This is a gist of my experience during a recent trip to Faizabad/ Ayodhya. I was invited there to present songs of freedom struggle and secular values in the Shaheed Mela scheduled on 10th & 11th May, 2002. For me it was a golden opportunity to echo the voices of Kabir, Nazeer Akbarabadi, Lalan Faqir, Ramprasad Bismil, Kazi Nazrul Islam and others. When I arrived at Faizabad in the afternoon of 10th I was informed that the permission for the programme was withdrawn at the last moment and thousand and odd participants had been taken to jail. It was disturbing for me and I decided to do my performance in a small gathering despite the adverse circumstances. The next day the organisers planned to hold the convention on communalist fascism at a different venue (the local press club). I was outside the venue drinking tea at a roadside Dhaba. Suddenly (around 11 AM) groups of PAC arrived and jumped on the people around. I stepped out to the main road connecting the chowk and the Rly. Station. Three PAC men chased me. One of them slapped me. I resisted. He went on shouting at me in abusive and vulgar language. He pulled me by my hair and kicked me on my back. I fell down and lost my spectacle. Could not see things properly. The PAC man went on beating me and dragged and pushed me in a truck waiting for picking up people. Three of us (Radhika, Inteshar, both students of JNU and I) were picked up and taken to Faizabad jail and made to wait outside the jail gate. Later another three (Ajanta & Kaushal from Lucknow and Snehlata from Devaria, all activists) were arrested from the same venue and brought to the same place. We were charged with article 107, 116 & 151. Our guess was that the PAC would detain us till the convention was over. But at our utter surprise, we were asked to get into the jail in the evening. Three of us (men) were kept in the criminal prisoners’ ward, so as the three women. We protested and demanded the status of political prisoner, but in vein. We refused to eat the sub-standard food. Sanitation was a great problem for us. Interestingly, in the jail I came to know that all kinds of comforts are available on payment of bribe. Next was a Sunday, so nothing happened regarding our release. The DM was on leave on the following Monday & Tuesday, so nothing happened. While I was getting mentally ready to spend a few more days in that fearful criminal ward and becoming friendly with the other prisoners and jail stuffs, I came to know that people in Delhi, Lucknow, Faizabad and other cities took to streets in protest and voices were raised in parliament to release us. By the time the jail authority had started treating me as Professor Saab despite the fact that the UP govt. never recognised us as political prisoners. On 15th three of us (me and two girls) were released unconditionally. Slowly all thousand and odd detainees were released unconditionally.

During this incident I learnt a lesson that in this democratic country remembering freedom fighters and singing songs of freedom struggle are crimes. I emphasised this during my press conference the next day. My desire to visit the place where Begum Akhtar spend her life remained unfulfilled. However, I feel proud that I stayed as a political prisoner in the jail where Ashfaq-ulla Khan was hanged to death. My submission to Central & Up governments is as follows:


TERA NIZAAM HAI SIL DE ZUBAAN SHAYAR KI
YEH EHTIAAT ZAROORI HAI IS BAHAR KE LIYE

(a couplet from Dushyant Kumar’s poetry)


Subhendu, a singer, a cultural activist and a scientist from Delhi