Celebrated Pakistani poet Kishwar Naheed was in for a surprise when she arrived in Delhi to attend the Jashn-e-Rekhta festival, organised to celebrate the Urdu language. Naheed, who was under the impression that she was a participant, left the festival midway after she found out that she was invited only as a guest, reported The Telegraph.
The Jashn-e-Rekhta is a three-day festival, into its third year, that celebrates the Urdu language, including literature, art, and culture, and hosts mushairas and qawwalis. However, there was a big change this year — there was no active participation from Pakistani artists. The move to invite Pakistanis only as guests and keeping them away from participation in the sessions could be seen as a fallout of recent protests by far right groups against Bollywood films that starred actors from across the border.
Meanwhile, in an ugly incident at the venue, Canadian writer of Pakistani origin, Tarek Fatah, was heckled by a group of attendees who began shouting slogans and asked him to leave the country. Police had to be called when the situation became worse.