"Society Shaken Only When...": Javed Akhtar On Honeymoon, Drum Murder Cases

Lyricist and scriptwriter Javed Akhtar has questioned where society's outrage was when women were set on fire, assaulted by their husbands and tortured by their in-laws, alluding to recent cases of women killing their husbands including the widely reported honeymoon murder case in Meghalaya.

Mr Akhtar, whose strong views on social and political issues often make headlines, said he has "mixed emotions" on two of the cases involving the murder of men by their wives - one in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut whose body was cut up and stuffed in a drum, and the other from Indore who was killed by his wife during their honeymoon in Meghalaya.

"Women have been set on fire. If they are not set on fire, their lives in their in-laws' homes are worse than death as they get beaten up every day. But why is society not outraged by all these? What a shameless society," Mr Akhtar said at NDTV Creators Manch.

"Two women are accused of murder and society is shocked. But where was the shock for years when women were tortured by men and is still happening even today?"

To a question by NDTV on the honeymoon murder case that happened soon after the couple's wedding, Mr Akhtar said the woman committed a crime, but more information needs to be asked.

"What she did was very wrong. But if she did it soon after their wedding, find out whether the wedding was forced on her against her wish. It would be easy to find out," Mr Akhtar said, referring to Indore resident Sonam who hired three hitmen and killed her husband Raja Raghuvanshi during their honeymoon in Meghalaya.

"Is it easy for a woman from a small city in Hindustan to tell her mother and father that she will not get married? Can she say that?" he said.

"I am not justifying murdering anyone, including husbands," he said in a lighter vein, which drew laughter from the audience. "There was a time when many daughters-in-law were killed in pressure cooker explosions. Even the pressure cooker would recognise who is a daughter-in-law. The mother-in-law or her daughter never died," Mr Akhtar added, alluding to daughters-in-law as kitchen workers who face an occupational hazard.

#NDTVCreatorsManch | "Women are burnt alive every day. If they are not burnt alive, they become victims of domestic violence. Didn't this shake the society? I am not justifying the murders": Javed Akhtar on Meghalaya Horror, Meerut drum murder@Javedakhtarjadu @MinakshiKandwal pic.twitter.com/r5i4fHnQSi

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He has written a large number of poems against communalism and social injustice, and for women's rights. In 1995, the central government declared one of his songs that asked misguided young people to come forward and build the country the "National Anthem for Youth". He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha as an MP in 2010.