By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
New Delhi: Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu (Hind) general Secretary Ather Farouqui has written a scathing letter to the Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on renaming the fish market at Ghazipur as Shaheed Ashfaqullah Khan Fish Market, calling it a “national shame”.
He wrote to the CM, “I would like to bring to your notice an intriguing issue that can only be considered a matter of national shame as it not only shows an Urdu poet, and by corollary the entire Urdu community, in poor light but also runs the risk of provoking the ire of freedom fighters.”
He added, “The fact that it is located right in front of the Murga market is double jeopardy which even a student of class V will testify. This supposedly to honour the memory of a great son of India and an eminent poet of Urdu, the national language!”
Ather Farouqui told TCN, “This matter not only relates to the Urdu-speaking populace, but freedom fighters and all the concerned citizens. It is a transgression on the sanctity of the Indian nation which was formed from the blood and toil of such freedom fighters and martyrs as Shaheed Ashfaqullah Khan.”
He added, “If the Delhi Government has run out of ideas to constructively and judiciously commemorate our martyrs, poets and intellectuals, it should at least refrain from making a mockery of their sacrifices and dedication to the cause of the nation.”
In the letter to the CM, he further urged, “Shaheed Ashfaqullah Khan should only be remembered as an Indian who was an Urdu shayar par excellence, a brave freedom fighter and a martyr who gave up his life for his country at the young age of 27. Therefore, it will be a great service to his memory, if you rectified this grave faux pas and reconsidered honouring his martyrdom in a more appropriate manner befitting his stature.”