Once renowned Urdu poet Munawwar Rana is embroiled in yet another controversy for making objectionable comments on the Hindu religion and community by drawing false equivalents and rhetorics with the Taliban.
Rana has been going around defending the Islamist organisation in multiple media interactions. In a wrangled interview with TV anchor Deepak Chaurasia, Rana defended the Taliban tooth and nail.
Rana when asked about the Taliban, upheld his ecosystem’s narrative by calling them mere ‘aggressive fighters’ and not ‘terrorists.’ The infamous poet claimed that the Taliban are also Afghanis and they have simply freed their nation from foreign occupation.
When specifically questioned if he sees the Taliban as a terrorist organization, Rana dodging the query said, “Do we not have terrorists? One rickshawallah is beaten mercilessly in Kanpur, one politician says Munawwar Rana deserves to be encountered. You do not know the meaning of terrorist.”
Rana went ahead to make a dastardly metaphorical statement to defend the Taliban. “Valmiki became a God after he wrote the Ramayan, before that he was a dacoit. A person’s character can change. Similarly, the Taliban, for now, are terrorists but people and characters change,” exclaimed Rana. He further said, “When you speak about Valmiki you will have to talk about his past. In your religion, you make anyone the God. But he was a writer. Okay, so he wrote the Ramayan, but we are not in competition here.”
According to legend, Ratnakar, supposed to be born in a so-called low-caste, was renamed as Valmiki and given the status of Maharishi (great sage) and a great Brahmin by Narada Muni after Ratnakar performed tapasya (deep meditation). However, the Valmiki community, especially those living in Punjab, don’t like that part of the story that says that Maharishi Valmiki was any dacoit at any point in his earlier life. Repeating this portion can attract legal action. Earlier, a case was registered against Bollywood actor Rakhi Sawant for hurting the sentiments of the community under IPC 295 in 2017.
Launching an attack on the anchor, Rana giving unwarranted advice concluded by saying, “You should host debates on India’s problems. Why debate on what is happening in Afghanistan? Debate on the mob lynchings happening here.”
In yet another interview with the Navbharat Times, Rana claimed that the Taliban got freedom for its country just like how India fought for independence from the British.
Dodging every single question on the atrocities and violence done by the Taliban, Rana claimed that the Islamist organization should not be called terrorists and that they should be given time to govern before reaching any conclusion.
He claimed that the Americans and Russians harassed Afghans and claimed that the behaviour of Taliban is not like a terrorist but they are just behaving aggressively.
Earlier this week, the Islamist organisation Taliban took over Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. Since then, surreal scenes have emerged where Afghans have been falling off the sky as they hung on to the wheels of the plane as they tried to flee the country. Shocking visuals of Afghans trying to flee the country, some by hanging on to the planes leaving Kabul Airport have gone viral. They also held a press conference where they claimed that women will also have rights but under the Islamic Sharia. Soon, reports of women being beaten and killed and fed to dogs by Taliban went viral.
