Mumbai, Apr 12 (PTI) Describing poetry as the “language of justice” and “vocal cords of society”, renowned screenwriter and lyricist Javed Akhtar has said the right wing has not been able to create any big poet across the world.

He was addressing a gathering on Friday evening at Annabhau Sathe Auditorium in Byculla of central Mumbai after receiving the ‘Namdeo Dhasal Samashti Award’ during the Samashti Arts and Literature Festival.

The two-day event, which started on April 11, has been organised in memory of noted Marathi poet and Dalit activist late Namdeo Dhasal.

“People who listen to poetry of romance do not know that poetry is not only the language of love, but it is also the language of justice. The value system of poetry is culturally correct all over the world. And this is the reason why in the history of the world, the right wing has never been able to create a big poet,” he said.

“Poetry believes in equality, it believes in justice and the same poetry which preaches these values has been accepted across the world,” he said.

“A big poet is the one who speaks about justice, and the poet (Dhasal) in whose name we are gathered here today spoke about justice,” Akhtar said.

A fish does not have vocal cords. It does not scream or does not have a voice. So you do not know its pain or torture it is suffering, he added.

“Poetry is the vocal cords of society. Mahatma Phule and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar provided vocal cords to the voiceless…The whole movement of ours, which is for social justice, was born in Maharashtra,” he said.

Dhasal was not a poet of the 20th century, he was born thousands of years ago, the screenwriter-lyricist said.

“Lava does not come out in a day. It takes years for its formation and it comes out with an explosion, by breaking the mountain one day,” he said, and likened Dhasal to a volcano.

After the speech, Akhtar also read the Urdu translation of Dhasal’s poem ‘Raktat Petlelya Aganit Suryanno’.

Sandeep Tamgadge, Additional Director General of Police of Nagaland, in his speech praised Samashti Foundation.

“Civilisation and culture are never of a particular class or society. They belong to everyone,” he said, adding that many times, a particular class that does not have a voice does not get a popular stage.

“If you see TV and other media, they are continuously discussing one particular ideology and do not bother to show the other sides of the coin,” he said.

Journalists Dnyanesh Maharao, Raju Parulekar, Shyamal Garud, Amol Deolekar, Disha Wadekar and others were honoured at the festival. PTI DC NP