On Saturday (January 19), YouTuber Ajit Anjum accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of supposedly using abusive slurs against the Muslim community.
In a tweet, he claimed, “The heart of Yogi Adityanath is filled with so much poison for Muslims that he is openly referring to them as ‘Kathmulla.’ So, why does Yogi exhibit hypocrisy through the slogan- Sabka Saath, Sabka Vishwas.”
Ajit Anjum had shared a trimmed video clip of a 49-minute long interview of Yogi Adityanath, which was originally aired by India Today on Wednesday (February 16). During the course of the interview, the UP Chief Minister had remarked, “Girls should surge ahead in every field of life. We want that to happen. We have provided opportunities to young girls so that they can achieve the same.”
Yogi Adityanath went on to add that the biggest hurdle in the progress of women in this country is the orthodoxy of the Islamic clerics (kaThmullaa), who are supported by Muslim political leaders such as Asaduddin Owaisi. Youtuber Ajit Anjum alleged that ‘kaThmulla‘ is a derogatory word and its usage by Yogi Adityanath somehow reflected his disdain for the Muslim community.
Urdu dictionary debunks accusations of the Youtuber
Rekhta, a prominent literary web portal dedicated to the promotion of the Urdu language, provides 4 different meanings for the said term. Interestingly, none of them is abusive in nature. The word ‘kaThmullaa’ can mean Islamic cleric who rattles wooden beads, orthodox/regressive Islamic cleric, dogmatic individual or ignorant cleric.
It must be mentioned that Rekhta is run by a non-profit organisation named Rekhta Foundation. It digitises books in Urdu, publishes manuscripts, conducts the annual ‘Jashn-e-Rekhta’ programme. The annual event, meant for the promotion of the Urdu language, drew more than 1,50,000 people in 2018.
Ajit Anjum earlier apologised for using casteist slurs
Earlier this month, YouTuber Ajit Anjum was forced to tender an apology after being rebuked by an Ambedkarite, who took offence at his use of casteist slurs in one of his videos. In the video that had gone viral on the internet, Anjum uttered “chori-chamari” while conversing with locals in Sivalkhas, Meerut.
But this did not sit well with self-described Ambedkarite Suraj Bauddh, who objected to Anjum’s casteist slurs and asked him to not use them under the pretext of proverbs. Anjum apologised for the remarks, saying that he uttered those words by mistake and had intended to speak “chori-chakari”, not “chori chamari”.
“I’m sorry @SurajKrBauddh, I wanted to speak “chori-chakari” but I do not know how it was said. I sincerely apologize. I hope you all will forgive me. I am neither like this nor think so I am also among the few journalists who may have gone among Dalits many times in the last 6 months,” Anjum tweeted.