Munawwar Rana
Munawwar Rana (born 26 November 1952) is an Urdu poet from India. Early life. Munawwar Rana was born in Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh in 1952, but spent most of his life in Kolkata, West Bengal. Poetic style. He uses Hindi and Awadhi words and avoids Persian and Arabic. This makes his poetry accessible to Indian audiences and explains his popularity in the poetic meets held in non-Urdu areas. Section::::"Ghazals". Munawwar has published several "ghazals". He has a distinct style of writing. Most of his "shers" (couplets) have Mother as the centre point of his love. Personal life . Munnawar Rana is married and lives in Lucknow. His son was arrested by Rae Bareli police in August 2021 for allegedly having staged a shootout against himself in June in order to frame his uncle and cousin. This was purportedly done in relation to a property dispute. Munawwar Rana’s son Tabrez Rana was arrested from his house in Lal Kuan in Uttar Pradesh’s capital city Lucknow. He reportedly tried to flee when the police approached him. The court had issued a non-bailable warrant against him. He was brought to Rae Bareli with a large police convoy. Police  also said Munawwar’s son Tabrez Rana wanted to contest the Assembly elections from Tiloi and had planned the attack on himself to get security and media coverage. His daughter Sumaiya Rana, joined Samajwadi Party in the presence of party president Akhilesh Yadav. Controversies. Ram Mandir Verdict. In August 2020, Munawwar Rana accused former Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi of allegedly 'selling himself' to deliver the Ayodhya verdict. He further said that it was not justice, it was an order. His comment couldn't be even published due to its highly derogatory nature. Murder of Samuel Paty. In October  2020, he supported the murder in France after a school teacher used two caricatures of Prophet Muhammad from the pages of Charlie Hebdo in a class on 'Freedom of Expression'. Speaking to the media, Munawwar said that the caricatures are made to defame Prophet Muhammad and Islam. Such acts force people to take extreme steps as in the case of France. He further said that he too would have done the same had he been in his place. When asked during the interview, if he endorsed the killings, Mr. Rana repeated, “I will kill [that person].” The Uttar Pradesh Police  charged him under IPC 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on the ground of religion), 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion), 298 (Uttering, words, etc, with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person), 505(1)(b) (Punishes those who intent to cause or likely to cause fear or alarm among the public, or any section of the public whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the state or against the public tranquility), 505(2) (Whoever makes, publishes or circulates any statement, rumour or report, with  intent to incite, or which is likely to incite, any class or community of persons to commit any offence against any other class or community) and IT Act 67 and 66. Talking to a news agency on Monday, Mr. Rana said he stood by his statement. “I stand by my statement. "Na dal badlu hoon, na byan badlu hoon" [Neither do I change sides, nor do I change my statements],” he said. Favour of Taliban. Munawwar Rana also refused to recognize the Taliban as a terrorist organization but they are fighting for their country, amid an ongoing controversy over the  statements made in favor of the Taliban. Earlier, many leaders including Sambhal's SP MP Shafiqur Rehman Burke, AIMPLB's spokesperson Maulana Sajjad Nomani and Peace Party's Shadab Chauhan have made such controversial statements in favor of the Taliban. Comparing Maharishi Valmiki To Taliban. In August 2020 while talking to a channel, he had said, Valmiki “became a God after he wrote the Ramayana, before that he was a dacoit. A person’s character can change. Similarly, the Taliban, for now, are terrorists but people and characters change. When you talk about Valmiki, you will have to talk about  his past. In your religion, you make anyone God. But he was a writer, and he wrote the Ramayana, but we are not in competition here.” In response, Madhya Pradesh Police registered the case under IPC Section 505(2) (statements conducing to public mischief) and was forwarded to Hazratganj police station at Lucknow in UP. Another FIR registered against him mention IPC Sections 505 (2) (public mischief) and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The Allahabad High Court refused to quash an FIR filed against him for allegedly comparing Ramayana author Valmiki, with the Taliban. The division  bench of Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Saroj Yadav even asked Rana’s lawyer, “Why do you (Rana) make such kind of remarks. Why don’t you (Rana) do what your work is?”