Don’t tell this to Jaya: in UP, POTA is poetry

LUCKNOW, OCTOBER 30: • Jis baghi ko haalaat badal nahi sakte, Us Raja ke aage kayi mai ke lal nahin tikte (The rebel whom the day’...

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LUCKNOW, OCTOBER 30:

• Jis baghi ko haalaat badal nahi sakte,
Us Raja ke aage kayi mai ke lal nahin tikte
(The rebel whom the day’s affairs cannot change, who will have the courage to face him)

• Lakshya par chal pade, kabhi mat na rukna,Toot jana Raja par kabhi mat jhukna
(If you start for a target, never stop. Raja, you may break from within but never bow to anyone)

It was a kavi sammelan and the ‘king’ the poets were praising was on the stage with them. It’s just another matter that he is a POTA accused and the mushaira in his honour was held inside the jail.

Not just the poets, a Cabinet minister of the Mulayam Singh Yadav goverment, Ram Raj Pandey, and top officials of the local administration lined up to praise Raghuraj Pratap Singh, aka Raja Bhaiyya, on Monday at the Pratapgarh jail. ‘‘Kuchh log hain jo waqt ke sanche mein dhal gaye, kuch log hain jo waqt ka sancha badal gaye (Some fade away with time, some change its course),’’ recited S.P. Singh, Pratapgarh SP, at the jail 50 km from Kunda, headquarters of the Raja’s fiefdom.

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Over two dozen poets invited from different districts of the state read out couplets, most of them eulogising Raja Bhaiyya. Pratapgarh’s DM R.S. Verma and S.P. Singh remained on the stage till the end of the programme and had lunch with the officials and the prisoners, mostly Raja Bhaiyya supporters rounded up during the Mayawati regime.

‘‘It was an AIDS symposium and a cultural show arranged for the jail inmates. This is a routine in all jails and such programmes are held during festivals. This one was organised on the occasion of Diwali,’’ Verma told The Indian Express. Pandey, a long-time follower of Raja Bhaiyya, could not be reached for his comments.

Deputy Jailor Kamlesh Singh too said the event was organised to spread AIDS awareness. ‘‘We distributed leaflets among them to ensure that the inmates are aware of the killer disease,’’ he said.

With the change of guard in Lucknow, the fortunes of Raja Bhaiyya changed overnight. He was in a solitary cell in Kanpur jail and even his family members were not allowed to meet him. As soon as Mulayam took over, he was moved to a hospital. And now in Pratapgarh jail, he gets VIP treatment. ‘‘He is a B-category prisoner and has got the facility of having a cook and getting his meal prepared elsewhere but within the jail premises,’’ the deputy jailor said.