Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Poet Bashir Badar goes to police against another Urdu poet Manzar Bhopali

Day before yesterday, TV channel Star News  screamed 'Shair ne desh ko bad-duaa di' [Poet cursed the country]. I heard the headlines and could not follow the entire news because I was in a hurry then.

Later it was beamed on other channels as well. Subsequently, it published in newspapers. Also, posters of RSS mouthpiece Panch-Janya that asks why a poet who has such 'ill-will' against the country should be given the national honour of 'Padma-Shree', came out.

Bashir Badr [see photograph on the left] approached police in Bhopal and complained that it was Manzar Bhopali, who was behind this slander campaign against him. Manzar says that it was in 2000 that Bashir Badr had offered such prayer during Umrah.

Another poet has then lodged a complaint against him at Noida police station. Today Manzar said that Bashir has lost his mental balance and might lodge a case against Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Incidentally, both Manzar and Bashir Badr are in BJP.

BJP made Bashir Badar the Chairman of Urdu Academy Madhya Pradesh. Both had joined BJP together and floated a platform of Muslims and Urdu poets that supported Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the last elections. Both were barred from mushairas then all over the country.

Now they are fighting. So is it a clash of interest!