Days after 49 eminent personalities wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing concern over mob lynchings, 61 celebrities have written an open letter against 'selective outrage'.
The signatories to the new letter include Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairman Prasoon Joshi, actor Kangana Ranaut, classical dancer and Member of Parliament Sonal Mansingh, and filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar among others.
"An open letter which has been published on July 23 2019, and addressed to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has astonished us. Forty nine self-styled 'guardians' and conscience keepers' of the nation... have expressed selective concern and demonstrated a clear political bias and motive," the letter reads.
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"To us, the undersigned, this document of selective outrage comes across as an attempt to foist a FALSE NARRATIVE... to negatively portray Prime Minister Modi's untiring efforts. The signatories of the 'open letter' have, in the past, kept silent when tribals and the marginalised have become victims of Naxal terror, they have kept silent when separatists have issued dictates to burn schools in Kashmir, they have kept silent when the demand for dismembering India were made..."the letter says.
On Tuesday, 49 people including historian Ramachandra Guha and filmmaker Aprana Sen had written a letter to the PM drawing his attention to a “number of tragic events that occurred in recent times.”
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“Dear Prime Minister, We, as peace-loving and proud Indians, are deeply concerned about a number of tragic events that have been happening in recent times in our beloved country…The lynchings of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities must be stopped immediately.
"We are shocked to learn from the NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) reports that there have been no less than 840 instances of atrocities against Dalits in the year 2016, and a definite decline in the percentage of convictions,” read the letter.
