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Journalism of Courage
Noted theatre director Habib Tanveer has become the latest target of the Sangh Parivar and for a play that has been staged for over 50 years.
Moreover, the attack seems to fit in well with the BJP’s opposition to a penalty on those who destroyed the crops of Dalits last year.
Today’s Gwalior bandh was called after Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) activists tried to disrupt Ponga Pandit being staged by Habib Tanveer’s Naya Theatre group. The bandh was called to protest the staging of the play and the government’s support to Tanveer’s Sadbhavana Yatra currently underway in the state. For good measure, the BJP has also directed its wrath at Sunil Dutt, the chief guest at the function.
According to state BJP media incharge Deepak Vijaivargia, ‘‘The BJP called for a bandh because the play is against Hindu riti riwaz (rites and traditions). Jhadu se Pandit ki puja karte dikhaya hai (the play shows a sweeper woman striking a pandit with a broom). And then all this is supported by the administration. The Collector actually got on stage and said every person has a right to express his or her opinion, but even the Constitution limits such a right.’’ Perhaps unwittingly the defence of a pandit, may be as clear an avowal of the BJP’s vision of Hinduism as is likely to be found, but the statement hides a more menacing truth.
On the morning of August 15, the day the play was to be staged, a Gwalior-based Hindi newspaper published two pieces. One was a virulent attack on the play and on Tanveer. The article called for a ban on the play and uses extreme language against Tanveer. Alongside, the tabloid carried a piece saying the BJYM has come up with a secret plan to thwart the staging.
All this was being said about a play which Tanveer first saw staged in 1958, ‘‘Lahore and Ponga Pandit, which are about Muslim communalism and untouchability respectively, are being performed at every stop of the Sadbhavna Yatra. We have had 25 shows in Chhattisgarh and eight now in MP. Only once in all these years was this play disrupted, and that was 10 years ago in Gwalior by the Bajrang Dal,’’ Tanveer said.
It is no coincidence that the then head of the Bajrang Dal Jai Bhan Singh Pawaiya is now an MP from Gwalior and has been leading opposition to the play. Friday’s programme was disrupted twice, once when Tanveer was speaking on stage before the play.
‘‘I was pointing out that justice should be done to the victims of Gujarat when they stormed the stage. After this, the first play Lahore was staged and then 30 minutes after the second play began, they attacked the cast with water bottles and pouches. Police had been forewarned so they were unable to bring anything else in. The police then had to resort to a lathicharge.’’
However, Habib says the play emphasises the message that ‘‘equality of man is through deed not birth’’. It seems to be no coincidence the party has taken up the cause of villagers facing a fine for destroying the crops of Dalits in Raigarh district in last August. Cattle were driven through crops planted by Dalits. Though no BJP leader visited the Dalits, during the past week every BJP leader has been sympathising with the non-Dalits facing the fine.
