Controversy over honour for Tytler

Two refuse the award, call to boycott Saturday's event

GN Bureau | December 6, 2011



Announcement of the Jauhar award to former union minister Jagdish Tytler by a Delhi-based Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar Academy has kicked up a storm, with at least two eminent personalities -- Delhi's senior journalist Zafar Agha and Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt -- refusing to accept the award.

Forty civil rights activists, including writers and journalists, on Monday issued an appeal to boycott the award ceremony slated at India Islamic Cultural Centre here on Saturday, expressing shock at the honour being bestowed to Tytler who is an accused in the anti-Sikh riots in 1984.

Those selected for the award include chief election commissioner SY Quraishi, Deoband municipal chairman Maulana Mohd Haseeb Siddiqui and Begum Andre, social activist and educationist from Mumbai.

In an appeal released by the activists at a press conference, the awardees were urged not to accept the award as a mark of protest against honouring Tytler, "whose contribution in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom has been recorded by several fact-finding reports, including those by PUCL and PUDR".

The appeal says awarding a minority riot accused with an award named after Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, a prominent figure of the Indian freedom movement, will be misuse of the name of the distinguished personality of Indian and Muslim history. The Maulana was the sixth Muslim president of the Congress Party and also a leader of the Khilafat movement.

The activists regretted that the award is being given by a religious minority group to person who has been found involved in bloody riot against another religious minority. "It is also regrettable that an award being given by members of a minority community is honouring someone who has played a key role in the victimisation of another religious minority," the appeal said.

The Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar Academy was founded in 1974 at Rampur in U.P. The award was instituted in 1989. This is 23th annual award ceremony. The academy gives award to individuals for their extra-ordinary contribution in their respective fields.

Comments

 

Other News

Not just politics, let`s discuss policies too

Why public policy matters Most days, India`s loudest debates stop at the ballot box. We can name every major leader and recall every campaign slogan. Still, far fewer of us can explain why a widow`s pension is delayed or how a government school`s budget is actually approved. That

When algorithms decide and children die

The images have not left me, of dead and wounded children being carried in the arms of the medics and relatives to the ambulances and hospitals. On February 28, at the start of Operation Epic Fury, cruise missiles struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh school – officially named a girls’ school, in Minab,

The economics of representation: Why women in power matter

India’s democracy has grown in scale, but not quite in balance. Women today are active participants in elections, influencing outcomes in ways that were not as visible earlier. Yet their presence in legislative institutions continues to lag behind. The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam was meant to addres

India will be powerful, not aggressive: Bhaiyyaji

India is poised to emerge as a global power but will remain rooted in its civilisational ethos of non-aggression and harmony, former RSS General Secretary Suresh `Bhaiyyaji` Joshi has said.   He was speaking at the launch of “Rashtrabhav,” a book by Ravindra Sathe

AI: Code, Control, Conquer

India today stands at a critical juncture in the area of artificial intelligence. While the country is among the fastest adopters of AI in the world, it remains heavily reliant on technologies developed elsewhere. This paradox, experts warn, cannot persist if India seeks technological sovereignty.

RBI pauses to assess inflation risks, policy transmission

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has begun the new fiscal year with a calibrated pause, keeping the repo rate unchanged at 5.25 per cent in its April Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. The decision, taken unanimously, reflects a shift from aggressive policy action to cautious observation after a signi


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter