1984
Honour Turns Into Disgrace:
Mass-Murderer Jagdish Tytler
by SHIVAN VIJ
On 3 December, 2011 an open letter signed by some of us had appealed to seven distinguished individuals to not accept the Maulana Mohd. Ali Johar Award, to be given on 10 December, 2011 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, e-mailed Mahtab Alam, one of the signatories of the appeal, a scanned copy of a letter sent by Jagdish Tytler to him.
It said that Tytler would not attend the award ceremony so as to not embarrass the other awardees and the organisers, because of this boycott campaign. He, however, 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.
Given below is the final list of 150 names who signed the original appeal which has proved successful in conveying to Tytler the clear message that he is not deserving of any respect or honour:
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
The list would invariably have grown, but for the fact that the "thread was closed" in the early hours this morning.
[Courtesy: Kafila. Edited for sikhchic.com]
December 9, 2011
Conversation about this article
1: Kanwarjeet Singh (Franklin Park, New Jersey, U.S.A.), December 09, 2011, 9:40 AM.
A small but important victory. Tytler - you may have killed thousands in a few hours but we will keep haunting you till the day you die, and Satan will take over thereafter.
2: Kanwarjeet Singh (Franklin Park, New Jersey, U.S.A.), December 09, 2011, 9:42 AM.
... and thank you Shivan Vij ji - without your efforts, we would never have known about this shameless project of Mr Saleem's.
3: Kawalpreet Kaur (Amritsar, Punjab), December 09, 2011, 10:49 AM.
This person deserves nothing good in his life ... because he had done something which is inhuman and can never be forgotten. God knows everything and He has his own way of revealing the truth. I strongly believe that at the end, 'Bad' is always punished ...
4: Harinder Kohli (U.S.A.), December 09, 2011, 11:26 PM.
It is a good step which and the authors of this letter must be commended. On the other hand, the S.G.P.C. is decorating the scoundrel Badal! We need to do something about that!
5: Lovepreet Singh (Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.), December 10, 2011, 12:53 AM.
He is a racist and mass-murderer of Sikhs.
6: Mahtab Alam (Delhi, India), December 10, 2011, 1:35 AM.
Totally in agreement with Kanwarjeet. Many many thanks to Shivam for his selfless effort.
7: N. Singh (Canada), December 10, 2011, 7:12 PM.
We must take heart from all of this as here is a great lesson for us. It tells us that, a) we are not alone; b) good people from all backgrounds, including Muslims, Hindus as well as Sikhs have stepped up to the plate; c) we must carry on with our struggle and educate others about what really happened in 1984 and onwards - remember, we still have to deal with the mass disappearances. To date, we have only been highlighting the pogroms of November 1984; d) once others understand the truth, more will join the call for justice; e) other communities, as highlighted in the 'Sarkari Stooge' article on this site, also have quislings ... there will always be people who are prepared to sell their integrity as well as their community for a handful of pennies.