New Delhi, July 15, 2020: As well known incarcerated poet Varavara Roa was moved to JJ Hospital due to his deteriorating health conditions, an open statement by youth poets of India have expressed solidarity with the poet and demanded his immediate release.
The letter is a public statement titled “Don’t kill Varavara Rao in jail”, drawing attention to his worsening health inside the prison. Signed by over 50 young poets from all over the country, including youth activists like Iqra Khilji, Amir Aziz, Sabika Abbas Naqvi, Roshan Abbas, Ajmal Khan, and others, the letter notes that Rao’s co-prisoner had also said he needed “immediate help for his physical and neurological issues.”
The statement highlighted that Varavara Rao is an internationally acclaimed poet, journalist and literary critic from Telangana who is has been actively involved in social welfare and cultural preservation. His creditable records of journalism and that of founding the Revolutionary Writers Association have been cited in the statement. Speaking of his previous charges, the letter mentions that in 2018, Rao was arrested for his alleged role in the ‘Elgar Parishad case’, but on “false charges of trying to incite violence in Bhima Koregaon.” It states that “Rao is only being kept in jail by virtue of him being a poet who questions the powers-that-be.” The letter further added that Rao has not been offered a fair trial in the last two years and has been imprisoned for “an unjust length of time.”
The signatories have reminded that throughout history, Rao “has been hounded and arrested in various false charges by various governments and later been acquitted in all the cases,” thus accusing governments of being “uncomfortable” and “threatened” by his revolutionary writings. The same, it echoes, has been happening with other activists, writers and advocates.
“We as young poets not only understand the value and importance of speaking for the people and questioning the ones in power,” the letter resonates, urging that it is their responsibility to raise voice in support of this high-handedness by the government. The young poets have signed the letter to credit writers like Rao that they find the courage to speak out against atrocities. The signatories have also said that usually, “a poet names the nameless without actually taking their name,” therefore, the ones to feel threatened “are the ones in power who are being talked about in those poems.”
In its endnote, the signatories mention that this letter is categorically the “voice of young poets of this nation, who see the attack on Rao as an attack on all of them.” While after enormous outrage by citizens, the 80-year-old Varavara Rao has been moved to JJ hospital, the signatories demand the appropriate government and judicial authorities immediately attend to all his medical needs and allow his family to be with him.
The full list of signatories include poets like Aseem Sundan, Aamir Aziz Nabiya Khan, Hussain Haidry, Kaushik Raj, Iqra Khilji, Taikhum Sadiq Abhijit Khandkar, Rachneet Kaur, Naveen Chourey, Daaniyal, Poojan Sahil, Meghna Prakash, Nandini Gautam, Mandvi Mishra, Yashi Verma, Simran Banga, Sabika Abbas Naqvi, Ankur Sharma, Ridhi Bhutani, Pallavi Mahajan, Nausheen Khan, Ghazal Khanna, Megha Rao, Bikram Bumrah, Faisal Khan, Amina Arif, Amy Singh, Smriti Bhoker, Foram Ashish Shah, Kavya Sharma, Sahila, Priya Malik, Puneet Sharma, Nosheen Kapoor, Roshan Abbas Rajat Thakur, Bappadittya Sarkar, Ramneek Singh
Simar Singh, Soumya Thakur, Nidhie Saini, Ajmal Khan, Vasvi Kejriwal, Devanshi Khetarpal, Suhit Kelkar, Aswin Vijayan, Prashant Parvataneni, Arjun Rajendran, Smita Sahay and Arathy Asok.
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