And comrades admire Jyoti Jagtap

Jyoti Jagtap was on her way to Punersquos Saras Baug on September 8 2020 to meet her mates from the Kabir Kala Manch a cultural troupe which often has had to endure the statersquos iron fist in its 20year existence The Saras Baug meet had been convened to discuss the implications of the arrest of two members of the ManchmdashRamesh Gaichor and Sagar Gorkhemdasha day earlier for inciting the 2018 BhimaKoregaon violence with their music show and for harbouring links with the MaoistsJyoti was being tailed as she wended towards Saras Baug for when she stopped her scooter at a traffic light a woman slid on the pillion and said ldquoYou are under arrestrdquo Jyoti was driven to the office of the AntiTerrorism Squad ATS At Saras Baug every minute of the wait for Jyoti suggested a grim possibility subsequently confirmed with an officer calling up Rupali Jadhav a Manch member ldquoCome and take Jyotirsquos scooterrdquoJyoti was 32 then Rupali 30 But the arrest did not rattle them ldquoThose who take on the state are psychologically prepared to be arrestedrdquo says Rupali adding with a chuckle ldquoNext you will hear I am behind barsrdquo On September 8 though Rupalirsquos only concern was to call up Jyotirsquos family and friends to inform them about her incarceration and that it would be a long haul for her as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act invoked against her has stringent bail conditionsShocked Jyotirsquos family certainly was They are the only exception among the families of the BhimaKoregaon accused who have not gone public with their feelings One reason could be their locationmdashthey reside in a village Belsar in Pune districtmdashwhere the state easily inspires awe They sorely miss Jyoti her mother often cries for her daughter it is saidYet at the same time they wish Jyoti had heeded their entreaties to discontinue singing songs and staging plays often those she had herself written and trained the light of her brilliance on studies instead Because of the spark they saw in her they had sent her to Pune where she did a Masterrsquos in psychologyBut the brilliant are gifted with insights the mediocre do not possess It became Jyotirsquos mission to wage a cultural battle against Indiarsquos inequalities Although summarily dubbed a Maoist the family believes Jyoti can do no wrong But how do they prove this to the societySo they wait in silence for the court to exonerate her That is like waiting for Godot for even the charges in the BhimaKoregaon case have not been framed The stigma of UAPA silences manyUAPA also traps the accused in the statersquos definition of themConsider this Jyoti before her arrest was about to complete a course that would have qualified her to set up her own clinic for psychological counselling a dream she had nurtured through her years of stage performances Very likely she would have then found little time for the Manch which has every few years new members replacing those who leaveBut now she is in a cuckoorsquos nest also known as Byculla Jail in Mumbai where those broken by the state live on the thin line dividing sanity from insanity She counsels them In a letter to Rupali Jyoti said the state must post psychiatrists to jails The cynic would say it is the state that needs psychological help evident from the gross misuse of UAPAldquoWe are not friends we are comradesrdquo says Rupali whose circle of friends is different from Jyotirsquos ldquoOur politics brought us to the Manch We stand up for each otherrdquo Rupali explains They send books on psychology to Jyoti wire money to her in jail and take donations to fund her legal battles They will not abandon Jyoti for she was instrumental in keeping the Manchrsquos identity intact during the years its members lay low following the arrest of Deepak Dengle and Siddharth Bhosale in 2011There were suggestions then that the Manch should disband to evade state repression ldquoNordquo Jyoti argued ldquoThe state wants us to take two steps back We should stay two steps aheadrdquo Their popularity had soared with the 2011 release of Jai Bhim Comrade an Anand Patwardhan documentary that had inspiring footage of their performancesIn 2013 because of the Patwardhanled Kabir Kala Manch Defence Committeersquos intervention Manch members courted arrest The first batch comprised Sachin Mali and Sheetal Sathe The duo was jailed They were followed months later by Ramesh Sagar Jyoti and Rupali The men were sent to jail where they festered for the next four yearsJyoti and Rupali teamed up with Deepak who was granted bail in 2013 to ensure the Manch did not lose its voice as they sang against class caste and gender oppression with the chutzpah typical of the Manch with the hope of ushering in the change promised in the Constitution But then the state can be like a live naked wire dangling from an electric pole delivering shocks to those who dare to rewire it without switching off the power That in essence is Jyotirsquos storyThe writer is a senior journalistSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper