It has been three days since 49 eminent personalities, including Anurag Kashyap and Aparna Sen, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, raising concerns over the rampant lynching and weaponisation of the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan.
Now, 62 other personalities have hit back with their own open letter, accusing these artists of "selective outrage, false narratives and a clear political bias". The list includes names such as Kangana Ranaut, lyricist Prasoon Joshi, filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar and so on.
Twitterati had their opinions as usual.
One Twitter user wrote that by countering the letter, they are going against the points raised in it too. “Which means these bigots *don't* condemn the increasing number of lynchings. This new letter is a mockery of free speech. "Selective outrage" is ok for a citizen, not for the government,” she wrote.
One Twitter user called out the double standards of the authors of the open letter. He said that these artists did not write a letter to question the government on RTI Amendment or encephalitis deaths, but “they wrote that mob lynching is not happening,” he tweeted.
Some journalists like Vijaita Singh and Abhinandan Sekhri put out sarcastic tweet. While Vijaita Singj said Payal Rohatgi should be added to the list, Sekhri said Vivek Agnihotri being number 9 on the list offers the letter ‘credibility’ and ‘heft’.
One Twitter user wanted to know who drafted the letter.
The signatories to the new letter also argued that “under the Modi regime we see maximum liberty to differ, to criticise and to abuse the government and dispensation in power – the spirit of dissent has never been stronger".
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