At Arts Faculty,DU teachers demand right to protest

“You can win because of who you are. The poorest people of this country have stopped the richest people… they will not come to shoot you down,” said Arundhati Roy,whom the organisers had designated as the last speaker.

The Joint Action Body,primarily an anti-semester platform,had organised the event. For once,semesterisation of undergraduate courses at DU took a backseat as freedom and democracy became pet themes.

Even two clay pots of water had special significance,named Sacco and Vanzetti after the two Italian migrants who were executed in the United States in 1927. The balloons were labelled “Say no to no say”. The cupcakes on sale were called ‘freedom cupcakes’. The chicken biryani being served at the venue,however,remained nameless.

“A bigger storm is coming,” said Gautam Mopdy of the Trade Union Initiative.

Luke,a poet from New York,spat about “Peace and Middle East” and a list of other conflict zones,after explaining what spit means in spoken word poetry. The makeshift band sang,“What do we know? We are just cute kids,” in Hindi.

There was something eerily familiar about Akhu from Imphal Talkies,especially the way he played his guitar and mouth organ. His first song addressed spoke on Kashmir,Irom Sharmila and Bhopal victims at Jantar Mantar. Halfway through the second song — a Manipuri folk song — the cat was out,and he broke into “Once upon a time,you dressed so fine/You threw the bums a dime in your prime,didn’t you?”