Poets at the 85th Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana expressed the current zeitgeist of India, in Kalaburagi on Friday.
They expressed their angst against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the ills of globalisation, and the discriminatory caste system.
Writer and activist Vithappa Gorantli stated at the beginning that he had come to the sammelana only to protest against the State’s decision to register a FIR against poet Siraj Bisralli who read a poem against the NRC and the CAA in Koppal.
He read out a poem ‘The calamity called 2020’. He urged the youth to protest against injustice and State oppression.
Poet Gavisiddappa Patil read out Nanu Ninage Namo Ennuvidilla
(I will not call you Namo). He listed the unfulfilled promises by the BJP government and said that while others would praise Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he would not do so.
“You did not protect the poor and the deprived. You did not bring back black money, nor did you release enough funds for Karnataka. You kept on lying and misled people. Other people may sing your praises, but I will not,” he said, reminding the audience of Urdu poet Habib Jalib’s lines, Koi Mane Magar, Main Nahi Manta .
His poem was met largely with a loud applause from the people, though some tried to shout him down.
Writer Basavaraj Sabarad, who chaired the session, spoke out against the State government.
“Poets are the real voices of the people. They are common people who want to share their feelings with others. They should not be punished. They should be set free to express voices of dissent,” he said.
Prof. Sabarad recited the poem of a Pakistani poet who spoke against the silence of the poet in troubling times.
He showed a book Ninna Dakhale Yavaga Torisuttee that contained the poem that was the cause of the FIR. “The police have targeted poet and journalist Siraj Bisralli and another journalist Raja Baksh and lodged a FIR against them only because they are Muslims,” he alleged.
“This is unacceptable. If I don’t speak out against this, I become a fascist. I will stand with the oppressor and not the oppressed. If this attitude continues, all the poets of the State will start a jail bharo agitation,” Prof. Sabarad said.
Dalit writer Rajashekar Mang spoke against untouchability and caste oppression.
“You are all busy in sweeping the streets in the name of Swachh Bharat. But who will clean our minds that that are full of hate?”
He spoke of the daily struggles of the untouchables who are discriminated against in all walks of life.
“We are the aboriginal inhabitants of this country, but you are trying to push us out. My mother served you all her life, but you looked down upon her, branding her a Devdasi. You need us to skin oxen and make slippers, but you value the animal more than us,” he said.
Sanganna Hosmani sang his Kannada ghazal and it was an instant hit.
The poem about a visually challenged boy and his mother by Vasant Kumar, a police inspector in Kalaburagi city, was well received.
