‘A man is willing to give up his life. Bachhe bhook hartal pe hain.’
Key Points
- On July 20 afternoon, movie legend Shabana Azmi fell ill at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.
- Azmi suffered from dizziness, exhaustion and stomach distress brought on by extreme weather conditions and overcrowding.
- ‘Don’t derail the protest by focussing on my health or my presence.’
On July 20 afternoon, movie legend Shabana Azmi fell ill at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar due to severe heat and suffocation after joining the protest associated with the Cockroach Janta Party.
This medical emergency occurred amidst escalating tensions a couple of days after environmentalist and educationist Sonam Wangchuk was forcibly removed from the protest site and hospitalised at the Safdarjung hospital by the Delhi police over his rapidly deteriorating health after an indefinite hunger strike.
While expressing solidarity with the demonstrators at Jantar Mantar, 75-year-old Shabana Azmi (she is a day younger than Prime Minister Narendra Modi) suffered from dizziness, exhaustion and stomach distress brought on by extreme weather conditions and overcrowding.
Wangchuk and members of the Cockroach Janata Party have been protesting to demand Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation following nationwide outrage over the NEET examination paper-leak.
Days prior to her arrival at the site, Azmi had urged Wangchuk to end his fast, stating that the nation needs his leadership alive to fight the long-term battle against structural injustice.
“Arrey Baba, I am okay now. It was just a dizzy spell. Don’t derail the protest by focussing on my health or my presence,” Azmi tells Subhash K Jha.
“I only want to be a part of the protest. This cause is far bigger than any individual. A man is willing to give up his life. Bachhe bhook hartal pe hain (children are on fast).”
History of Activism
Azmi is no stranger to protests. For decades she has been associated with the Navara Haq project spearheading one of the largest single slum rehabilitation projects in Asia.
The organisation has successfully rehabilitated over 40,000 people.
She famously undertook a historic five-day hunger strike in Mumbai to halt slum demolitions, successfully securing permanent housing for over 50,000 evicted residents.
Through the Mijwan Welfare Society, an NGO founded by her father, the legendary poet Kaifi Azmi, she leads initiatives focused on the upliftment, employment, and education of girls and women in rural India.
In the 1990s, she actively dismantled deep-seated societal taboos surrounding HIV/AIDS by publicly embracing and hugging patients to demonstrate compassion and combat misinformation.
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff