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An appeal to seven distinguished individuals to decline the Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar Award

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You can add your name to this appeal in the comments section.

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:

1. Mahtab Alam, civil rights activist and journalist, Delhi
2. Shabnam Hashmi, social activist, ANHAD, Delhi
3. Manisha Sethi, Jamia Teachers Solidarity Association
4. Subhash Gatade, writer and activist, New Socialist Initiative, Delhi
5. M Gauhar Iqbal, social activist, Delhi
6. Mukul Dube, writer and columnist, Delhi
7. Sohail Hashmi, writer and filmmaker, Delhi
8. Shivam Vij, writer and journalist, Delhi
9. Mazin Khan, Pharos Media, Delhi
10. Preeti Sampat, Researcher and Activist, Delhi
11.  Kabir Khan, Activist, Mumbai
12.  Musab Iqbal, Editor, NewzFirst.com, Bangalore
13.  Savad Rahman, Journalist, Kerala
14.  Harsh Kapoor, South Asia Citizen’s Web
15.  Nisar Ahmed, Independent Journalist and Activist, Beed, Maharashtra
16.  Mohd.Rais Khan,Editor,Qaumi Farman, Mumbai
17.  Javed Naqi, Human Rights Activist
18.  Shafiq R Khan, Activist and Founder Empower People
19.  Waqar Anwar, Member, Advisory Council, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Delhi and Haryana
20.  Mahipal Singh, National Secretary, PUCL
21.  Anuradha Bhasin, Editor, Kashmir Times
22.  Faisal Anurag, Journalist and Activist, Ranchi
23.  Akshay Azad, Journalist, Jammu
24.  Ahmed Sohaib, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
25.  Safwan Amir, University of Delhi
26.  Dr. Tanweer Fazal, Jamia Millia Islamia
27.  Dr. Aftab Alam, Aligarh Muslim University
28.  Prof. Kaleem Koya, Editor, Thejas Daily, Kerala
29.  Kamayani Bali Mahabal, Human Rights Activist, Mumbai
30.  Himadri Sekhar Mistri, Research Scholar, Delhi School of Economics
31.  Vijayan MJ, writer and activist, Delhi Forum, New Delhi
32.  Wali Laskar, Human Rights Activist, Guwahati
33.  Imran Ali, Advocate, Delhi
34.  Aashish Gupta, Researcher, Allahabad
35.  Bobby Kunhu, Researcher and Writer, Kerala
36.  Iqbal Abhimanyu, Jawaharlal Nehru University
37.  Mary Abraham, Ambedkar University, Delhi
38.  Abu Zafar, Special Correspondent, Afkar-e Milli Magazine
39.  Vidya Bhushan Rawat, Writer and Activist, Delhi

104 thoughts on “An appeal to seven distinguished individuals to decline the Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar Award”

  3. why not ask the academy to drop tytlers name?and if it can think of giving tytler an award, whats the value of such an award?

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  4. Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar Award to Mr Jagdish Tytler, an accused in the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984 is Shameful and against peaceful relations with and amongst minorities in India.

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  5. Any such action will lead to social chaos in coming times. We must restrain ourselves to glorify those who are connected to heinous crimes.

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  10. Jyoti, I spoke to the general secretary of the academy, Mr. M Salim. He said, “I am free to make decision about the Award giving and will not change my decision. He is adamant and says, “There is nothing wrong in giving award to Jagdish Tytler”.

    regards,
    Mahtab

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  11. I have shared this on my facebook page. I do agree with the appeal.
    Roomy Naqvy
    Assistant Professor, English, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

    Like

  14. Also, what is Tytler’s distinctive contribution to the society for which he has been selected? It is not clear why he should be conferred with this award at all. “former minister”?!

    Assistant Professor,
    University of Delhi, Delhi.

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  22. Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar Award to Mr Jagdish Tytler, is Shameful for the nation and Muslim Community.

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  32. Why don’t they also award one to Narendra Modi while they are it. That would be icing on the cake.

    Khalid Jaleel
    Student Jamia Millia Islamia,
    Editor, JamiaJournal.com — JMI’s independent student newspaper.

    Like

  35. It is not acceptable as no one having right to defame personality like Maulana Mohd Ali Johar.

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  36. Press Meet to appeal to seven individuals to decline the Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar Award, 4 PM, 5th December 11 (Monday) at 23, Canning Lane (ANHAD office), New Delhi. At the press meet, Mr. Zafar Agha will be explaining, why he has refused to accept the award.

    regards,
    Mahtab

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  43. I am disgusted to see that one of the organizers of the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984 has been nominated for an award. His present address should have been Tihar Jail.

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  46. Giving any award to Jagdish Tytler will devalue the award. He behind the killing
    of so many Sikhs. Even Maulana Mohammed Ali Jauhar would not have
    approved of an award to a person like Jagdish Tytler.

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  48. Let us denounce it so vociferously it becomes meaningless.
    Sudeep Singh, Punjab.

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  51. I am disgusted to see that one of the organizers of the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984 has been nominated for an award. His present address should have been Tihar Jail.

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  52. Jagdish Tytler is a public enemy that his role was instrumental in killing Sikh families in Dehli in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi assassination.

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  56. shameful Act , An Award For 1984 Mass-Murderer Jagdish Tytler .?

    Student PGDM
    IIM SHILLONG

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  58. No one with any self-respect would want to be associated in any way with this mass-murderer.

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  60. It,s a matter of great shame to give such an award to Tytlar who is an accused of mass murder…………….
    Shame!! Shame!!!!!

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  62. It only happens in INDIA. What a Shame. I am sure there are vested interests of the awarding body who decides upon the awardees.

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  65. I want that Jagdish Tytler should not be awarded for his role in 1984 anti sikh riots.

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  66. So shocking that a minority organization will totally ignore and belittle a mass murder inflicted upon another minority not so long ago and instead of being supportive to the vicitims will go on to award the perpetrator.

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  70. I wonder why they would honour such a man….

    Nonetheless, he (like us all) will meet our moment of truth…

    J. Singh
    Toronto

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  75. I agree with Dr. Nowshari’s and Irfan’s comments:
    “I am disgusted to see that one of the organizers of the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984 has been nominated for an award. His present address should have been Tihar Jail”.

    “Giving any award to Jagdish Tytler will devalue the award. He behind the killing of so many Sikhs. Even Maulana Mohammed Ali Jauhar would not have approved of an award to a person like Jagdish Tytler”.

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  77. This is shameful and disgraceful is this India what was supposed to be a nation which each race and religion could call home has become?

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  79. Awarding a Mass Murderer will be a crime in itself. Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar was a great scholar & a very respectable person in the Indian history. He would have rejected an award for any such person, if he was alive.
    12000+ Sikhs were killed on the streets of Dehli in 3days of November 1984. Those crowds were organised and sent by people like Jagdish Tytler.
    I would request all the seven co-awardees to reject this award. This would bring a little smile on the faces of those whose family members were killed by him.

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  80. This is a wake up call for all of us to raise their voice againt injustice otherwise innocents will keep getting killed/prison and criminal’s will keep getting rewards.

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  83. On one side you have the corrupt & murderous politicians of the Congress Party. On the other side you have the BJP extremists linked to the Shive Sena and RSS.

    Who is an Indian suppossed to vote for!

    And to finish it all off, Pratibha Patil, the current president of India is also currently being invesigated for her involvment in the 1984 Sikh Genocide!

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  84. If criminals like Tyler are getting this type of award it doesn’t say much about the award or the organisation giving it.

    This also says alot about the so-called-largest-democracy in the world where a murderer like tyler can not only walk free but be in government.

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  86. This mass murdered should not be given an award but better suited for his crime a prison sentence!

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  87. People who commit crimes against human are not worthy of public service,they are selffesh and will do anything for money including kill fellow men.So the only reward they deserve is what they do to others.

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  88. Respected sir/madam………its my heartly request to all of you to decline this award as one of the main mudrer of sikhs of 1984 sikh riots is going to share this award with you……….plz help sikh’s and give us your powerful voice for justice……

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  90. Jagdish Tytler needs to be brought to justice swiftly. This person is a mass-murderer and has committed crimes against humanity.

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  91. Anyone who can stand on the same stage and accept an award alongside this mass murderer is equally contemptable. Where is the honor in recieving such an award?

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  93. Whilst i am not surprised to see Tytler being rewarded i am presently surprised at the number of voices opposing it, As it is evident that a state sponsored elimination process has been going on since Independence of the Sikhs culminating in the mass murder of innocent pilgrims on the most busiest day of the year at more than 40 places of worship, then the organised slaughter of November, then 10 years of absolute terror on the same community and today the selective discrimination and imprisonment of innocent Sikhs continues with torture and murder continuing. and to my Knowledge it is only the Sikh Community that is trying to expose such blatant and absolute discrimination of a people under the guise of a secular democracy.

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  97. This is a time for all those Indians, who want to bring a change in Indian Justice system , and all those who supported Anna and his movement of accoutability and corruption free India, It is time to standup and take action by supporting this bycott of award given to a public servant to was responsible for breaking the same judicial system , which we are trying to uphold.

    Like

  99. Pingback: Beware of the Sarkari Mussalmaan: Mahtab Alam « Kafila
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