Alvida Fahmida Riaz -Bhagat Singh ki Moorat-ke Saath

                           अलविदा फहमीदा रियाज़

      सोने से पहले आदतन कल रात टिवीटर/फ़ेसबुक/व्हाट्सप्प पर एक नज़र डाल रहा था कि डॉ अखलाक ने फहमीदा के न रहने का संदेश डाला, फिर फरहत ने पुष्टि चाही तो अखलाक ने लिखा कि बेटी के घर लाहौर में उनका निधन हुआ। फिर टिवीटर पर सिद्धार्थ वर्दराजन के और कई सारे वेब समाचार देखे। ऐसे लगा जैसे एक हादसा हो गया। हालांकि हम लोग काफी समय से संपर्क में थे, फेसबुक पर तो दोस्त थे ही, मेल भी करते थे, लेकिन पिछले काफी अरसे से खबर नहीं थी। हम लोगों के कई साझे दोस्त थे, विशेषतः: पूर्व सांसद देवी प्रसाद त्रिपाठी, जो दिल्ली में फहमीदा की मेहमान नवाज़ी करते थे और उनके घर या साहित्यिक कार्यक्रमों में उनसे मुलाक़ात हो जाती थी। पटियाला में था तो हिन्दी में छपी उनकी तमाम किताबें मेरे संग्रह में रहती थीं, आज भी हैं। 2007 में भगत सिंह जन्म शती पर संसद के प्रांगण में जब भगत सिंह का बुत लगाया गया और ये कह कर जनता को बहकाया गया कि संसद भवन के अंदर भगत सिंह के चित्र से सरकार ने ज्यादा बड़ा काम किया है। असलियत ये है कि संसद के प्रांगण में गांधी, नेहरू, पटेल, अंबेडकर, इन्दिरा गांधी, सुभाष तमाम बुत लगे है, सिर्फ भगत सिंह का ही नहीं, जबकि बाकी सब के चित्र संसद भवन की गैलरी में भी लगे हैं, जो राजनीतिक रूप से महत्त्वपूर्ण है, जबकि भगत सिंह या अनय किसी क्रांतिकारी का बुत वहाँ नहीं लगा है और वहाँ अनेक ऐसे चित्र लगे हैं, जिनको जनता जानती तक नहीं, ज़ाहिर है कि एक साजिश के तहत संसद की गैलरी चित्र शाला में क्रांतिकारियों का प्रवेश, चित्र के रूप में भी रोका हुआ है, वरना क्या कोई कह सकता है कि भगत सिंह इन सब लोगों से कम महत्त्वपूर्ण स्वाधीनता सेनानी हैं, जिनके चित्र भीतर लगे है और जिन्हें श्रद्धांजलि देने उनके जन्म या मृत्यु दिवस पर रोज़ प्रधान मंत्री और तमाम नेता लगे रहते हैं।  इस कार्यक्रम में भगत सिंह के परिवार के लोग शामिल हुए, जो बाद में मेरे पास जे॰एन॰यू॰ के निवास पर भी आए और उनकी बातचीत से इस बुत को लेकर गहरा असंतोष ज़ाहिर हुआ, जिस पर मैंने उस समय के स्पीकर सोमनाथ चटर्जी को एक पत्र भी लिखा, इस पत्र को मैंने अपने ब्लॉग bhagatsinghstudy पर डाला और ब्लॉग फहमीदा जी ने देखा और उन्होंने स्वतः: ही कविता रच डाली-भगत सिंह की मूरत, इस कविता को हमने हिन्दी अनुवाद में छापा और फहमीदा जी ने खुद ही इसका अङ्ग्रेज़ी तर्जुमा भी कर डाला जिसे संभवतः: mainstream साप्ताहिक ने उस समय छापा था। मैंने हिन्दी अनुवाद को 2009 में मेधा बुक्स से प्रकाशित अपनी किताब भगत सिंह में शामिल किया और हिन्दी-अङ्ग्रेज़ी दोनों रूपों को अपने ब्लॉग पर डाला। 

        यों तो फहमीदा जी अपनी अनेक कवितायो व अनय लेखन के लिए जानी जाती रहेंगी,लेकिन उनकी ये कविता-तुम भी हम जैसे निकले- तो जैसे समकालीन भारत पर एक सटीक टिप्पणी के रूप में क्लासिक बन गयी है। संदर्भ इसका जे॰एन॰यू॰ का ही है। भाजपा के वाजपेयी काल में भी जे॰एन॰यू॰ को आरएसएस ने निशाना बनाया था और एक बिगड़े रिटायर्ड फौजी ने फहमीदा पर जे॰एन॰यू॰ के अंदर चल रहे मुशायरे में भद्दा सांप्रदायिक शाब्दिक हमला किया था, और तब फहमीदा ने हम भारत वालों को इस कविता से शीशा दिखाया था, जो 2014 के बाद आरएसएस के राज में  इतनी भद्दी शक्ल इख्तियार कर गया है कि अब तो पाकिस्तानी भी हमारी आरएसएस प्रदत्त ‘महान भारतीय संस्कृति’ पर हँसते हैं और दुनिया में अखलाक और जुनेद जैसी हत्याओं ने हमें कहीं मुंह दिखाने लायक नहीं रखा है।

      ये वो वक़्त है फहमीदा जब आपकी बेहद जरूरत थी और यही वो वक़्त है जब सब एक एक कर बिछुड़ जा रहे हैं...और अब आप....फहमीदा.....अलविदा ...दोस्त आप भूलेंगी नहीं....जब तक हमारी बारी नहीं आ जाती...  

Bhagat Singh Ki Moort  ----Fahmida Riyaz
Dilli sey khabar aai hai
Duhai hai Duhai hai.
Parliament Complex main
Sheed Bhagat Singh ki
Sarkari shilpkar ney
Yeh kaisi chabbi bani hai !
Are hai hai hai!!!
Yeh tau Bhgat Singh naheen
Voh kaisri ghabroo humara
Jis ki deh ko jala na paey they theek sey. 
Saatth painsatth varsh ka
Mota Phappas sa
Moti munchon wala
Yeh to koi aur hai! 
Saatth varsh sey koshish kar rahey they
Dhar petition par petition
Angrezun ney thukraya
Tum to mat thukrao
Bhagat Singh shaheed ki
Murat yahan lagao. 
Aakhir satth varsh baad Sarkar ney
Chati par haath mara aur kaha
“Han! Kiun naheen!”
Aur laga di mooat, Parliament Comlex main. 
Hain! Yeh kia?
Yeh to Bhagat Singh Naheen !
 
Hahaha! Piarey mitro
Rona band karo
Zara is parliament main doosri mooraton ko bhi ghor sey dekho
Kia yeh wo hi Jwahar Lal hai, jo who tha? Wohi Gandhi hai?
Wo hi Abulkalam Azaad? 
In ki asal soorat aur atma
Tau is Parliament main aney janey waley
Kab ki omlette bana kar kha pee chukey .
Is chogherey main kaiwal
Badli hui muratain hi lag sakti hain
Kuja Bhagat Singh!
Who Ab baqi naheen raha.
Us ka zamana beet gaya.
Who jo Ghalib ka aashiq tha
Sher o shairi ka rassia.
Ab Ghalib bhi Galib hain
Aur ankh mar mar kar, gajal ga raha hai
Ishwarya rai jis par naach rahi hain
Unki mehrbani 
Aur uskey shehar Lahore main
Bhagat Singh aik Sikh hai, zyadatar logon key liey.
Jo shayed san sentalees main
Wahan sey chala gaya.
Aisey naam sun kar loog ghabra jatey hain
Kambakhat kaheen wapis tau naheen aa raha
Apni property claim karney!!!
Naheen, naheen, humm aisa naheen honey den gey
Aakhir humm bhi tau chor kar aey hain
Khet khalyan, dukaneyn makaan
Ludhyaney main. 
Kiun tum ney chaha us ki murat lagana
Parliament  Complex main? Bhagat Singh sarkar ka hero naheen ban sakta
Kisi bhi sarkar ka naheen. 
Who Khalis Hindustani tha
Uska samey beet gaya
Who khalis Hindustan ki mitti ka geet tha
Paani ki chamak
Hawa ki sarsarahat
Khalis Hindustani josh aur jazba apney waqt ka.
Hawa us waqt ko ura ley gayi 
Uski murat waheen lagi rehney do
Jehan who saatth baras sey lagi hai.
Sarhad key iss paar aur uss par
Ikka dukka dil main.
Har subha bacchon jaisi masoom kaamnaen
Us key korey pindey ko gaindey key phoolon sey dhanp deti hain
Aur us ko nehlati hain
Pyar aur samman bharey aansuon key namkeen paani sey.
Yeh hai uska asal asthan
Bhagat Singh yahan khush hai.

भगत सिंह की मूरत

- : फहमीदा रियाज

दिल्ली से खबर आई है

दुहाई है दुहाई है

पार्लिमेंट काम्पलेक्स में

शहीद भगत सिंह की

सरकारी शिल्पकार ने

यह कैसी छवि बनाई है!

अरे हाय हाय

यह तो भगत सिंह नहीं

वो केसरी गबरु हमारा

जिस की देह को जला न पाए थे ठीक से

साठ पैंसठ वर्ष का मोटा कापा सा

मोटी मूँछ वाला

यह तो कोई और है

साठ वर्ष से कोशिश कर रहे थे

धर पटीशन पर पटीशन

अंग्रेजों ने ठुकराया

तुम तो मत ठुकराओ

भगत सिंह शहीद की

मूरत यहाँ लगाओ

आखिर साठ वर्ष बाद सरकार ने

छाती पर हाथ मारा और कहा

“हाँ क्यों नहीं !”

और लगा दी मूरत पार्लिमेंट कम्पलेक्स में

हैं ! यह क्या ?

यह तो भगत सिंह नहीं

हा ! हा ! हा ! प्यारे मित्रों

रोना बंद करो

जरा इस पार्लिमेंट में दूसरी मूरतों को

भी गौर से देखो

क्या यह वही जवाहरलाल है जो वह था

वही गांधी है ?

वही अबुल कलाम आज़ाद ?

इनकी असल सूरत और आत्मा

तो इस पार्लियामेंट में आने जाने वाले

कब की आमलेट बनाकर खा पी चुके

इस अंधेरे में केवल

बदली हुई मूर्तियां ही लग सकती है

कूजा भगत सिंह

वो अब बाकी नहीं रहा

उसका ज़माना बीत गया

वो जो ग़ालिब का आशिक था

और आँख मार-मार कर ग़ज़ल गा रहा है

ऐश्वर्या राय जिस पर नाच रही है

उनकी मेहरबानी

और उसके शहर लाहौर में

भगत सिंह एक सिख है, ज्यादातर लोगों के लिए

जो शायद सन सैंतालीस में

वहाँ से चला गया

ऐसे नाम सुनकर लोग घबरा जाते हैं

कम्बख्त कहीं वापिस तो नहीं आ रहा है

अपनी प्रापर्टी क्लेम करने

नहीं, नहीं, हम ऐसा नहीं होने देंगे

आखिर हम भी तो छोड़ कर आए हैं

ख़ेत खलिहान दुकानें मकान

लुधियाने में

क्यों तुमने चाहा उसकी मूरत लगाना

पार्लिमेंट कम्पलेक्स में ?

भगत सिंह सरकार का हीरो नहीं बन सकता

किसी भी सरकार का नहीं

वो खालिस हिंदुस्तानी था

उसका समय बीत गया

वो खालिस हिंदुस्तान की मिट्टी का गीत था

पानी की चमक

हवा की सरसराहट

खालिस हिंदुस्तानी जोश और ज़ज़्बा अपने वक्त का

हवा उस वक्त को उड़ा ले गई

उसकी मूरत वहीं लगी रहने दो

सरहद के इस पार और उस पार

इक्का दुक्का दिल में

हर सुबह बच्चों जैसी मासूम कामनाएं

उसके कोरे पिंडे को गेंदे के फूलों से ढांप देती हैं

और उसको सहलाती हैं

प्यार और सम्मान भरे आँसुओं के नमकीन पानी से

यह है उसका असल स्थान

भगत सिंह यहाँ खुश है

Bhagat Singh Ki Moorat
Fahmida Riyaz

There is news from Delhi
alas! Alas!!
What a mess they have made
Of Bhagat Singh
In the Parliament Complex!

For sixty years they petitioned
The British rejected him
But YOU! Our own government.
Erect his statue
in the Parliament Complex
At last the government thumped its chest
and said why not!
and erected the statue in the Parliament Complex.
But when the veil was lifted
You discover it is not Bhagat Singh
That 24 year old beautiful lad
Nor his young limbs that they could not properly burn
On the fateful night when they hanged him.

It is some 60 years old guy
Flabby and tired looking
With upturned mustaches
Oh what the hell is this.
This is not our Bhagat Singh
In the Parliament Square
Who the hell is he ?

Ha ha ha ! Dear friends
Wipe your tears look closely
At all the other statues in the Parliament
Is it the same Jawahar Lal as he was ? Is it the same Gandhi?
The same Abulkalam azad?

The in-coming and out-going respected parliamentarians
Have made an omelet of their reality
And gobbled them up long long ago.
In this grand square
Only cissored and edited versions
Can find a lasting place.

Bhagat Singh was the child of his time
And times have changed. He loved Urdu poetry and Ghalib
And Ghalib , getting rid of his robe
Is Galib now, winking and singing some trashy "gajal"
Ishwarya Rai is dancing on it
So kind of her.

And in his city Lahore
Bhagat Singh is a Sikh
Who perhaps migrated to India in '47
Such names make people nervous
Is the god-damn man coming back?
to claim his property??
We shall never let that happen
After all we left fields and barns
shops and houses
in Ludhyana.

Bhagat Singh was a pure Indian
His times are swept away with the wind
He was a purely Indian earth-song
Light in the water
Rustling in the wind
He was a purely Indian passion of his time
And times have changed.

Let his statue remain where it has remained for 60 years
Across both sides of the border
In a heart or two.
There every morning
Longings as innocent and ignorant as little children
Cover his young body with fresh garlands of marigold
Bathe his limbs with tears of love and adoration
He belongs there
He is happy there.

Background letter of the poem given below:

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Professor Chaman Lal Dated:--17^th August, 2008

Chairperson

Centre of Indian Languages (SLL&CS)

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi -110067

Editor- Complete Documents of Bhagat Singh in Hindi

(Published by Govt. of India-“Shaheed Bhagat Singh:Dastavezon ke Aaine mein’)

Honorable Speaker of India

Parliament House, New Delhi

Subject: Regarding Statue of Bhagat Singh in Parliament Complex

Respected Somnath ji,

In the beginning I must appreciate your sincere efforts in getting the statue of country’s most cherished martyr Bhagat Singh in Parliamentary complex. You have also promised in your visit to JNU in response to my query, to get the plaques installed inside Loksabha at the spots in visitor’s gallery, where Bhagat Singh and B K Dutt stood while throwing bombs and getting arrested and also where the harmless bombs fell near some chairs in the hall. However with all the happiness at symbolic level in getting the statue finally installed and inaugurated by the President of the nation on 15^th august 2008, 62nd independence anniversary, in recognition of Bhagat Singh and all other revolutionary martyr’s contribution to national freedom, a very disturbing development has also taken place with this inauguration, about which I wish to draw your most urgent attention.

PTC, a Punjabi news channel on 15^th August and ‘The Tribune’s Delhi edition on 16^th August has referred to the reactions of close members of Bhagat Singh’s family about the inaugurated statue. Smt. Virender Sandhu, niece of Bhagat Singh (Daughter of Kultar Singh), who is the first biographer of Bhagat Singh and his ancestors in Hindi and who has been honored by Punjab Govt. this year on this forty year old classic book as ‘Shiromani Hindi Sahityakar’, traveled from England to be part of this ceremony, has expressed her deep disappointment at the statue, which has been installed. Abhay Singh Sandhu, son of Kulbir Singh and nephew of Bhagat Singh, who has been instrumental in getting Bhagat Singh’s jail notebook, published from Punjab and Haryana Govts with Punjabi and Hindi translations for free distribution in schools and for public, felt even more distressed at the figure of Bhagat Singh as sculpted in statue. Jagmohan Singh son of Bibi Amar kaur and nephew of Bhagat Singh has also reacted strongly about the sculpted figure. Being a bit close to family members of Bhagat Singh, as late Kultar singh wrote an introduction to the documents of Bhagat Singh edited by this author, I must also share with you that invitation cards for this programme were not sent by the concerned office to family members of Bhagat Singh and they had to come and collect themselves from the office, which is nothing but disgraceful, though family members have been graceful enough not to make this fact public. Not only family members of Bhagat Singh, even eminent freedom fighter Sh. Shashi Bhushan ,who is also member of Govt. of India’s programme implementation committee for these national anniversaries of Bhagat Singh etc. and who was present on the occasion, felt that the statue looks like that of a 50-60 year old man and not of 23-24 years young person. Sh. Kuldip Nayar, former member of Rajya Sabha and author of book on Bhagat Singh-‘Without Fear’ has also taken exception to the present statue. Another author S. Irfan Habib, who wrote a book on Bhagat Singh-‘To Make the Deaf Hear’ and which probably your good self has himself gone through felt that the statue looked ‘very bad’. I watched the programme live from Loksabha TV and also saw the picture of statue in next days papers felt shocked at the figure sculpted in the statue. No doubt Sculptor is known to be a big name, but while sculpting historical figures, face of a personality can not be changed with imagination, it has to remain closest to the real face. No other statue in Parliament complex or elsewhere has suffered this fate of being away from real face as the statue of Bhagat Singh has suffered. For very long period Bhagat Singh ideas remained shadowed by various fishy interpretations and many paintings, particularly in Punjab, based on these shady interpretations came up. One of these paintings has been of Bhagat Singh wearing yellow turban with pistol in hand, confirming the colonial image of ‘a terrorist’. Some of us like Prof. Bipan Chandra, Prof. Sunmit Sarkar, Prof. Irfan Habib, myself and others, who have worked for many years to resurrect the real image of Bhagat Singh as a brilliant socialist thinker, through his writings, feel cheated, when some of these painted images take precedence over real pictures of Bhagat Singh. Punjab Govt. has been guilty of publishing a painted picture of Bhagat Singh as real picture in media in its official advertisements for last more than three decades, including the advertisement issued on 15^th August this year.

The fact of the matter is that four real pictures of Bhagat Singh are now widely available. One is of about 10-11 years, another of National College Lahore’s drama group photo of 16+ years, third one of Lahore police station photograph of 1927, 21 years and last one cliqued by Delhi photographer in first week of April 1929, 4-5 days prior to bomb throwing, photographs of Bhagat sing and B K Dutt, which got published world over on 9^th april 1929, after the bomb throwing incident a day earlier. These four photographs are part of my book, published by Govt. of India and released by Sh. Priyaranjan Das Munshi, information Minister on 19^th December 2007 at Delhi. These are available at my blog bhagatsinghstudy.blogspot.com as well. Not only that during the campaign for celebrating Bhagat Singh birth centenary and also during campaign for proper statue of Bhagat Singh, after your announcement of statue installment plan came out, I had circulated these four photographs on email to media, political parties and many more. In fact, Sh. Debbrat Biswas, leader of Forward Bloc in Parliament, even forwarded my letter in this regard to you with his comments. Com A.B.Bardhan also sent me the copy of his own letter, which he sent in this regard. In spite of that I regret to say I or others concerned were never approached informally or formally by any official or the sculptor, while sculpting this historic personality. None of the family members was either consulted or shown the statue prior to inauguration. None of the Parliament members, who had taken great interest in regard to Bhagat Singh like Mohd. Salim, D.Raja or Sita ram Yechuri, Abani Roy etc. nor Sh. Shashi Bhushan were ever consulted about the statue. An unsavory controversy however was created by those, who had nothing to do with the ideas of Bhagat Singh to communalize the issue of statue of a confirmed atheist. Although the whole world know Bhagat Singh by his last photograph with hat and dozens of statues throughout the country—Indore, Kolkata, Partapgarh, Delhi(Ferozeshah Kotla) and dozens of other places, are based on this world popular known photograph, which is popular even in Pakistan. Irony of the matter is that, the place where he created history by his action on 8^th April 1929, in this very photographic shape, he was denied the same shape by the new rulers. History will judge all these in due course of time, but the enlightened ones try to correct the errors, as has been done by deciding to install the statue, but a bigger blunder has been committed while correcting the error. Even if one grants that a statue with turban was the decision of certain committee, then it was imperative that the real picture with turban was to be sculpted, that has not been done. The popular picture with turban is of College drama group. In this picture Bhagat Singh is wearing white Kurta Pyjama with white falling turban, which is not a typical Sikh way of wearing turban. Sikh way is way of wearing close tight turban. Bhagat Singh was almost six feet tall with robust health, but he was not fat. In his turbaned photo, he has very small beard and moustaches, as he was just sixteen then. What the sculptor has done:

i. Bhagat Singh’s body figure looks of a fat person, which he was definitely not.

ii. Bhagat Singh’s beard and moustaches have been shown thick, which were not.

iii. Worse still, he has been shown with standing moustaches, which he had only with hat wearing shape.

There is another irony in this whole issue. Issue of installing Bhagat Singh’s picture in the picture gallery in Central hall of Parliament, where the pictures of much lesser known, even some controversial personalities like Savarkar are displayed , was raised hundreds of times, but Bhagat Singh’s picture was never allowed to be put up in that hall. It has been camouflaged now that he has been given greater honor by installing his statue in Parliamentary complex, where only few more statues like that of Netaji Subhash Bose and Indira Gandhi is displayed. But the Central Hall has also the pictures of those, whose statues are displayed in the complex, but the pictures of Bhagat Singh ,Chandershekhar Azad etc. are still denied entry there. Thus the picture gallery of patriots in Central hall is not free of ideological perspective about Indian freedom struggle, in that sense.

Sir, this is a very serious matter and with a concerned speaker like you must pay urgent attention. To make amends to this serious blunder, first step is to cover the statue, till a proper enquiry is made into whole issue and a properly shaped statue is installed. Secondly, the hat wearing popular, real and last photograph of Bhagat Singh and B K Dutt must be displayed inside the Central Hall, preferably, where they sat watching the proceedings before throwing bombs with plaques. If these amends are not made, I am afraid, the youth of the country will always think that why Bhagat Singh like revolutionary patriots are wronged during their life time and also after their life time by the establishment of that period. Though Bhagat Singh is like a Phoenix, however he may be tried to be buried and killed at the level of body or ideas, he will resurrect himself with renewed vigour, as Che Guvera’s resurrection has happened in all Latin American countries, shaking the neo colonial powers of the earth.

With hopes of your kind attention.

With best regards

Chaman Lal

Attachment—Four real photographs of Bhagat Singh.

Tel. 011-26704656 (Mob.-09868774820) Email: - prof.chaman@gmail.com