The IIT-Kanpur has finally broken silence over the Faiz Ahmed Faiz controversy. While there has been lot of discussion about how the iconic poem by the legendary poet is being used by the anti-CAA protesters, the IIT-Kanpur was under spotlight for reportedly launching a probe to examine if ‘Hum Dekhenge’ was anti-Hindu or not. However, now the IIT-Kanpur has issued a clarification saying that no such probe has been ordered. “Fake news,” said IIT-Kanpur’s deputy director Manindra Agrawal on the Faiz probe. Agrawal has also said that “the six-member panel would investigate if there was any deliberate mischief.” The prestigious institute had set up a probe panel to investigate a December 17 campus protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The protesters had recited the poem as part of the stir against the citizenship law.
The panel was constituted after a complaint was filed by Dr Vashimant Sharma, a temporary faculty member. The poem was read to express solidarity with students of Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi. Salima Hashmi, daughter of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, had termed the entire controversy as absurd. “Let’s look at in another way, they may end up getting interested in Urdu poetry and its metaphors. Never underestimate the power of Faiz,” she was quoted as saying.
After top poets and writers including Javed Akhtar, Rahat Indori and Vishal Bhardwaj described attempts to paint Faiz Ahmed Faiz's revolutionary "Hum Dekhenge" as anti-Hindu and pro-Islam, a "ridiculous" and "narrow-minded" attempt; film director, lyricist and poet Gulzar asserted that his lines were taken ‘out-of-context’ and it is wrong on the part of people who are using it as protest anthem.
When quizzed about the probe by IIT-Kanpur over recitation of 'Hum Dekhenge' on Jamia Millia Islamia campus in their protest against the amended Citizenship Acts, Gulzar said, “Faiz Ahmed Faiz was the founder of Progressive Writers movement and using a work that was written as a form of protest against Pakistani military dictator Zia-ul-Haq is not suitable. Whatever he has written has to be seen in its correct context and that is what needs to be done.”
Filmmaker-composer Vishal Bhardwaj, who had used Faiz's 'Gulon Mein Rang Bhare...' in his critically-acclaimed, Kashmir-set 2014 film "Haider", said those interpreting it as pro-Muslim and anti-Hindu lack "emotional intelligence".
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