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Birthday Special: When Javed Akhtar chanted Bharat Mata Ki Jai to challenge Asaduddin Owaisi! (Watch video)
If you remember, Javed Akhtar took a tough stand against Asaduddin Owaisi, the chief of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), who had created an issue about mouthing the words Bharat Mata Ki Jai. Taking a look at it again on Javed Akhtar's birthday.
Javed Akhtar was born on January 17, 1945, in Gwalior. Bollywood’s favourite poet and scriptwriter, Javed Akhtar Sa’ab is known not just for being a prolific writer but also a great thinker. Javed Akhtar and his wife Shabana Azmi, an acclaimed actress, have always been at the forefront of social causes, while not neglecting their work, and the two have been the face of secular India. When things take a little bit of a communal turn in India, Javed Akhtar always takes a mature, logical stand on things. He has the same outlook towards women’s issues as well and is a pronounced feminist.
For those of us who know him and his stature in Bollywood, we were not surprised when last March (2016) he chanted the words Bharat Mata Ki Jai – made controversial by Asaduddin Owaisi – in Parliament. That too, on his last day in the Rajya Sabha! If you remember, Javed Akhtar took a tough stand against Asaduddin Owaisi, the chief of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), who had created an issue about mouthing the words Bharat Mata Ki Jai, maintaining that he had no interest in saying it because he was a Muslim. Javed Akhtar condemned Owaisi for his hate speech and intention to incite communal disharmony between Hindus and Muslims.
Asaduddin Owaisi had in March 2016 announced to the Indian public that he was not required by law to praise Hindustan by chanting ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’, claiming that it is not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution of India that it is mandatory for a Muslim citizen to say those four words. “What law has been violated by what I said? No one can impose their ideology on us,” Owaisi challenged. Javed Akhtar was careful not to name Asaduddin Owaisi in Parliament. Rather he showed him his place by calling him a “leader in a mohalla (colony) in Hyderabad, India”. Javed Akhtar, “He (Owaisi) said he will not say ‘Bharat mata ki jai’ as the constitution does not require him to say so. But, the same constitution does not ask him to wear Sherwani either.” With these sharp words, Javed Akhtar put Owaisi in his place.
Akhtar did not stop there. “I don’t even want to know if chanting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ is my duty. It is, in fact, my right to do so,” Akhtar said, and began chanting “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”! He shouted out these words loud and clear in Rajya Sabha not once or twice but thrice. He sent out his seculr message with these words, “Either we shall move ahead or move back. Democracy could never be possible without secularism. We are very blessed. We keep complaining, but we must be thankful for our Constitution, which gives us democracy.” Watch Javed Akhtar delivering his last speech in Rajya Sabha on March 15, 2016, chanting Bharat Mata Ki Jai and claiming it as his right.
A very happy birthday to Javed Akhtar Sa’ab. (Photo by PTI.)
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