Calling Faiz 'anti-Hindu' is absurd and funny, says Javed Akhtar

After IIT Kanpur constituted a panel to decide whether legendary poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz's poem Hum Dekhenge is offensive to Hindu sentiments, lyricist Javed Akhtar termed the incident absurd and funny.

After Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur constituted a panel to decide whether legendary poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz's poem Hum Dekhenge is offensive to Hindu sentiments, senior lyricist Javed Akhtar on Thursday termed the incident absurd and funny.

Renowned lyricist Javed Akhtar addresses during a programme organised by Madhya Pradesh Urdu Academy and State Culture department at Ravindra Bhawan in Bhopal.

Speaking to ANI about Faiz and the recent controversy, the writer told ANI, "Calling Faiz Ahmed Faiz 'anti-Hindu' is so absurd and funny that it's difficult to seriously talk about it."

The writer further said that Faiz wrote the poem Hum Dekhenge against the then Pakistan government run by the former President of the country Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.

"He lived half his life outside Pakistan, he was called anti-Pakistan there. Hum Dekhenge he wrote against Zia ul Haq's government which was a communal regressive and fundamentalist government," Akhtar told ANI.

Earlier on Thursday, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur has set up a committee to look into the issue.

The move came after some faculty member complaint that the students who took out a peaceful march in the campus on December 17 against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and in solidarity with Jamia Millia Islamia students, sung it as a mark of protest, which hurt the sentiments of other communities.

The CAA grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

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