As said in an earlier post Allama Iqbal had an intimate relationship with Bhopal. Bhopal boasts of an Iqbal Maidan, and a monument dedicated to the Iqbal's legendary Shaheen. A "Yome Iqbal" or Iqbal festival is organised traditionally on 21st April. The Government of Madhya Pradesh has also instituted an award for Urdu literature by the name of Iqbal samman, which is the biggest award and probably the only one surviving for the Urdu literature.
According to PTI, after Jinnah, Iqbal, who penned the famous song 'Sare Jahan Se Achha' has come on the radar of saffron brigade with a BJP MLA demanding scrapping of 'Iqbal Samman' on grounds that it was the poet who had first advocated for the two-nation theory. "Iqbal had advocated the two-nation theory and it was he who had sown the seeds of division in the mind of Pakistan founder Qaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah," BJP leader Girija Shankar Sharma told PTI. Iqbal was also the 'Spiritual Guru' of Jinnah and he played a "more crucial role" in creating Pakistan than the latter, Sharma, representing Hoshangabad, alleged. "I have also written a letter to the State Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the party leadership demanding that the award in the name of Iqbal be scrapped.
Let us hope that this is an attempt to gain two minutes of fame by Mr. Sharma.
No comments:
Post a Comment