Update on 11 December:

Twocircles.net reports:

“Zafar Agha was replaced by ex-MP and senior Journalist Santosh Bharatiya. However, M Saleem claimed that Sanjeev Bhatt could not attend the programme due to time constraint and the award may be given to him some other time. While referring to Santosh Bhartiya, being awarded in place of Zafar Agha, M. Saleem said that he has been nominated for the award and nobody has been replaced for the same. The organizer kept totally mum about both Zafar Agha and Jagdish Tytler. ” [Link]

*

On 3 December, an open letter signed by some of us, and posted here on Kafila, had appealed to seven distinguished individuals to not accept the Maulana Mohd. Ali Johar Award, to be given on 10 December at the India Islamic Cultural Centre. We had reasoned that since the eighth awardee was Jagdish Tytler, they should not share an award and a platform with someone accused of organising mass murder of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984.

Yesterday evening, the general secretary of the Maulana Jauhar Academy, M. Saleem, emailed one of the signatories, Mahtab Alam. The email contained a scanned copy of a letter sent by Jagdish Tytler to M Saleem, which said that Tytler would not attend the award ceremony so as to not embarrass the the other awardees and the organisers, because of this boycott campaign. He, however, stressed on his innocence in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom, and, notably, did not say that he would not accept the award. He would only not attend the ceremony. M. Saleem has also not announced whether he is withdrawing his decision to give the award to Mr Tytler. For more details on what has transpired in the last few days, please see Mahtab Alam’s article, Beware of the Sarkari Musalmaan.

Given below is the final list of 150 names who signed the original appeal. 

1. Sohail Hashmi, Writer and Film Maker, Delhi

2. Mukul Dube, Writer and Columnist, Delhi

3. Mahtab Alam, Civil Rights’ Activist and Journalist, Delhi

4. Shivam Vij, Writer and Journalist, Delhi

5. Shabnam Hashmi, Social Activist, ANHAD, Delhi

6. Mazin Khan, Pharos Media, Delhi

7. Subhash Gatade, Writer and Activist, New Socialist Initiative, Delhi

8. Manisha Sethi, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association

9. M Gauhar Iqbal, Social Activist, 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

25. Dr.Mohammad Arif, Chairman, Centre for Harmony and Peace,Varanasi

26. Safwan Amir, University of Delhi

27. Dr. Tanweer Fazal, Jamia Millia Islamia

28. Dr. Aftab Alam, Aligarh Muslim University

29. Prof. Kaleem Koya, Editor, Thejas Daily, Kerala

30. Kamayani Bali Mahabal, Human Rights Activist Mumbai

31. Himadri Sekhar Mistri, Research Scholar, Delhi School of Economics

32. Vijayan MJ, writer and activist, Delhi Forum, New Delhi

33. Wali Laskar, Human Rights Activist, Guwahati

34. Imran Ali, Advocate, Delhi

35. Aashish Gupta, Researcher, Allahabad

36. Bobby Kunhu, Researcher and Writer, Kerala

37. Iqbal Abhimanyu, Jawaharlal Nehru University

38. Mary Abraham, Ambedkar University, Delhi

39. Abu Zafar, Special Correspondent, Afkar-e Milli Magazine

40. Vidya Bhushan Rawat, Writer and Activist, Delhi

41. Aish M Ghrana, Writer

42. Kavita Srivastava, General Secretary, PUCL Rajasthan

43. Syed Afzal Ali Shah, Consultant & Sr Journalist, Lucknow

44. Asad Zaidi, Three Essays Collective

45. Tarun Bharatiya, Film-maker, Shilong

46. Braham Prakash Guddu, Cultural Ativist, JNU

47. Aman Zaidi, Pune

48. Najmul Huda, Researcher, Jamia Millia Islamia

49. Feroze Mithiborwala, Activist, Mumbai

50. Dilip Khan, Journalist and Columnist, Delhi

51. Abdul Rashid Agwan, President Universal Knowledge Trust, New Delhi

52. Ra Ravishankar, Bengaluru

53. A B Masood, Senior Journalist

54. Ameeque jamei Member Secretariat- Akhil Bhartiya Naujawan Sabha Delhi

55. Lateef Mohd. Khan, Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee, Hyderabad

56. Kundan Pandey, Journalist, Indore

57. Devashis Prasoon, Journalist, Jaipur

58. Amit Julka, Delhi

59. Faizan Haidar Naqvi, Activist, Delhi

60. Kunal Chattopadhyay, Jadavpur University, Kolkata

61. Dr.Mohan Rao, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

62. Melanie, Activist

63. Minakshi Menon, University of California

64. Afroz Ahmad Shah

65. Dr.Rafat Seema, Editor, NISA Magazine

66. Kaneez Fatima, CLMC, AP

67. Roomy Naqvy, a, Assistant Professor, Jamia Millia Islamia New Delhi

68. Amandeep Sandhu, writer. Delhi

69. Surbhi Badhwar, Assistant Professor,DU

70. Hargopal Singh, Member, Political Committee, UCPI, Solan. H. P.

71. Muhammed P, Journalist, New Delhi

72. Shiv, Student

73. Uma V Chandru, Researcher and Activist, Bangalore

74. Malay Deb.Zambia

75. Waled Aadnan, Presidency University, Kolkata

76. Mohsin Khan, Chennai

77. Romyorup Mitra, Student, DU

78. Azad, Activist

79. Shafaque Alam, student, Jamia Millia Islamia

80. Naveen Gaur, University of Delhi

81. Sangitha Krishnamurthi, Bangalore

82. Tikuli Dogra, Blogger, Creative Writer , New Delhi

83. Aniruddha Dutta, Kolkata

84. S. Anand, Navayana, Delhi

85. Khalid Editor, JamiaJournal.com

86. Hamza Omar, Christ University, Bangalore

87. Fayaz Shaikh, Nanded, Maharashtra

88. Rashid Hussain ,Human Development Society, Jaipur

89. Kishor Thope, USA

90. Rajeev, Activist

91. Zafar Lushkary, Social Activist, Okhla

92. Subir Dey, Researcher, JNU, Delhi

93. Iqbal Ansari, Researcher, Jamia Millia Islamia

94. Tameemuddin Humble, GAYA, Bihar

95. Sai, Activist

96. Xavier Dais, Activist-Writer, Goa

97. Dr. Nowshari

98. Gautam Gauri, Social Activist

99. Sadiq Naqvi, Journalist

100. Saravjeet Singh, Student, Jamia Millia Islamia

101. Mirtyunjay Kumar, Delhi University

102. Umair Siddiqui, London

103. Akhlaq Ahmed, APCR, Delhi

104. Sudeep Singh, Punjab

105. UZAIR AHMED KHAN, Student,Hyderabad

106. Irfan Khan, Journalist

107. Arjen Singh

108. Dhido Gill , California

109. Manpreet Singh

110. S.Karmegam, JNU

111. Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, Editor, Milli Gazette

112. Dr. S Q R Ilyas, Editor, Afkar e Milli

113. Mujtaba Farooq, Jamaat e Islami Hind

114. Shiney Varghese

115. Rana Singh member punjab student union ( Shaheed Randhava)

116. Gurmeet Singh, Dhanbad, jharkhand

117. Harpreet Singh, IIM SHILLONG

118. Ali, Delhi

119. T. Sher Singh

120. Arvinder Uppal

121. Dharmveer Yadav

122. H S Grewal. London

123. Gurpreet Singh

124. Taran

125. Simran Jeet Singh, Columbia University

126. Virendra Mongia

127. G. Kaur

128. Preet Sandhu, Toronto, Canada

129. Kanwarjeet Singh

130. Prabdeep Singh

131. J Singh, Toronto

132. Navreet Kaur. Sydney, Australia

133. Kamal Deep Singh

134. Hari Singh

135. Inderpal Singh

136. Jaswinder Singh

137. Zamir, Entrepreneur, Srinagar, Kashmir

138. Amarjeet Singh

139. Anil, Research scholar

140. Taranjit Singh

141. G.Singh

145. Simran

146. Saudha Kasim, Bangalore

147. Amandeep Singh – UK Sikh Lobby Group

148. Serene Kasim, Bangalore

149. Maryam Fatima, New Delhi

150. Bharat Desi