TMC’s Nusrat Jahan backs letter to PM by 49 eminent people, BJP chief Dilip Ghosh lashes out at her

Trinamool Congress MP Nusrat Jahan has backed the initiative by 49 eminent personalities — including Aparna Sen, Shyam Benegal, Anurag Kashyap, Ramchandra Guha, Soumitra Chattopadhyay, Kaushik Sen and others — for writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on mob lynching.

In the letter, the signatories have expressed concern about the “number of tragic events” in recent times including incidents of lynching and use of the slogan “Jai Shree Ram” as a “war cry”.

Nusrat Jahan, the Trinamool Congress’ MP from Basirhat, who won by the largest margin among her party MPs, backed the initiative and shared her thoughts on Twitter. “Lets keep fighting for humanity,” she tweeted. “Today, while everyone is busy discussing roads, power, flight operations, etc. I am glad that members of our Civil Society have raised a very basic topic, ‘Human Life’”.

The Trinamool MP wrote that she has a lot of hope that fellow citizens would raise their voices. “In 2019, there have been 11 hate crimes and four deaths and all were “minorities and the suppressed… There are numerous incidents of citizens being attacked by so-called ‘cow vigilantes’ over rumours of eating beef, or cow smuggling etc & the government’s selective silence & inaction hits us hard”, she wrote.

“As a young MP, representing new age secular India, I request this Government & all lawmakers to frame a law to stop such assaults on democracy by mob-lynchers,” she tweeted.

She wrote that there should not be bloodshed in the name of cow, in the name of god, on account of someone’s beard or cap. (“Gaay ke naam pe – Bhagwaan ke naam pe – kisi ke dari pe – kisi ke topi pe – ye khoon kharaba Bandh kare.”)

She also quoted from Muhammad Iqbal’s Sare Jahan Se Accha to portray the country’s unity: Majhab nahi sikhata/Aapas me bair rakhna/Hindi hai hum – Watan hai/Ye Hindustan Hamara!”

However, the young Trinamool Congress MP was criticised by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Bengal chief Dilip Ghosh. “It would be good if she were to find out how Trinamool Congress men are attacking our supporters in her constituency, and our men are being attacked in various parts of Bengal for saying Jai Shree Ram,” Ghosh said.