BHOPAL: After the Madhya Pradesh (MP) government rejected Additional District Magistrate (ADM) of Guna district Niyaz Ahmad Khan’s request to stay at Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai with gangster Abu Salem for his fifth book, he was advised by State minister for higher education and ex-Bajrang Dal chief Jaibhan Singh Pavaiya to write a book on Dr Abdul Kalam instead.
Pavaiya told journalists in Guna on Sunday, “I don’t know what and why the official is writing, but if he wants to write a book on a Muslim only, he should author a book on Dr Abdul Kalam. Instead of requesting to go to jail, he should go to Rameshwaram for research on Dr Kalam as that book would be inspirational for all,” said Pavaiya.
The minister, however, added “I don't advocate curbs on the creative freedom of any writer.”
The State government had rejected Khan’s written request made on March 28, 2017 to allow him a month’s stay at Taloja Jail at his own expense to research on the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts accused, Abu Salem, for his novel, ‘Love Demands Blood,’ inspired by Abu Salem and actor Monica Bedi’s love story.
The MP State Administrative Service (SAS) officer Khan, however, told the New Indian Express on Sunday, “I don’t write biographies, but only pen fiction novels. The book I’m penning is not a biography to glorify Abu Salem, but instead an action packed crime thriller inspired by Salem and Monica Bedi’s story.”
Niyaz Khan, whose fifth fiction novel is nearly 80 per cent completed has since 2011 penned other fiction novels, including The Ocean of Bliss and also including Confessions at Black Grave, Untold Secrets of My Ashram and Destiny in Drugs.
Activists of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had on Friday submitted a memorandum addressed to the President and the MP Governor, to the Guna district collector.
In the memorandum, VHP activists demanded that a probe should be conducted to ascertain why the administrative official even thought of writing a book on Salem.