No kudos is enough for the Russian journalist and 2021 Nobel Peace laureate Dmitry Muratov(sharing the award with Maria Ressa for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression) for his decision to donate his Nobel medal for auction so as to raise funds for the Ukrainian refugees.
We are all aware how the minimum voice of protest be it a peaceful slogan shouting or simple inscription of “NO WAR” are being tamed with iron hand in Russia with even children, women or senior citizens not getting spared from detention, imprisonment and severe punishment. The Novaya Gazeta newspaper (Muratov is the editor-in-chief of which) was already facing the ire of Kremlin for long for daring to criticise the policies of the State or Vladimir Putin. Now in these times of “Special Military Operation” with all sane countries of the world providing all forms of support to the brutally-attacked Ukraine; the “super-sensitive” Russian State is in no mood to view “dissent” in the light of forgiveness. So Muratov is well aware of the severe consequences he might have to encounter, thanks to his unique sacrifice of even the prized Nobel medal drawing international attention. Yet he has not hesitated to take this extreme bold step despite residing in Russia and thereby endangering his freedom, safety, career, future and even life just to respond to his Call of Conscience and offer financial/moral assistance towards assaulted people of foreign vintage i.e. the Ukrainian refugees! Dmitry Muratov has practically proved through sheer action that Humanity is infinite times Greater than blind rabid “Nationalism”! So instead of uttering zealous rhetoric of “My Russia is Great” and supporting the aggression akin to Dark Medieval Ages, Muratov can protest against his very own(in terms of mere passport ) so as to embrace the God’s own ie human beings of the world (that too persecuted) by transcending narrow definition of “Nation”.
And Javed Akhtar a proud Urdu-speaker. While attending the Kolkata Literary Meet, Akhtar sang paens of Urdu revolving its secular literature and Indian credentials surpassing all divides of Hinduism and Islam (with its practitioners ranging from Mirza Ghalib to Munshi Premchand, Faiz Ahmed Faiz to Krishan Chander). But on the other hand, Akhtar also stressed “Languages belong to regions, not religions. Ten crore Muslims (of erstwhile East Pakistan) told seven crore Muslims (of erstwhile West Pakistan) that we will not learn Urdu at the cost of Bengali. I love Urdu the way you love Bengali but I respect and salute those people who defended Bengali. For them, that was their mother tongue, which was far more important than their religion”.
Thanks to Javed Akhtar for not only practising the liberal humane mindset of “Live and let live”, but also stressing that language is much more important than religion.
Throughout the history of the world, human beings have protested whenever their own language, race, religion or colour has faced discrimination. Nothing wrong with it. But how many people have raised their voice to speak up for the “alien” victims with the perpetrators of violence being of their own national or linguistic stock and herein lies the special significance and greatness of the thought process of Muratov and Akhtar.
