Expressing concern at the number of “religious identity-based hate crimes” in India, a group of eminent citizens has said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that ‘Jai Shri Ram’ has become a provocative war cry with many lynchings taking place in its name. The letter is signed by 49 celebrities from various fields, including filmmakers Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Anurag Kashyap, Aparna Sen among others.
Anurag Kashyap has finally spoken about his views and the letter in an interview with a Hindi news portal Lallan Top. “People have written letters to Bill Clinton and Margaret Thatcher and they have received responses. If writing a letter to the Prime Minister or expressing our opinions are branded as signs of treachery, then I have nothing to say. Jai Shri Ram was first used in Ramayana, and it does not have a religious connotation”, the filmmaker said.
Anurag added that people who don’t have jobs vent out their frustration by slaughtering Muslims and Dalits. “In the past four years, Jharkhand saw 18 lynching cases, 11 of whom were Muslims. When I speak about lynchings, people ask me why I am quiet about the death of Ankit in Delhi. However, that was a murder. The guy loved a Muslim girl and the latter’s parents decided to kill him.There is a difference between lynching and murder” he says.
“The lynching that happens in the name of religion and cows, no one is punished for that”, Anurag Kashyap said. The filmmaker said Aparna Sen had drafted the letter and collected data, after that she sent it to everyone to read and sign if they consented with her views. “I took five days, read the letter and then signed”, Anurag said.
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