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Journalism of Courage
Speaking to The Indian Express a day before she has to reply to the notice the Uttar Pradesh police sent to her over her latest song, Bhojpuri folk artist Neha Singh Rathore said Thursday that she was “uncertain” about how the future would pan out. She was “worried”, she said, but not “afraid”.
“Why should I be scared? I am a citizen of a democratic country. My Constitution guarantees me certain rights. I draw my courage from the Constitution,” said Rathore, 25, sitting in a park near her New Delhi home.
The notice, served over her song UP mein ka ba Season 2, said the song has created vaimanasya (discord) and tanaav (tension) and asked Rathore to explain herself.
The song is critical of the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government over the death of a woman and her daughter on February 15 during an anti-encroachment drive at Madauli village in Kanpur Dehat.
Talking to The Indian Express, Rathore and her husband Himanshu said the “police tried to intimidate them”. Himanshu said he worked at an IAS coaching centre, but resigned on the day the notice was served because he was “not sure of how long all this would take to sort out”.
“The notice was first sent to my father’s house in Ambedkar Nagar. A police jeep went to the house and created quite a stir in the neigbourhood. Then a day later, a woman called me. She said she was a UPSC aspirant and needed help with something. She asked if I could meet her at a spot near my house. I refused. Sometime later, she called me again, saying she was from the Kanpur Dehat police and they had come to serve the notice. We then called them to our housing society gate and received the notice,” Himanshu said.
Rathore added that they had spoken to a lawyer and would respond to the notice soon.
“Questioning or even criticising the government is no crime. Alochana loktantra ka sabun hai (criticism is like a soap that keeps democracy clean). Enough artistes out there are singing paeans to the government for awards and money. I am speaking for the people. Through all my songs, all I have done is raise issues relevant to the common man,” Rathore said.
She claimed that after the police came to their housing society, “some people in the Residents’ Welfare Association (RWA) wanted us (the couple) to move out”. However, she said, “others had stood by them”.
Rathore said that when her mother, who lives in village Jandaha in Bihar, heard about the police notice, her “blood pressure shot up and had to be hospitalised”.
“Everyone is very stressed, of course. My mother is worried that I will be put in jail and rats will bite me,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“My father keeps asking me to sing about non-political subjects. But it is not just about me, right? If I start singing about other things, it is not like the subjects I raise will disappear,” said Rathore, who writes, sings and records her songs.
The singer said her work had put her at risk earlier too.
“Once when I was at the Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, some men recognised me and picked up stones to attack me. Luckily, a policeman I knew was nearby. I called him and the police escorted me out. In New Delhi too, people sometimes stare at me on the streets and mutter as I walk by,” she said.
Asked if all this was difficult to handle, Rathore said, “I refuse to be scared. As a woman, once you start giving in, there is no end to it. I am very lucky to have a family that backs me to the hilt. Since the notice came, my husband has worked tirelessly to keep me safe.”
Rathore said that if the government is indeed targeting her, “woh mera darja badha rahein hain (they are elevating me)”.
“I am just a girl who sits at home and sings. They can easily ignore me. If they go out of their way to muzzle my voice, they are making me look bigger, and making themselves look smaller,” Rathore said.
