TWO EMINENT Urdu litterateurs’ deep anguish over the demolition of the Babri mosque has caused tremors in the Madhya Pradesh Urdu Academy, a good 14 years after the incident.
Urdu Academy’s quarterly magazine has carried emotional outpourings of scholar and poet the late Jagannath Azad in its issue which, though honest, will surely upset the ruling party in the State.
The issue of the magazine is dedicated to the late Azad. In one of the articles by Aziz Qureshi, ‘Aisi chingaari bhi ya rab…’ he has quoted Azad and another Urdu legend Malik Ram expressing their sentiments about the demolition of Babri Masjid.
Qureshi reminisces that the day the Masjid was demolished, he was to attend a meeting in Shastri Bhawan in Delhi where he met Jagannath Azad and Malik Ram. “With wet eyes Jagannath Azad embraced me and said, “I don’t have the courage to face you due to the meanness and timidity shown by my community,” he said.
Qureshi further writes that Malik Ram told him, “Hindu community has displayed such barbarism and rowdy behaviour that it has proved Jinnah’s two national theory correct”. The article has been excerpted from another book.
The comments are apparently aimed at bolstering the ‘secular’ credentials of the two Hindu litterateurs of Urdu, some thing the BJP will not countenance.
{{/usCountry}}The comments are apparently aimed at bolstering the ‘secular’ credentials of the two Hindu litterateurs of Urdu, some thing the BJP will not countenance.
{{/usCountry}}The fact that the magazine has published the views prominently even as the Academy is headed by Bashir Badr, himself a BJP activist, has caught a section of readers by surprise. Repeated attempts to contact Badr went in vain. The magazine is not known for its regular publication and the latest issue that of April-September 2005 has been published only recently.