Mangaluru Chalo: Cops scuttle bike rally as BJP defies ban

We came on foot, we came on boats, shouting slogans of Azadi.

We stood on roof tops and sat on walls under the burning midday sun,

Listening to the words that we had longed to hear for so long.

Words that had been scripted through the lonely fears of our hearts.

Words that were spoken now with the clarity of courage.

Words that were spoken now with the suppressed strength of pent up anger.

Words that were spoken now with the certainty of belonging to the soil 

Which had become one with the dust of our ancestors.

We stood there in the waves of heat

Feeling the surge and press  of countless bodies around us.

Bodies meshed through the odour of sweat 

And the shared fear of a common persecution.

And hanging from the roof tops,

And tied to the poles,

And clutched in hands slippery with sweat,

And wrapped round the pillars,

And spreading into our blood,

Were three strips of colour with a wheel of spokes,

Sewn together into the shape of our being.

Woven into the folds of our future and the creases of our past. 

Stitched to the seams of the earth, the water, the air and the sky 

That belonged to us and to which we belonged. 

And we stood there from noon to evening,

We the people of India.

Raising our clenched fists like signposts to the future.

Chanting slogans like a new anthem.

Kin to each other through the ties of community.

Born to live and die 

In a nation that was ours to hold on to

And ours to belong to.

Dr Parinitha is a professor of English in Mangalore University. She penned the poem soon after participating in the historic protest against CAA, NPR and NRC at Shah Garden, Adyar, Mangaluru on 15th January, 2020.

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Bengaluru, Jan 18: The Karnataka state government has reportedly initiated the process to ban organizations like Popular Front of India (PFI).

State Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday evening said that instructions have been given to the police and officers concerned to gather information about the activities of such organisations so that necessary inputs can be sent to the Center.

He made it clear that the action would not be limited against PFI and SDFI (Social Democratic Front of India), rather any organisation which is involved in such activities, would meet the same fate.

Mysuru, Jan 11: Accusing the Congress and other opposition parties of pursuing “vote bank politics” on the Citizenship (Amendment ) Act (CAA), Kannada littérateur and Saraswathi Samman awardee S L Byrappa accused the party of misleading the people on the issue.

Speaking to media persons here on Friday, Mr Bhyrappa said that Congress was adopting the divide and rule policy of the British, who had created a rift between the Hindus and the Muslims to break their unity during the freedom struggle.