Jammu and Kashmir lifted the championship in the maiden national literary festival organised by the Kerala State Sunni Students Federation (SSF) at Rajkot, Gujarat.
While the Jammu and Kashmir team scored 295 points, Karnataka became the runner-up with 278 points and Kerala got the third position with 251 points. The four-day national literary competition concluded on Saturday.
About 500 participants from 24 States took part in the event, which had competitions in 60 items in three categories. Fayis Qureshi and Nihal Ashraf from Madhya Pradesh were adjudged the Star Contestant and the Star Artiste respectively.
Inaugurating the valedictory session, Sunni leader Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliar called upon people to make use of the Constitution as a weapon to parry the Sangh Parivar attempts to destabilise the country.
“Our Constitution is strong enough to defeat any attempts to divide people in the name of religion and politics. The beauty of India lies in the coexistence of different religions,” he said.
Mr. Kanthapuram said that those fanning up controversies and troubles in the name of Muslim women’s hijab were destroying the nation’s diversity. “Islam teaches that any troubled environment can be overcome by faith.”
SSF national president P.A. Mohammed Faroooq Naeemi presided over the function. Islamic studies scholar Akhtarul Wasey was the chief guest. SSF national general secretary Noushad Alam Mosbahi, and Sunni Yuvajana Sangham Kerala general secretary A.P. Abdul Hakeem Azhari spoke.
