Gujarat: row over Urdu poet's remarks on Modi

Ahemdabad: A tussle between an Urdu poet and the Urdu Sahitya academy in Gujarat has been politicised with the academy questioning poetic license, and a reference to Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Aqeel Shatir, poet, Ahmedabad said, "May good happen to Narendra Modi, who sounded the death knell for the Urdu language after coming to power. Not stopping at that, he, under a well orchestrated plan, played a naked game of barbarism and violence that put the entire humanity to shame".

It is this critical essay in a compilation edited by poet Aqeel Shatir, `Abhi Zinda Hoon Main', that has put him in a spot. The Gujarat Urdu Sahitya Academy has asked him to return the Rs 10,000 he got as assistance to publish the book. Shatir says he removed the reference to Narendra Modi in 2008 but the Urdu Sahitya Academy is using it to target him, since he filed an RTI application seeking to trace corruption in the body.

Shatir further said, "I will request the chief minister, this is government money, meant for development of the language. Why is it not happening? Why are the administrators doing what they feel like?"

Shatir published his compilation of ghazals in October 2008, which contains critical essays by eight poets. He says that he deleted the Narendra Modi reference written by Mumbai poet Raunaq Afroze after 50 copies had been printed.

All subsequent copies were printed without the reference.

It is only now, after more than two years that the academy served him a notice, and asked him to return the grant money.

The Urdu Sahitya Academy is at a loss to explain why it took over a year for it to send the notice.

Harshad Trivedi, registrar, Gujarat Urdu Sahitya Academy, "Someone told me that the book is available in the market and got it to me. We get to know of such things only when its brought to our notice."

Shatir says the issue has been blown out of proportion, and the question remains - why should a body dedicated to Urdu literature want to penalize a poet for exercising poetic license? Is the reference to Modi being used by the academy to target the poet for inquiring about corruption?

(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)