RIYADH — The Bihar International Society & Welfare Association (BISWAS) and India Islamic Cultural Centre jointly held here a poetry session or popularly known as Mushaira titled "Shaam-e-Imran" dedicated to the celebrated young Indian poet Imran Partapgarhi. The event conducted by the General Secretary of BISWAS Akhtarul Islam Nadvi consisted of two sessions. Murshid Kamal, the convener of Overseas chapter of India Islamic Cultural Centre welcomed the Urdu poetry lovers. During the first session renowned local poets Khaja Hasan, Qazi Mansoor, Dr. Shafiq Nadvi, Khurshidul Hasan Nayyar, Ashraf Kamal and Margoob Mohsin delivered their lyrics on current issues. After that Imran captured the hearts of audience by reciting lyrics after lyrics for over two and half an hour, invoking pride, dismissing aggression of every kind and challenging the marginalization of Muslims in India. He expressed the hard feeling about the violation of rights of the Muslims in India, questioned the parliament for the atrocities done to his Muslim brethren. In one poetry he called India as, "Maa hum bhi tere bête hain" (Mother, we are also your sons). However, he complains in the same poem, "tujhe jalte Kashmir, Bambayi aur Gujrat nahi dikhte hain maa" (Mother, why don't you look upon the atrocities in Kashmir, Mumbai and Gujarat). This is a way he expresses the pain of the wrath brought upon Muslims of a few states in India, but at the same time, he showed his love for our nation by calling India as "Maa" or mother. It was Imran's confident style and flawless diction, which had 1,000-plus audience wanting for more. Although he is student of Hindi language but is popularly known as an Urdu poet. The magnificence of Imran's lyrics is that he perfectly depicts the currents particularly the events related to atrocities being exercised against the Muslims. His popular nazm "men filistin hun.. men filistin hun" (I am Palestine) reflects the outrages on his Muslim brethren in Palestine. The audience wholeheartedly applauded him when he recited his current poem about young Minhaj Ansari of Jharkhand who was beaten to death in police custody for no reason other than being suspected of eating beef. When Imran expressed with tears in his eyes the real pain of Najeeb's mother, a science student of JNU who has been missing since couple of weeks, silence prevailed and everybody empathized with him. At a time when Islamic seminaries or madrasas are being labeled as nursery of terrorism, Imran perfectly expressed in his famed poem the real contribution of madrasas to freedom fight. In this poem, he stressed that madrasas have no relation to terrorism, rather they advocate and spread peace and love, and the students are taught there how to live a simple life. About prejudice of the fourth pillar of Indian democracy's (the media) towards the Muslims, Imran recited: "Madhhab ke thekedaaron se, Bharat ki sab sarkaaron se; Humko kuch baatein kehni hai channelo aur akhbaaro se Har jagah tumhein har saazish mein tumhein Islam dikhayi deta hai; Kyu nahi magar tumko Burma, Assam dikhai deta hai." (We have a question for self-styled caretakers of religions, various governments, TV channels and newspapers, You never fail to see Islam's role in every controversy, but you never get to see atrocities in Burma and Assam). The key members of the organizing team included Ghazanfar Ali Khan, Akhtarul Islam Nadvi, Murshid Kamal, Noushad Jamayee.
