Mumbai: The Nagpur Police has booked social activist Pushpa Sathidar over the recital of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poetry at a commemorative event she organised in the city for her husband, actor Vira Sathidar.
The FIR was lodged on the basis of a complaint by Nagpur resident Dattatray Shirke that they recited a Pakistani poet’s words “at a time when the country valiantly fought Pakistani forces” after the Pahalgam terror attack.
The event, held last week in memory of human rights activist Vira Sathidar, featured the recitation of ‘Hum Dekhenge’, a celebrated Urdu nazm that Faiz wrote in 1979 as a critique of General Zia-ul-Haq’s authoritarian rule in Pakistan.
Shirke’s complaint, which ThePrint has seen, said, “At a time when the country valiantly fought Pakistani forces, the radical left in Nagpur were busy singing Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poem. Through the poem it is said that we have a fascist government and ‘takht hilane ki jarurat hai’ (there is a need to shake up the throne), meaning the government should be changed,” the complainant said.
The police have registered an FIR against Pushpa Sathidar and two others.
According to the FIR copy, which also ThePrint has accessed, the complainant referred to a news report in which a speaker at the event is quoted as saying, “Due to this song, the powers were shaken. Similarly, even in our country, it’s time to shake the throne. We are going through fascist times. These times are snatching our freedom of expression.”
Pushpa Sathidar has been booked under sections 152 (act that excites secession, armed rebellion, or subversive activities, or encourages separatist feelings) 196 (promoting enmity or disharmony) 353 (public mischief) and others of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
“We received the complaint along with what sections to be included and we did so. The further investigation is going on and we will analyse whether the sections are necessary or need amending, and (based on that we) would take a further call,” inspector Rakhi Gedam of the Sitabardi police station told ThePrint.
ThePrint reached Pushpa Sathidar’s family lawyer Nihalsingh Rathod, but he refused to comment.
The programme was organised 13 May by the Vira Sathidar Smriti Samanway Samiti in association with the Samata Kala Manch—a Mumbai-based Ambedkarite cultural collective advocating resistance through art. Vira Sathidar, a social activist, accomplished actor, writer and political thinker, died during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021.
Pushpa Sathidar is one of the organisers of the annual event. The Samata Kala Manch performed Faiz’s poem at the event.
The poem ‘Hum Dekhenge’ was written in 1979 by Faiz as a critique of General Zia-ul-Haq’s authoritarian rule in Pakistan. The poem is used as an anthem of resistance and hope in the subcontinent.
In the complaint filed 16 May, three days after the programme, Shirke alleged the performance and the accompanying speeches were inflammatory in nature.
“Samata Kala Manch is an extremist and controversial group. They even have a background of Naxalism. Just at a time when the entire country is standing behind the armed forces and opposing the terrorist attack by Pakistan in Pahalgam, here the Left extremist organisation Samata Kala Manch performed the poem written by Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz,” Shirke says in his complaint.
“Naxalite organisations such as these through such events spread the thought of overthrowing democratically elected governments. So, the Samata Kala Manch at an event organized to remember Vira Sathidar sang the poem by a Pakistani poet and spread the provocative thought to dethrone the government’,” he added further.
So the event threatens the unity of the country and divide the society, the complaint further said.
Gedam said that the police are investigating the matter and have started taking statements of Sathidar and others. No arrests have been made so far.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
Also Read: There was more to Vira Sathidar than ‘Court’. He fought caste with theatre for 40 years
Faiz’s works are unabashedly anti-Hindu. He accuses us of being “boot-parast” – idol worshipping. His consistent tirades against the Hindu practice of idol worshipping must be acknowledged and denounced as Hinduphobia.
It’s good that the law enforcement agencies are finally waking up and taking notice.
How dumb is dumb enough for BJP to reign in some of its own??
Faiz, most certainly, was anti-Hindu. His poetry reeks of iconoclasm. He specifically targeted the Hindu practice of worshipping idols.
No wonder he is loved by the communists. They try every trick to portray Faiz as a secular activist.