When AB Vajpayee wrote poems in Bengaluru jail

Remembering the poet Vajpayee on his 94th birth anniversary: The former PM used to write poems from Bengaluru jail during the Emergency, which were seen on posters on the Karnataka University campus.
File picture of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during his visit to Raichur.
File picture of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during his visit to Raichur.

HUBBALLI: It was the time of Emergency in India and most of the Jan Sangh leaders were arrested and lodged in different jails. The former prime minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then Jan Sangh leader, was housed in Bengaluru's central prison.

Vajpayee wrote several poems from the central prison during his imprisonment that lasted for more than a year.

There were hundreds of Jan Sangh karyakartas in Karnataka, who had gone underground to evade arrests and were working against the government. They used to travel to Bengaluru on the pretext of meeting other leaders and used to bring poems written by Vajpayee to Hubballi.

Writer and journalist Sarju Katkar, who was then a student of Karnataka University, Dharwad, was requested by the karyakartas to translate the poems Vajpayee wrote into Kannada.

Recalling those days, Katkar pointed out that the network in which karyakartas used to get the translated poems and printed them as posters. “The posters with Vajpayee’s poems used to be seen on the university campus, main streets of Hubballi and Dharwad. Many times, the police used to tear away such posters.”

“Vajpayee was a great poet and his writings and poems spoke about the richness of his language. He knew how to connect the words and create several meanings to them. All his poems written from jail had a unique pen name “Kaidi Kaviray” (“Kadi” means “jailbird” and “Kaviray” means “poet”). Some of his poems had a pen name in the middle as “Kaidi Kaviray Kahe”. In one such poem written in jail shows his emotional side. He wrote about his prolonged stay and expressed his wish to see the new light,” he said.

In 1999, Katkar once again got a request from the Central Government to translate a collection of poems of Vajpayee ‘Meri Ekyavan Kavitaye’ into Kannada. The Union Ministry for Culture had decided to translate the collection of poems by Vajpayee to all the 24 languages of the country.

“When I first got the offer, I refused it. I said I am not a BJP man and do not want to translate something written by a politician or the Prime Minister. Ananth Kumar, who was the then Union minister, telephoned me and forced me to take up the translation work. One of my mentors told me to look at the poems thinking that it was written by a poet and not by the prime minister. Then I decided to translate and the work was completed in a few months. Along with the 51 poems of Vajpayee in Kannada, I also added 10 translated poems of Vajpayee written from Bengaluru jail in the book. The book was released in New Delhi in 1999 along with other translated versions,” Katkar recalled.

Vajpayee’s signature helped fund the Kargil war

In was in 1999 when Kargil operation was at its peak and the country was contributing for the Kargil War Fund. As the Kannada version of ‘Ekyavan Kavitaye’ had additional 10 poems, it attracted the attention of Vajpayee. He personally signed on five books and sent back to Katkar. Katkar decided to auction four books, which had the signature of Vajpayee.

“It was a small function conducted to honour me in Belagavi. During the function, I announced that four books are up for sale and money will go towards the war fund. Two businessmen present in the function came up and purchased the books for Rs 61,000 and Rs 51,000. With four books, we contributed Rs 1.5 lakh to Kargil War Fund,” Katkar said.

Noted critic Dr GS Amur, who wrote a preface for the translated version of ‘Ekyavan Kavitaye’, says: “If a politician is a poet or a writer, he could understand the problems of people better. Ram Manohar Lohia too was one such politician.”

The time Atal hugged Jogalekar

Dr Ganesh Jogalekar, a first generation RSS leader from Gadag, went to Hubballi airport where Atal Bihari Vajpayee was expected to land in 2002. Having old ties with Vajpayee, Jogalekar went to the airport despite his family members asking him not to go saying there would be a large crowd. But, he went to have a glimpse of his old associate.

When Vajpayee landed at the airport, many leaders offered him bouquets. When he saw Jogalekar, he walked towards him and hugged him. Vajpayee visited Gadag twice in 1983 and 1986. “When we saw Atalji hugging Dr Jogalekar, some of us wept seeing that thrilling moment,” recalled an RSS leader from Gadag.

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