New Delhi | In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 49 celebrities including filmmakers Anurag Kashyap, Shyam Bengal, Aparna Sen have written raising concern over rising incidents of mob lynching and religious hate crimes.
In the letter, the 49 celebrities have written that ‘Jai Shri Ram” has become a provocative war cry that leads to law and order problem and many lynchings take place in its name. The letter further adds that there is no democracy without dissent. “People shouldn’t be branded as ‘anti-nationals’ or ‘Urban-Naxals’ and incarcerated because of dissents with the government,” it stated.
‘Criticising the ruling party does not imply criticising the nation, anti-government stands could not be equated with anti-national sentiments’ it added.
Raising concern over the religious hate crimes, the celebs wrote, “254 religious identities-based hate crimes were reported between January 1, 2009, and October 29, 2018, where 91 were killed and 579 were injured”.” About 90 per cent of the hate crimes were reported after May 2019 when your government assumed power nationally,” it added.
The celebrities include Anurag Kashyap, Shyam Benegal, Konkana Sen Sharma, Partha Chaterjee, Sudha Mudhgal, Mani Ratnam, Ramchandra Guha etc.
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