In a befitting reply to the 49 personalities, 112 veterans from Defence Forces have written an open letter, addressed to PM Modi. The personalities include, Adoor Gopalkrishnan, Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap, Aparana Sen, Ram Chandra Guha and Binayak Sen, who wrote a letter addressed to PM Modi in a bid to draw his attention to “rising incidents of mob lynching” and also declared Hindu religious chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’ to be a “provocative war cry”.
The defence veterans have taken much indignation at this selective display of “concern” and have sought to quash each and every allegation that is being purported. They stated that the letter is “one sided” and quotes “selective incidents”. They even stated that “Shree Ram”, which has been derogated by the celebrities in their letter, has been the “soul and spirit of this country for millennia”. They further referred to the celebrities as “anti-hindu” or “anti-national”, or merely on the “payroll of some criminal syndicate”.
The defence veterans also lauded the “Strong and committed” leadership of PM Modi and wished for him to “continue at the helm as PM till all the anti-India forces are totally demolished.”
As reported by Republic, the letter is as follows:
“An open letter to our Prime Minister Sh Narendra Modi has been written by some self styled custodians of democracy and freedom of speech, as led by the likes of Ms Aparna Sen and others. The letter has been published on July 23, 2019. It was signed by some 49 so called celebrities.
The letter has deeply hurt our sentiments, the sentiments of the veteran soldiers. The letter is one sided and quotes only selective incidents. The tone and tenor of the letter seems to please our enemies, rather than an effort to solve our problems.
We are hurt that their diatribe did not even spare “Shree Ram”. Shree Ram has been the soul and spirit of this country for millennia. We have survived the invaders for more than a thousand years only through our patience and faith in “Shree Ram”. We the soldiers fight for our country and uphold all faiths and religions. But when someone tries to demean the majority faith, we really feel hurt. It becomes difficult for the Military leadership to keep the morale high among the soldiers. The soldier whose religion is attacked, feels demoralised.
We knew for long that there are black sheep among us, the enemy within. But now we know them. It was strange and shameful that within a day or so when our country was celebrating the great feat of Chandrayan-2 that these people rolled out this letter. They have tried to demean and belittle India in the eyes of the world.
We were told for long that the Indian cinema is in the grip of some absconding criminals and enemies of Hindu faith. Their letter gives credence to such claims for these film personalities at least. These people are either anti Hindu and anti-national or they are on the payroll of some criminal syndicates. Their only agenda is to keep India under cloud and look for opportunities to damage its growing image.
The Indian soldier everyone knows has always stood the tests of time to protect our territorial integrity and sovereignty under every adversity despite lukewarm to contemptible treatments by most of the earlier regimes, till Modi arrived.
Everything changed as Modi arrived on the scene. There has been a sense of comfort, a breath of fresh air. The corruption has been stifled, the military procurement has been expedited and a big boost has been provided to our own Military-Industrial Complex.
May be these people are not happy that PM Modi has stopped their loot, checked their anti-india activities and that the morale of our soldiers is very high.
We the soldiers may not be good at Pen, we may not be able to select politically correct words, but we speak from the heart. We do not mince words. For us “India is First, Always and Every Time; and Under All Circumstances”.
In the present times, we find a STRONG and a COMMITTED leadership in PM Narendra Modi. We, the Veterans pray to God and Mother India to bless Modi with long life to continue at the helm as PM till all the anti-India forces are totally demolished.
We the following strongly condemn the letter by 49 and request our Prime Minister to adopt zero tolerance against such people who bring bad name to our great country. They may not be terrorists but they are definitely anarchists and we request the common patriotic citizens of our country to understand their nefarious designs and shun their cheap politics.”
This letter seeks to debunk the meek and vacuous claims which are clearly dissociated from reality. A few days ago, a group of 61 celebrities including, Kangana Ranaut, Prasoon Joshi, Sonal Mansingh, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Madhur Bhandarkar and Vivek Agnihotri had also written an open letter calling out to the hypocrisy. Now, this letter by the veterans is another nail in the coffin of the liberal personalities who are finding out the hard way that they cannot make blatant statements and not bear the repercussions.