"You will rise..." TMC MP Mahua Moitra pens short poem in support of Umar Khalid after bail denial
New Delhi: Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Wednesday penned a short poem in support of jailed activist Umar Khalid after the Supreme Court denied bail to the latter in an alleged larger conspiracy behind the 2020 north-east Delhi riots. Mahua Moitra shared the poem in a post on X, titled "You will rise, Umar Khalid."
"You Will Rise, Umar Khalid. You may write me (Umar Khalid) down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt, But still, like dust, I'll rise... You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise," she said.
The Supreme Court on Monday denied bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in a case about an alleged larger conspiracy behind the 2020 north-east Delhi riots. However, the SC granted bail to Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, and Mohd. Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmad. Earlier, a group of JNU students allegedly raised slogans against Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on campus after the Supreme Court denied bail. The action drew sharp criticism from BJP leaders, with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis saying that "the offspring of Sharjeel Imam were born at JNU". He asserted that such "wicked intentions that speak the language of breaking the country" would be crushed. Speaking to reporters, CM Fadnavis said, "The offspring of Sharjeel Imam were born at JNU. We will crush such wicked intentions, which stand with the country's traitors, with those who speak the language of breaking the country."
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala, condemning the slogans, said Congress and Left parties are an "anti-India urban naxal gang," alleging they prioritise individuals like Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam and their vote-bank politics over national security. "This shows that they are an anti-India urban naxal gang which always keeps people like Umar and Sharjeel and their vote bank above national security...Be it Congress or Left or their ecosystem in JNU, they always stand with anti-India elements," Poonawala told reporters. Besides Poonawala, Delhi Home Minister Ashish Sood also criticised the alleged sloganeering against PM Modi and Amit Shah at JNU on Monday, calling the incident "unfortunate" and "condemnable." "This kind of sloganeering after rejection of the bail plea of Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam is unfortunate and condemnable... Sharjeel Imam talked about cutting off the Chicken's Neck corridor to separate Northeast India. Umar Khalid raised slogans of 'Bharat tere tukde honge'... I consider this treason," Sood told reporters.
