The perverted, vile and violent reaction to Sharjeel’s speech is solely because of his religion
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI— The organisers of the Elgar Parishad 2021 have come out in support of Sharjeel Usmani who has been booked by police in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh over his speech during the programme held in Pune on January 30.
The Bhima Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerna Abhiyaan, organisers of Elgar Parishad 2021, released a statement in English and Hindi late on Saturday evening saying, Usmani’s speech at Elgar parshad was “misrepresented by Brahmhinical Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and their Sangh Parivar.”
In Pune, Maharashtra, a case was filed against Usmani under Section 153 (A) of the Indian Penal Code at Swargate Police Station on Tuesday. This was done following complaints by BJP members. Usmani is a former student of the Aligarh Muslim University and also national secretary of a student group called Fraternity Movement
This was followed by another FIR against Usmani under several charges, including sedition, at Hazratganj Police Station in Lucknow, UP.
The solidarity statement by organisers of Elgar Parishad says: “We request you to see Sharjeel’s entire speech, before reading this position put forth by the organizers of Elgar Parishad 2021. The link for video of his speech is given below. We urge everyone to listen to his entire speech carefully before making a judgment on the merit of ‘truthfulness and factuality’.
“Sharjeel Usmani is a 23-year-old Muslim student. The ‘Muslim’ part of his identity had to be mentioned because the perverted, vile and violent reaction to Sharjeel’s speech is solely because of his religion. The Brahmhinical element has recently created hoopla around one statement in Sharjeel Usmani’s speech on 30th January 2021 at Ganesh Kala Krida Rang Manch, Pune. We, Bhima Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerna Abhiyan, the organizing body of Elgar Parishad 2021, are releasing our official position on the said issue through this statement. We, as organizers of the Elgar Parishad, are firmly standing with Shrjeel Usmani,”
The statement notes that “great thinkers like Krantiba Jyotiba Phule, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and social critics like Prabodhankar Thackeray and various other laureates, commentators and social-political analysts had also criticized the social structure of this country and especially Hindu religion.”
Quoting Ambedkar, it says: “If Hindu Raj becomes a reality then it would be the greatest menace to this country. It is an enemy of democracy. We should make all our efforts to stop Hindu Raj from becoming a reality.
“Sharjeel Usmani is a sincere and scholarly activist engaged in the cause of Manavmukti (Liberation of all peoples). If one listens to Sharjeel’s speech carefully, it becomes clear that he is always talking in the context of the severe oppression faced by him and many other Muslims like him. The chamber of horror that Muslims have faced in our country because of their religion is devoid of any humanitarian values and morals. In spite of this, Sharjeel’s efforts lay not in spreading hatred and causing destruction but are rather focused on establishing peace and basic human rights.”
The statement further says, “We are firmly standing with Sharjeel Usmani. Here we are declaring that we will intensify our efforts to struggle for annihilation of caste-class-patriarchy and Islamophobia.”
Besides Usmani, other notable speakers at the Parishad this year were author Arundhati Roy, former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan, journalist Prashant Kanojia, Dalit activist Satyabhama Suryawanshi, student activist Aysha Renna, family members of Payal Tadvi, Sanjiv Bhatt and Rohit Vemula, retired High Court judge B.G. Kolse Patil and retired Indian Police Services officer S.M. Mushrif.
