Celebrities slammed with sedition charges who wrote an open letter to PM!

The issues related to mob-lynching have been a matter of serious concern in India. Currently, the country has been experiencing minor setbacks with pre-existing social issues. Hitherto, Bollywood actors once again stood up in support of citizens, unlike every other issue. 

This time 49 eminent personalities, artists and intellectuals including Aparna Sen, Mani Ratnam, Shyam Benegal, Ketan Mehta, Gautam Ghose; actors Soumitra Chatterjee, Revathy Asha; author Amit Chaudhuri; singer Shubha Mudgal, wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi expressing their concerns over the same.

The open letter addressed the lynching of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities which needs to be stopped immediately. 

On Saturday, a petition has been filed against all the prominent citizens who had written to PM Narendra Modi, seeking slapping of sedition and other charges. The petition was filed by an advocate before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate under different sections of the Indian Penal Code, relating to sedition, imputations, and assertions prejudicial to national-integration and hurting religious feelings.

The petitioner was recognized as Sudhir Kumar Ojha called out big names like Kangana Ranaut, Madhur Bhandarkar, and Vivek Agnihotri, who were among 61 high-profile personalities to counter the letter, as ‘witnesses’.

Ojha alleged that the 49 signatories to the letter had, by their act, ‘tarnished the image of the country and undermining the impressive performance of the Prime Minister’ and also charged them with ‘supporting secessionist tendencies’.

While the celebrities have voiced out their opinion and expressed their concerns at a number of ‘religious identity-based hate crimes’, the hearing is likely to be conducted on August 3, 2019.

The matter is likely to come up for hearing on August 3.

On Tuesday, 49 personalities, including filmmakers Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap, Shyam Benegal and Aparna Sen as well as vocalist Shubha Mudgal and historian Ramchandra Guha, had expressed concern at the number of 'religious identity-based hate crimes'.

They also noted that 'Jai Shri Ram' has become a provocative war cry with many lynching incidents taking place in its name. Sixty-one intellectuals, including lyricist Prasoon Joshi and singer Malini Awasthi, responded with a counter statement on Friday against 'selective outrage and false narratives'.

The statement read, "It (the July 23 letter) is aimed at tarnishing India's international standing and to negatively portray the prime minister's untiring efforts to effectuate governance on the foundations of positive nationalism and humanism which is the core of Indianness."

Credits: Times of India