Malick Asghar Hashmi / New Delhi

Hindi poet Kumar Vishwas has expressed his concern over the controversies in the name of religion and religion. He was speaking at the just concluded Jashn-e-Rekhta, the Urdu literary festival in the capital.

Quoting the Quran, he said what is the point of quarreling over religion, you go your way, I will go my way. He was participating in the talk show 'Mehfil-Khana' on the last day of the festival.

Kumar Vishwas attacked fundamentalism and said “there are illiterate people on both sides of the fence of religion. He said cattle can make out a poisonous plant from the good one for eating while humans seem to have abandoned the sense of right and wrong.

To the youth, he asked why they have stopped reading the are learning the history from WhatsApp. “I am not a Brahmin because I was born in a Brahmin house; it’s because of my reading. If I read Ram, I also read Valmiki,” he said.

 Kumar Vishwas said that a religion that hinders other religions is not a true religion. He recited many a verse of the Quran while explaining its meaning to make his point.

Attacking fundamentalists, he said that they are not using their minds. However, events like Rekhta give us the power to fight such viruses.

Taking a dig at those who fight in the name of Urdu, he said, "Ghalib is only your uncle; he is also not mine

He said people in positions of power should not become arrogant. Referring to Jash-e-Rekhta he said poetry cannot be divided based on language. “If the listeners of poetry are divided into tribes, then neither the poetry nor the poet will survive; eventually society will not survive.”

He said since he believed in having true friendships with people in power, it was easy for him to part ways with the Aam Aadmi Party without any acrimony. Referring to the Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb of Urdu, Kumar Vishwas quoted port Zubair Ali Tabish, who, he said, had written the maximum number of poems on Basant Panchami, is in the present era.