Expressing their concerns over rising mob lynching cases in India, prominent celebrities have written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The latter has been signed by several prominent celebrities including Ramchandra Guha, Binayak Sen, Ashish Nandy, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap and Aparna Sen.
According to reports, 49 celebrities have written a letter to PM Modi reminding him that Jai Shree Ram has become a war cry in India. The letter states, “Ram is sacred for the majority community, stop defiling the name of Ram.”
Speaking about the scores of mob lynching cases, the celebrities have stated in the letter, “The lynching of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities must be stopped immediately. We were shocked to learn from the NCRB that there have been no less than 840 instances of atrocities against Dalits in the year 2016, and a definite decline in the percentage of convictions.”
Have a look at the letter below:
The letter also has the name of Binayak Sen, Soumitro Chatterjee, Revathy, Shyam Benegal, Shubha Mudgal, Rupam Islam, Anupam Roy, Parambrata, Riddhi Sen among others. If you look at the letter, it is dated 23rd July 2019. The letter states, “You have criticised such lynchings in Parliament Mr. Prime Minister, but that is not enough! What action has actually been taken against the perpetrators?”
“Regrettably “Jai Shri Ram” has become a provocative “war cry” today that leads to law and order problems, and many lynchings take place in its name,” it added.
The letter further states, “There is no democracy without dissent. People should not be branded anti-national or urban Naxal and incarcerated because of dissent against the government.”
We hope Prime Minister Narendra Modi would take it seriously.