With Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poetry finding its way into the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA 2019) protests, some Indians are not too pleased. In fact, Indian journalist Aarti Tikoo Singh took it upon herself to really dig into Faiz Ahmed Faiz works.
#FaizAhmedFaiz is an overrated revolutionary like most of them are nowadays. No revolution came in the military theocracy of Pakistan even as he compromised principles of Marxism & added god to his poetry. Thanks to Iqbal Bano who turned his highfalutin words alive with her voice
— Aarti Tikoo (@AartiTikoo) January 2, 2020
Aarti Singh is of the opinion that even by ‘compromising principles of Marxism and adding God to his poetry‘ Faiz Ahmed Faiz couldn’t bring revolution in Pakistan.
“Faiz Ahmed Faiz is an over-rated revolutionary like most of them are nowadays.”
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Well, that’s her opinion and she is entitled to it. But wait. Turns out it wasn’t too long ago Aarti herself was feeling inspired by the revolutionary poet. That too just a year ago.
Oops https://t.co/9csrYgiDKp pic.twitter.com/CQkcapKoRm
— Hafsa Khawaja (@Hafsa_Khawaja) January 2, 2020
https://twitter.com/i_theindian/status/1212942334456807424
When the Indian journalist was called out, she didn’t take to well to that and went on to bash both Faiz and his followers. She maintains that she can:
“Both appreciate and critique a public figure”
Muslim Right Wing+Left activists are hysterically dancing with joy because they caught Aarti Tikoo Singh quoting Faiz & also criticizing him as a revolutionary! They clearly never learned it in school that it is entirely logical to both appreciate & critique a public figure. Daft
— Aarti Tikoo (@AartiTikoo) January 3, 2020
People then broke down how logical it is really is to appreciate and bash the same person. Netizens asserted that you can admire and hate something about someone, but not appreciate and demean their work.
It is DNA of such people who position themselves as per the prevailing positional benifits – the bottomless lota or spineless people, trading identity with favours. All these poetry matter, minority binary, pak manta macho milking, is solely to shift narrative from reality
— AnupK Bagchi (@AnupBagchi) January 3, 2020
Appreciate and criticise as it suits you.. funny!
— Sandeep (@Bhartiyanagrika) January 3, 2020
https://twitter.com/Faizz634/status/1212973508986163201
Her double standards continued to be exposed:
Join BJP officially. Why wait?
— J_Hind (@ind_jav) January 3, 2020
https://twitter.com/srb24610987/status/1212957028995325952
https://twitter.com/srb24610987/status/1212957352384548865
Things did get rough.
https://twitter.com/HBhinderx/status/1212968761709350912
— Naveen (@naveengmc) January 3, 2020
https://twitter.com/khaleel56248340/status/1212939327728234498
Hahahaha such an unintelligent cover up
— T Sohail ✊🏽 (@tsohail2010) January 3, 2020
Wld u quote Osama Bin Laden and criticize him too ?
— Santosh UCB (@uncannybal) January 3, 2020
https://twitter.com/Bindu79782706/status/1212941314284650496
hypocrisy ki seema 😂😂🤣
— Saif (@saifurrhmn90) January 3, 2020
Aloo Tikki is either because you are hypocrite or just an idiot
— Liaz (@LiazMohamed) January 3, 2020
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She really went overboard with threats of a libel lawsuit.
People quoted Aarti Singh’s own tweet, with most people not even adding ‘a word of their own’. So who’s the lawsuit against?
All the self-righteous people of some significance, who have libelled me over their ‘god’ #FaizAhmedFaiz, be ready for getting educated about the difference between criticism and libel in a court of law.
— Aarti Tikoo (@AartiTikoo) January 3, 2020
Will this prevent the anti-CAA, 2019 protesters, from quoting Faiz Ahmed Faiz and singing his verses in protest? Of course not, so nothing has changed.
In the end, everyone’s entitled to critique much as Aarti Singh said. Which also means everyone is entitled to critique Aarti Singh too.
