Upset With Open Letter To PM Over Lynching, BJP Leader Asks Filmmaker To Go To The Moon

A day after 49 eminent personalities including actors, activists, writers and filmmakers, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over mob lynching and ¡°Jai Shree Ram¡± becoming a war cry, a Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker hit out at one of the signatories.

BJP Kerala spokesperson Advocate B Gopalakrishnan hit out at filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan. He asked him to ¡®change his name and go to another planet¡¯ if he is unable to hear the Jai Shree Ram chant.

Adoor is among the 49 artists and intellectuals who have written a letter to PM Modi expressing concerns over he lynching of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities, increasing religious identity-based hate crimes and the growing intolerance towards dissent in the country.

¡°People voted us to chant ¡°Jai Sri Ram¡± and we will continue to do so. If necessary, we will chant it before Adoor¡¯s house also. If he does not want to listen to this he can go to the moon or some other planet. He can also register his name in Sriharikota for this soon,¡± he said in a Facebook post condemning the intelligentsia for their ¡°one-sided¡± views.

Gopalakrishnan attacked Adoor for selective silence. He said people like Adoor were silent when the state government declared Section 144 and hounded hundreds of Sabarimala devotees and a student was stabbed brutally by his fellow party workers on the campus of the prestigious University College in Thiruvananthpauram.

He also hit at him saying it looks like a case of ¡°sour grapes since he did not get any position from the Central Government.¡±

Interestingly, Adoor took Gopalakrishnan¡¯s comments gutsily saying he was ready to go to the moon if he got a ticket.

¡°BJP leaders want me to go to the moon because Pakistan must be filled by now. If there is a Chandrayaan 3, if they offer me a ticket I would be happy to grab it,¡± he said ridiculing the state BJP leader¡¯s ¡°intolerance¡±, reported Hindustan Times.

The letter also states, "Ram is sacred for the majority community, stop defiling the name of Ram."

They said: "The lynching of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities must be stopped immediately. We were shocked to learn from the NCRB that there have been no less than 840 instances of atrocities against Dalits in the year 2016, and a definite decline in the percentage of convictions.¡±

The letter dated July 23 reads, ¡°You have criticised such lynchings in Parliament Mr. Prime Minister, but that is not enough! What action has actually been taken against the perpetrators?

"Regrettably "Jai Shri Ram" has become a provocative "war cry" today that leads to law and order problems, and many lynchings take place in its name."

Earlier, numerous BJP-RSS leaders have asked the ¡°urban naxal¡± gang to go to Pakistan due to difference in ideologies.