The Hindu : New Delhi News : In Gujarat, a poet takes on Urdu Academy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 02, 2011
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

New Delhi

New Delhi

In Gujarat, a poet takes on Urdu Academy

Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD: Aqeel Shatir, a budding Urdu poet of the city, has decided to take on the Gujarat Urdu Sahitya Academy which has penalised him for including an allegedly defamatory paragraph on Chief Minister Narendra Modi in a foreword to his book of poems published with government aid.

Claiming that the copies of the book on sale do not contain the objectionable paragraph, Mr. Shatir has questioned the Academy's wisdom in seeking refund: “Will my mere returning the money restore Mr. Modi's image among the people?”

But the Academy has not stated why Mr. Shatir's explanation is not amenable to it; nor has it taken up his challenge to prove that the copies on sale did not carry the objectionable paragraph.

“Not me, but the Academy should be blamed for damaging the Chief Minister's image by putting back on the public domain a non-existent and long-forgotten issue,” he says.

“How can the damage be repaired by my paying back the money as asked by the Academy?”

The paragraph critical of Mr. Modi for the 2002 communal riots was written by another poet Raunaq Afroz Bhiwandi, one of the famous Urdu writers who wrote the foreword to Mr. Shatir's first book of poems Abhi Zinda Hoon Main (I am Still Alive).

The book was published in October 2008, with the Academy's assistance of Rs.10, 000, which is meant for budding writers who need help to bring out their works.

Mr. Shatir maintains that his poems were not based on the riots. But Mr. Bhiwandi thought so and incorporated a paragraph against Mr. Modi in his five-page foreword. Unfortunately, the book with the contentious paragraph was printed before Mr. Shatir's attention was drawn to it by another Urdu writer and Academy member Mohiuddin Bombaywala, who was among the 80-odd recipients of the book “gifted” by Mr. Shatir during the launch.

“As soon as my attention was drawn to it, I removed the pages containing the paragraph from all the remaining copies before they were put up for sale in the market,” claims Mr. Shatir. “The copies gifted to the noted writers that carried the objectionable paragraph were only meant for private circulation.”

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi

News Update

Stories in this Section