Poet Munawwar Rana has landed himself in controversy after he made inflammatory remarks on social media amid the ongoing farmer protests. Taking to Twitter, he tried to incite a mob to violence. In a now-deleted tweet, Rana gave a call to demolish the Parliament building and set the godowns for grains storage on fire.
In an attempt to instigate the farmers, Rana said, “At least some people of this country will get food, bring down the Parliament and turn it into a farm. Now only this way the fate of farmers will change, burn all the godowns built by the rich people. I tell the truth in court of lies, behead me or set me on fire”.
Rana seems to have a strange fixation for beheading as he was earlier found supporting the beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty who was killed by a terrorist for showing Charlie Hebdo caricature of Prophet Muhammad.
One may argue that as a poet Rana would talk in metaphors and just as he may not really mean that he should be set on fire, the Parliament should not be razed down. However, creative liberty of using metaphors has been tossed out of the window earlier. Another poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar in 2013 had demanded a lady police officer be sacked for writing a poem on Azad Maidan riots.
On 11 August 2012, the Muslim organisations led by Raza academy had staged a morcha at Azad Maidan ground to protest against the alleged atrocities on Muslims in Assam and Myanmar. The protest was staged by Muslims organisations in Azad Maidan to condemn the Rakhine riots and Assam riots, which later turned into a riot.
To condemn the Assam and Rakhine riots, Raza Academy had organized a protest rally. However, the protest turned violent after one of the notorious group attacked the policemen leading to police firing in which two persons were killed and 63 persons including 58 policemen were injured.
Sujata Patil, a police officer, who was present at the riots, wrote a poem on what she had witnessed.
Javed Akhtar, however, was extremely upset and called her poem ‘communal’.
Sujata Patil later tendered an apology and managed to save her job. And since what is good for the goose should be good for the gander, Rana should also be made accountable for his so-called creative freedom.
