Ironically, Badr has been apple polishing to such an amount that he once notably said that he can even clean the floor of the BJP office. It was in return that he was presented the post of Urdu Academy chairman.
In interviews, he keeps on stressing that there is no snap of his father in his house but Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s photographs are present in every room.
During his occupancy, the MP Urdu Academy has clogged all work. There are few functions, barely any seminars, no campaigns for Urdu or hard work to appoint Urdu teachers, apart from a couple of mushairas every year.
Without a doubt, Bashir Badr is a very well poet. His collections of poetry have earned him fame and eminence. But he is neither the most representative poet of his age, nor a poet of figure of Shaharyar and Ahmad Faraz, let alone Ali Sardar Jafri, Majrooh, Kaifi Azmi or Janisar Akhtar.
On the other hand, his statements stating that he is better than Ghalib and Meer have severely tormented his likeness. In public and even among poetic society he is now looked down upon. Many of his couplets are said to be exertion of old masters with lesser fame which he supposedly changed to suit his needs.
The literary societies, who used to invite him for mushairas, stopped inviting him because of his demand for more fees. He also used to compel them to send two tickets so that he could take his wife along.
Still, regardless of all these allegations and controversies, he was measured somewhat a good poet. But in the last couple of years, his rising megalomania had made him almost a exile in Urdu poetry circles.
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