Javed Akhtar

Mumbai, July 21: Police commissioner A.. Roy has promisedan immediate inquiry into the charge that Urdu Times, a daily published from the city, has mounted a malicious campaign against poet-writer Javed Akhtar to incite communal hatred.

The Muslims for Secular Democracy met the commissioner yesterday with the complaint that the newspaper was also instigating violence against Akhtar, who is the organisation president, and other office-bearers and members.

The commissioner told them that the media monitoring cell of the Mumbai police had already drawn his attention to certain articles in the Urdu Times.

Roy said he would ask the legal cell of the Mumbai police to examine the complaint. He promised police protection if any member of the organisation perceived a threat of physical violence.

Urdu Times launched its campaign against Akhtar after Muslims for Secular Democracy held a meeting on the issue of the triple talaq on July 2, before the Muslim Personal Law Board met on the subject on July 4 in Kanpur, said Javed Anand, the general secretary of the organisation.

The board called for an end to the practice of triple talaq, pointing out that it has been banned in every Islamic state except Saudi Arabia, and asked for the reform of all personal laws, saying they were all unfair to women.

This provoked a certain section of the Muslim community here, which mounted the campaign against Akhtar.

They chose him and did not mention the names of the other members because they felt he was a soft target as his “past” could be used against him, said Anand.

For a week while the campaign lasted, Akhtar was asked to be a Muslim first, advised to stick to his profession and warned that otherwise he would be put alongside Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasreen.

The campaign brought up the subject of his divorce and questioned his authority to speak on talaq. It also called him and the other members “munafiqeen” — betrayers of Islam who pretend to be Muslims — and said that post-9/11, a section of Indian Muslims were acting on behalf of the US and Hindutva forces against the community.