Caravan News
HYDERABAD – Amid nationwide protests over the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Hyderabad-based Urdu writer Mujtaba Hussain has decided to return his Padma Shri award saying he was not happy with the current situation in the country.
Protesting against the new Citizenship law which discriminates against Muslims, previously two Urdu writers Shirin Dalvi and Yaqoob Yawar has returned their awards. Since the parliament passed the contentious citizenship law which provides citizenship on the basis of religion excluding Muslims, the country has witnessed huge protests across India.
Explaining the current situation, Hussain said country’s democratic set up built by freedom fighters has been altered.
“…The democratic set up built by Gandhiji, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Ambedkar, it is being broken…the voice of many people is being shut, many are being killed and poor people are not in a position to laugh,” he was quoted by PTI as saying.
Hussain was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour in the country, for his contributions to Urdu literature in 2007.
He, however, said he would not hold the BJP responsible for the state of affairs and that standards have declined in politics.
“Politicians used to be statesmen.Now, statesmanship has come to an end,” the 87-year-old writer said.
Asked for the reason that made him return the award, he said:”I am not happy with the situation today. As a citizen, I am not happy in the country…mob lynching is happening, rapes are happening, criminal activities are growing day by day in the country, whoever is doing,” he said.
“Politicians are not running the government or ‘goonda raj’ is happening or whatever is happening. Common man is worried…Common man is dying and there is no attention towards him,” he added.
