Decline Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar Award as protest: Activists

New Delhi: Civil rights activists have urged seven eminent nominated personalities to not accept the Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar Award as a mark of protest against honoring Sikh riot accused Jagdish Tytler with the same award at the same stage. Delhi-based Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar Academy has announced to award 8 people on 10th Dec. at India Islamic Cultural Centre here in New Delhi.

Awardees

Besides Tytler, seven personalities selected for the award 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 Chaudhri, 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 (Bi-Amma Award)

Appeal to decline the 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,” said activists in a statement on 3rd Dec.

They say that awarding a minority riot accused with an award named after Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar will be misuse of the name of a distinguished personality of Indian and Muslim history.

“It is sad that the name of Maulana Mohd. Ali Jauhar (1878-1931) is being misused. He 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,” they said.

They also regretted the fact that the award is being given by a religious minority group to person who has been found involved in bloody riot against another religious minority. “It is also 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,” their appeal read.

Zafar Agha, Sanjiv Bhatt decline award

Taking notice of the appeal, senior journalist and one of the awardee Mr. Zafar Agha has decided to not receive the award as a matter of protest. Mr. Agha will address a press conference on 5th Dec. in Delhi and make public his decision to boycott the award.

Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt has also declined to take the award. "Told them that I cannot accept an award or share a platform with Mr. Tytler,” Bhatt informed one of the activists.

The activists have also urged Justice (Retd.) MSA Siddiqui, chairman, National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, to not chair the award function.

Signatories to the 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
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
40. Syed Afzal Ali Shah, Consultant & Sr Journalist, Lucknow41. Aish M Ghrana, Writer

About the Award

Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar Academy was founded in 1974 at Rampur. The award was instituted in 1989. This is 23th Annual Award ceremony. The academy gives award to individuals for their extra-ordinary contribution in their respective fields like, Politics, Journalism, Social Work, etc.