National

Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar Award to Tytler: Appeal to other 7 recipients to decline it

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. Therefore, we the undersigned call upon the seven others to boycott this award ceremony.
The Milli Gazette
Published Online: Dec 05, 2011

Text of an appeal to seven individuals to decline the Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar Award given by Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar Academy, New Delhi

New Delhi (3 December 2011): According to a news report in the Milli Gazette of 1 December 2011, Jagdish Tytler, an accused in the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984, will be awarded the Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar Award on 10 December 2011 at the India Islamic Cultural Centre, New Delhi. Seven others will share this award. The undersigned appeal to the other seven awardees to not accept the award as a mark of protest against honouring Mr Tytler, whose contribution in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom has been recorded by several fact-finding reports, including those by PUCL and PUDR.
The seven names are:
1. S Y Quraishi (Chief Election Commissioner of India)
2. Sanjeev Bhat (Indian Police Service officer, Gujarat cadre)
3. Zafar Agha (senior journalist, Delhi)
4. Mohd Najeeb Ashraf Chaudhry (Chief Income Tax Commissioner)
5. Maulana Mohd. Haseeb Siddiqui (Chairman, Deoband Nagar Palika Parishad)
6. Nusrat Gwalliori (Urdu poet, Madhya Pradesh)
7. Begum Rehana AR Andre (social activist and educationist, Mumbai)

The award is being conferred by Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar Academy, headed by M Saleem. It is sad that the name of Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar (1878-1931) is being used to felicitate someone accused of organising mass murder. Maulana Jauhar was a key figure of the Indian freedom movement, a leader of the Khilafat movement and the sixth Muslim to be President of the Indian National Congress. We are sure this is not how he would have liked his name to be remembered, and that he would not have approved of being used to white-wash the sins of a politician who was part of communal violence and mayhem in the capital of India.

It is 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. Therefore, we the undersigned call upon the seven distinguished individuals named above to boycott this award ceremony. We make the same appeal to Justice (Retd.) MSA Siddiqui of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, who is reportedly scheduled to chair the award ceremony.

Signed:
Mahtab Alam, civil rights activist and journalist, Delhi
Shabnam Hashmi, social activist, ANHAD, Delhi
Manisha Sethi, Jamia Teachers Solidarity Association
Subhash Gatade, writer and activist, New Socialist Initiative, Delhi
M Gauhar Iqbal, social activist, Delhi
Mukul Dube, writer and columnist, Delhi
Sohail Hashmi, writer and filmmaker, Delhi
Shivam Vij, writer and journalist, Delhi
Mazin Khan, Pharos Media, Delhi
Preeti Sampat, Researcher and Activist, Delhi
Kabir Khan, Activist, Mumbai
Musab Iqbal, Editor, NewzFirst.com, Bangalore
Savad Rahman, Journalist, Kerala
Harsh Kapoor, South Asia Citizen’s Web
Nisar Ahmed, Independent Journalist and Activist, Beed, Maharashtra
Mohd.Rais Khan,Editor,Qaumi Farman, Mumbai
Javed Naqi, Human Rights Activist
Shafiq R Khan, Activist and Founder Empower People
Waqar Anwar, Member, Advisory Council, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Delhi and Haryana
Mahipal Singh, National Secretary, PUCL
Anuradha Bhasin, Editor, Kashmir Times
Faisal Anurag, Journalist and Activist, Ranchi
Akshay Azad, Journalist, Jammu
Safwan Amir, University of Delhi
Dr. Tanweer Fazal, Jamia Millia Islamia
Dr. Aftab Alam, Aligarh Muslim University
Prof. Kaleem Koya, Editor, Thejas Daily, Kerala
Kamayani Bali Mahabal, Human Rights Activist, Mumbai
Himadri Sekhar Mistri, Research Scholar, Delhi School of Economics
Vijayan MJ, writer and activist, Delhi Forum, New Delhi
Wali Laskar, Human Rights Activist, Guwahati
Imran Ali, Advocate, Delhi
Aashish Gupta, Researcher, Allahabad
Bobby Kunhu, Researcher and Writer, Kerala
Iqbal Abhimanyu, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Mary Abraham, Ambedkar University, Delhi
Abu Zafar, Special Correspondent, Afkar-e Milli Magazine
Vidya Bhushan Rawat, Writer and Activist, Delhi
Syed Afzal Ali Shah, Consultant & Sr Journalist, Lucknow
Aish M Ghrana, Writer
Kavita Srivastava, General Secretary, PUCL Rajasthan
Asad Zaidi, Three Essays Collective
Tarun Bharatiya, Film-maker, Shilong
Braham Prakash Guddu, Cultural Ativist, JNU
Aman Zaidi, Pune
Najmul Huda, Researcher, Jamia Millia Islamia
Feroze Mithiborwala, Activist, Mumbai
Dilip Khan, Journalist and Columnist, Delhi
Abdul Rashid Agwan, President Universal Knowledge Trust, New Delhi
Ra Ravishankar, Bengaluru
A B Masood, Senior Journalist
Ameeque Jamei, Member Secretariat- Akhil Bhartiya Naujawan Sabha Delhi
Lateef Mohd. Khan, Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee, Hyderabad
Kundan Pandey, Journalist, Indore
Devashis Prasoon, Journalist, Jaipur
Amit Julka, Delhi
Faizan Haidar Naqvi, Activist, Delhi
Kunal Chattopadhyay, Jadavpur University, Kolkata
Dr.Mohan Rao, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Melanie, Activist
Minakshi Menon, University of California
Afroz Ahmad Shah
Dr.Rafat Seema, Editor, NISA Magazine
Kaneez Fatima, CLMC, AP
Roomy Naqvy, Assistant Professor, Jamia Millia Islamia New Delhi
Amandeep Sandhu, writer. Delhi
Surbhi Badhwar, Assistant Professor,DU
Hargopal Singh, Member, Political Committee, UCPI, Solan. H. P.
Muhammed P, Journalist, New Delhi
Shiv, Student
Uma V Chandru, Researcher and Activist, Bangalore
Malay Deb.Zambia
Waled Aadnan, Presidency University, Kolkata
Mohsin Khan, Chennai
Romyorup Mitra, Student, DU
Azad, Activist
Shafaque Alam, student, Jamia Millia Islamia
Naveen Gaur, University of Delhi
Sangitha Krishnamurthi, Bangalore
Tikuli Dogra, Blogger, Creative Writer , New Delhi
Aniruddha Dutta, Kolkata
S. Anand, Navayana, Delhi
Khalid Jamal, Editor, JamiaJournal.com
Hamza Omar, Christ University, Bangalore
Fayaz Shaikh, Nanded, Maharashtra
Rashid Hussain, Human Development Society, Jaipur
Kishor Thope, USA
Rajeev, Activist
Zafar Lushkary, Social Activist, Okhla      
Subir Dey, Researcher, JNU, Delhi
Iqbal Ansari, Researcher, Jamia Millia Islamia
Tameemuddin Humble, Gaya, Bihar
Sai, Activist
Xavier Dais, Activist-Writer, Goa
Dr. Nowshari
Gautam Gauri, Social Activist
Sadiq Naqvi, Journalist
Saravjeet Singh, Student, Jamia Millia Islamia
Mirtyunjay Kumar, Delhi University
Umair Siddiqui, London
Syed Akhlak Ahmad, Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), New Delhi

Links: Award News: http://www.milligazette.com/news/2804-awards-indian-muslims-last-fortnight-news

PUCL-PUDR Report: http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Religion-communalism/2003/who-are-guilty.htm

UPDATE:
1. Mr. Zafar Agha will not be receiving the award as a matter of protest. We have been informed by Imran Ali, a close associate of Zafar Agha that Mr. Agha is writing to the orgainser boycotting the award.
2.  When a petioner called, Mr. M Salim, General Secretary of the Academy, he said he is free to make give award to anyone and will not change his decision. He is adamant and says, “There is nothing wrong giving award to Jagdish Tytler”.
3. Message from Sanjiv Bhatt: "Told them that I cannot accept an award or share a platform with Mr. Tytler. Sanjiv Bhatt"
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