusing to acknowledge the mandate of the people of India. Showing utter disrespect to the present conciusness of this country, they seem hell bent to portray that there is deliberate wrongdoing prevalent- thereby dishonestly creating a false narrative.
This, I find really condescending and disturbing. For they are wrongfully taking advantage of the voice they have,contacts and influence they posess .Because they are well versed with the lexicon of the elite world they are using that to portray a biased picture of India by selectively picking up examples which suit their narrative , in turn, stirring up fear and anxiety amongst the people and society at large.
Need of the hour is for us to unite, to play a constructive role, not take advantage of the vulnerabilities of your own people and your own system.
My request for them is to use their energies constructively as we really need creators and contributors at this juncture in India."
3. Who signed the letter?
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The letter was signed by the following:
1. Prasoon Joshi, acclaimed lyricist, playwright, screenwriter
2. Sonal Mansingh, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, acclaimed danseuse and Guru,
Member of Parliament
3. Kangana Ranaut, acclaimed film star
4. Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Padma Bhushan, acclaimed instrumentalist, Grammy
Award winner
5. Professor Achintya Biswas former Vice-Chancellor Gourbanga University, eminent
public intellectual, noted educationist.
6. Dr Swapan Dasgupta, Member of Parliament, eminent journalist & public
intellectual
7. Rantidev Sengupta, eminent journalist, public intellectual, editor
8. Madhur Bhandarkar, Padmashri, award winning film maker
9. Vivek Agnihotri, film maker & bestselling author
10. Ashok Pandit, acclaimed film maker
11. Pallavi Joshi, actor & producer
12. Dr Anirban Ganguly, Director, Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation
13. Shri Binayak Bandyopadhyay, acclaimed poet
14. Dr Saradindu Mukherjee, eminent historian, author
15. Malini Awasthi, Padmashree, renowned folk artist
16. Manoj Joshi, renowned actor
17. Pratibha Prahlad, Padmashree, eminent danseuse
18. Professor Manoj Dikshit, Vice Chancellor, Avadh University
19. Sandhya Jain, noted columnist, author, public intellectual, Fellow, NMML
20. Professor Abhijit Chakraborty, former Vice-Chancellor, Jadavpur University
21. Dr Vikram Sampath, cultural historian, author, Fellow, NMML
22. Professor Ruby Sain, Jadavpur University
23. Dr Shyamal Basu, former Principal Kolkata Medical College
24. Maj General (retd) P.K. Mullick VSM
25. Professor Smriti Kumar Sarkar, former Vice-Chancellor, Burdwan University
26. Professor Radharaman Chakraborty, former Vice Chancellor Netaji Subhas Open
University, public intellectual
27. Professor Dulal Chandra Ghosh, eminent educationist, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
28. Biswajit Chatterjee, veteran film personality
29. Subhadra, popular film and television actress
30. Parno Mitra, film actress
31. Ayanjit Sen, film producer
32. Prithviraj Sen, writer and thinker
33. Kanchana Moitra, film actress
34. Dr Susovan Banerjee, former MLA,eminent physician, Bolpur, Member executive
council Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
35. Professor Sirajul Islam, professor of philosophy, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
36. Basanti Devi, film actress
37. Raj Bhowmik, film actor
38. Bappaditya Chakraborty, film and folk drama producer
39. Professor Debashish Bhattacharya, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
40. Professor Pritam Prasad Roy, former professor, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
41. Dr Abhinav Prakash Singh, Delhi University
42. Kalyan Chaubey, former footballer
43. Dr Rameshwar Mishra, professor of Hindi, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
44. Prof.Iman Kalyan Lahiri, Jadavpur University
45. Bani Kumar, film actor
46. Saikat Mukherjee, film producer
47. Tuhin Pal, film producer
48. Professor Ganesh Malik, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
49. Professor Anil Kumar Rai, poet & Pro Vice Chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi Central
University, Motihari
50. Moumita Choudhury, film actress
51. Pradip Kumar Mondal, film and television serial producer
52. Milan Bhowmik, producer and director
53. Rupa Bhattacharya, television actress
54. Rita Ghosal, film and television actress
55. Anitesh Bhattacharya, television actor
56. Vinita Chatterjee, film actress, journalist
57. Ranadeep Sarkar, film producer
58. Sadhan Talukder, film producer
59. Goutam Das, television producer
60. Ram Nath Ray, litterateur
61. Sujit Ray, journalist
62. Piloo Bhattacharya, singer and composer
