Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s famous poem ‘Hum Dekhenge,’ which has become a powerful symbol of protest and even featured in Bollywood, is now at the center of sedition charges. A group of artists from Mumbai sang the poem at an event organized by the Vira Sathidar Memorial, run by the late actor-activist Sathidar’s wife. Following this, Nagpur police filed sedition charges against the event organizers and the speaker under Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with other sections related to promoting enmity and public mischief.
The FIR was filed by Dattatray Shirke, claiming that at a time when the country was bravely fighting Pakistani forces, the radical left in Nagpur were busy singing a ‘Pakistani Poet’s’ song. The FIR also misquotes lines from the poem as a threat to the government. The actual line of the poem, “sab takht giraye jayenge”(a need to shake the throne), is misquoted as ‘Takht hilaane ki zaroorat hai’.
Vira Sathidar, a poet, journalist, writer, and leader of the anti-caste movement, was picked up and allegedly harassed by intelligence sources while alive. His magazine, Vidrohi, is celebrated as a discourse of dissent against caste and class discrimination. He directed Court, a seminal movie and India’s official entry to the Oscars in 2016, in which he also plays the role of a folksinger. The movie unveils the injustice of the Indian legal system.
Pushpa Sathidar, who is also a renowned activist of people’s movements and the wife of Sathidar, is one of the organisers of the annual memorial group, ‘Vira Sathidar Smruti Samanvay Samiti’, formed after Sathidar’s demise. The event was attended by several speakers, including advocate Uttam Jagirdar and had other cultural groups performing songs and plays. Though the FIR doesn’t mention individual names, it says charges are booked against the organiser and the event speaker. More than a hundred people attended the event.
Though a top court stays the application of sedition charges, Nagpur Police has been intensifyingly using it. Earlier, a Kerala-based journalist, Rejaz Sheeba, Sydeek, was arrested by Nagpur Police on Naxalite connections and other connections with banned organisations. He is also accused of opposing ‘Operation Sindoor’.
The BJP-led Maharashtra Government is advocating for another law, the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill, 2024 and pushing to implement this. If this becomes a law, then activists fear this can lead to a human rights crackdown, that dissent or criticism against the government will be marked as ‘urban naxals’.
