Whenever one remembers the poem ‘Munaadi’ by Dharamveer Bharti, one remembers that in the meantime such a repetition of the above history has taken place that even without the declaration of Emergency, a situation worse than the Emergency has been created in the country, fundamental rights have been taken away. Without announcing it, he has been made dependent on the mercy of the government.
(Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty/The Wire)
Khalk Khuda ka, Muluk Bashsha ka / Hukum city kotwal ka… / Every special-commoner is warned / to be careful / and lock your doors from inside / by latching them / drop the curtains of the windows / and Don’t send the children out on the road / Because a seventy-two year old man in his trembling weak voice / is out on the streets telling the truth! A murderer should be called a murderer/ that a good man who gets beaten up/ and a woman who is robbed of her dignity/ and a structure with her stomach pressed by hunger/ and a child crushed under a jeep/ should be saved!
Smritishesh Dharamveer Bharti, a prominent litterateur of his time and editor of the prestigious weekly ‘Dharmyug’, wrote this poem titled ‘Munaadi’ on November 4, 1974 at the historic Gandhi Maidan in Patna before the then Congress government of Bihar (which was headed by Chief Minister Abdul Ghafoor). Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan, who was leading the procession after the anti-corruption rally, was disturbed by the ruthless police lathicharge at the Income Tax Square – at ten o’clock on November 9, 1974, realizing that ‘the true form of dictatorship was coming to the fore’ It is not too late.
In his own words, ‘JP called a rally against corruption in Patna. Despite every government measure to stop it, lakhs of people came to it by breaking the government’s screws. Ruthless lathi-charge was ordered on those unarmed. The old JP fell down after being pushed in the newspapers, the police lathi on him, the unconscious JP and then the JP staggered by putting a towel on the injured head. There was severe restlessness for two-three days, extreme anger and sadness… This poem spontaneously erupted at 10 pm on 9th November.
Further in the same poem, while addressing the ‘forgiveness who run behind the old man’, he wrote sarcastically: If the jeep is of Bashsha / Why doesn’t he have the right to pass through the stomach of a child? / After all, even the road has been built by Bashsha. !/…..have you forgotten that Bashsha has given you/a beautiful environment/where you can see the stars during the day/and the wings of angels on the sidewalks/shadow you all night long/ And the hoors standing under every lamp post / Cling towards the motorists / That heaven has become starry on earth!
Then asked: After all, what enmity do you have with those people / who sit quietly in their chair / for the good of the country / stay awake night and night – and to repair the drain of the village / Moscow, New York , keep wandering like beggars filtering the dust of Tokyo, London…
After this, the real Munadi is started: legs will be broken / and eyes will be broken / if you walk on your feet / try to peep inside the palace-sara’s boundary wall / try to peep inside! /….beware, this whole country is yours / but where Ho stay there / This rebellion will not be tolerated that / You decide the distance and / Reach the destination / This time we will jam the wheels of the trains / Boats will be stopped in midstream / Bullock carts will be parked under neem on the road side /Trucks will be returned from the nook/All stop at their place!/Because remember the country has to move forward/And for that it is necessary that what is there/Stopped there!
This munadi does not stop here. Asking Riya, who is fond of ‘processions, noisy gatherings, crowd gathering’, not to be desperate, she tells her the medicine for her ‘pain’, saying that Bashsha has full sympathy for her and by his (Bashsha’s) special order His own court will come out in the form of a procession, for whose darshan trains will bring Riiya free of cost, bullock cart drivers will get double gratuity, trucks will be decorated with flags, drinking water will be placed at every nook and corner and whoever asks for water will be given perfumed sherbet. will be presented.
Ordering Riya to join the procession in lakhs, Munadi goes on: We have turned up the volume of our radios / And told them to play film songs loudly / So that the hearty tunes of the throbs / This old man’s nonsense should be buried!
History is the witness that only seven months after this declaration, the then oppressive government of the country, in the name of threat to internal security, barbarously put the opposition leaders in jails and imposed censor on the news media. Almost all the fundamental rights of the countrymen were taken away by imposing emergency on the country, so different. His rights were restored only when he had ousted this power in the 1977 Lok Sabha elections.
Amidst this testimony of history, these days whenever this poem comes to my mind (and to tell the truth, I remember it again and again, because in the meanwhile the said history has been repeated in such a way that even without announcing the Emergency, the country is facing a situation worse than the Emergency. Situations have been created, without announcing the snatching of fundamental rights, they have been made dependent on the mercy of the government, as well as the news media have been forced to self-censor themselves. It takes place.
The reason is that those citizens who are not agreeing to lock their doors from inside and to bring down the curtains of their windows i.e. to become obedient subjects, the brows of the government are not taking even a second to turn crooked on them. Nor is their fundamental rights being given any meaning – be it a citizen folk singer or singer, poet, cartoonist, artist or journalist, even more so.
It is worth mentioning that these eyebrows do not get crooked until a folk singer becomes questionable or refuses to become a poet and if they agree, they do not even spare storytellers and comedians.
As far as the media and journalists are concerned, a large section of them have shrunk their hands and feet on their own and those who haven’t, not only report news criticizing the ruling class, but in connivance with the headmasters and officials in primary schools, the students Even giving the news of substandard mid-day meal being served to them becomes heavy. Yes, if any newspaper, agency or portal etc., with its objectivity, is determined to cause great harm to the government, then a brahmastra of raids is launched against it. Nazir even goes as far as to ‘buy’ the entire news channel to deal with one journalist.
Consider, till nine years ago, the governments used to complain that the media always plays the role of dissident or opposition towards it, but today the opposition is complaining that the side of the government has become the side of the media. Earlier he used to convey the voice of the public to the government, now he conveys the voice of the government to the public.
Earlier, there used to be a column of satire on the editorial pages of newspapers, which was read more than the unnecessarily scholarly forewords of self-respecting editors. Readers used to enjoy it a lot. But now this column would be published in a newspaper only as an exception.
Cause? According to an editor friend, without showing the mirror to the rulers, there is no edge in sarcasm and the custom of avoiding the same has been started. The condition of cartoons is no different from that of satires.
The amazing thing is that if a documentary is banned, ignoring the question of its quality, the makers of it are impeached that they had not made a documentary on a particular issue earlier and the timing of what they have made now is wrong. What is the meaning of this?
That is, the conditional permission to make documentaries will also be given only to those who have made documentaries useful for them on subjects favorable to the rulers in the past. On one hand this is the condition and on the other hand many analysts say that the media institutions themselves are scared, so what should the government do? As if there is any other government in the country to fulfill the responsibility of removing their fear!
Yes, there is at least one difference between the situation in 1975 and today: there were outright arrests of opposition leaders then, but now there are a series of opportunistic arrests – whatever the pretext may be – of involvement in corruption or of the prime minister. Of insult Law abiding agencies are first not allowed to work freely, then it is said that the government does not interfere in their work. However, even the courts are not able to escape from the government attacks.
The irony is that these rulers, who are creating a new history of Emergency, do not even hesitate to criticize it, claiming themselves to be the victims of that i.e. 1975 Emergency! What a surprise that this impudence of his is now rapidly turning into such an initiative under which he does not want to let even that skylight escape in his ‘Emergency’, which was left in the Emergency of 1975!
(The author is a senior journalist.)
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Categories: India, Politics, Special
