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Bengal urdu academy puts off event after Jamiat opposes invite to Javed Akhtar
The Bengal unit of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind is headed by Trinamool Congress leader and Bengal minister Siddiqullah Chowdhury.
Kolkata: The West Bengal Urdu Academy has postponed a four-day cultural event following objections by the West Bengal Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind to the government-supported academy’s invitation to poet- lyricist Javed Akhtar, officials familiar with the development said.
The Bengal unit of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind is headed by Trinamool Congress leader and Bengal’s mass education extension and library services minister Siddiqullah Chowdhury. On Saturday, the organisation wrote to the academy claiming that Javed Akhtar’s presence would hurt the sentiments of the minority community, claiming that the lyricist had made objectionable statements on Islam in the past.
The event, Urdu in Hindi Cinema, was to start on Saturday and showcase the contribution of Urdu to popular culture through discussions and performances. Akhtar was invited to preside over a mushaira.
The academy said on Saturday that the event had been postponed but didn’t provide any reason.
The academy was established in 1987, during the tenure of the Left Front government.
Mufti Abdus Salam, the general secretary of the Jamiat’s West Bengal unit, said statements made by Javed Akhtar on Islam led his organisation to oppose his presence.
“Javed Akhtar is a renowned person and his contribution to Urdu literature is immense. However, certain comments he made on religious issues peeved the Muslim community in Kolkata. People started raising objections when they learned that he had been invited. The West Bengal Urdu Academy, after all, is for the minority community,” he said.
Mufti Abdus Salam said the organisation’s Kolkata unit wrote to the academy advising it against getting into a controversy after finding out about the poet’s statements.
The government has not commented on the incident. No TMC leader agreed to comment either.
Activist Shabnam Hashmi, sister of the playwright and activist late Safdar Hashmi, spoke out in support of Akhtar.
“This is the beginning. I have been shouting from the rooftop, telling my fellow senior activists and the young ones to stop legitimising platforms run by the Muslim right,” she said in a post on X.
