61 hit back in letter war, say ‘outrage’ is ‘selective’

New Delhi: In a counter to a group of eminent citizens having written to the Prime Minister earlier this week on the lynching of minorities and hate crimes, 61 high profile personalities from various fields on Friday responded with a  statement against “selective outrage and false narratives”.

The July 23 letter by 49 “self-styled guardians and conscience keepers” expressed selective concerns and demonstrated a “clear political bias and motive,” said the statement signed by actor Kangana Ranaut, lyricist Prasoon Joshi, dancer Sonal Mansingh and filmmakers Madhur Bhandarkar and Vivek Agnihotri and others.

“It (the July 23 letter) is aimed at tarnishing India’s international standing and to negatively portray the prime minister’s untiring efforts to effectuate governance on the foundations of positive nationalism and humanism which is the core of Indianess,” the  statement read.

The document of selective outrage, it said, 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”.

On July 23, 49 personalities, including filmmakers Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap, Shyam Benegal and Aparna Sen as well as vocalist Shubha Mudgal and historian Ramchandra Guha, expressed concern at the number of “religious identity-based hate crimes” and noted that ‘Jai Shri Ram’ has become a provocative war cry with many lynchings taking place in its name.

In their statement on Friday, 61 signatories questioned the silence of the letter writers on their silence “when tribals and the marginalised have become victims of Naxal terror”.

The civil society leaders had noted in the open letter to the prime minister that criticising the lynchings in Parliament is not enough.

“What action has actually been taken against the perpetrators? We strongly feel that such offences should be declared non-bailable, and that exemplary punishment should be meted out swiftly and surely,” they said.

"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," the statement said.

The response, also signed by actor Pallavi Joshi, singer Malini Awasthi, film producer Saikat Mukherjee and former vice chancellor Netaji Subhas Open University, Radharaman Chakraborty, emphasised that the Prime Minister has spoken out repeatedly against lynching.