The Citizenship Amendment Act, which makes religion a basis for Indian citizenship, has drawn criticism from across the international community. Even as protests continue across India, the spirit of dissenters echoed all the way in London where Pink Floyd's Roger Waters expressed solidarity.
Roger Waters, the legendary British base guitarist and founding member of Pink Floyd, was at a protest held on February 22 in the British capital city demanding that Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, be released from imprisonment.
Waters, who has been vocal in his criticism of US President Donald Trump, has been increasingly commenting on politics in the recent past. Speaking in London in a larger context of protests against “neoliberal, fascist regimes”, Waters made references to agitations in Argentina, Chile, Lebanon, Ecuador, and Bolivia among other countries.
Putting Assange’s arrest in a global context, he said, “Julian is why we are here today, but this is no parochial protest. We are today part of a global movement, a global movement that might be the beginning of the global enlightenment that this fragile planet so desperately needs.”
Then he referred to the situation in India, and Aamir Aziz who he described as “a young poet and activist in Delhi involved in the fight against Modi and his fascist, racist Citizenship law.”
Aamir Aziz, a singer and poet, was a civil engineering student at Jamia Millia Islamia. He has also written other poems on dissent such as 'Main Inkaar Karta Hoon' (I refuse).
Reciting a translation of Aziz’s ‘Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega’ (Everything will be remembered), Waters recited the following lines:
“Everything will be remembered
Kill us, we will become ghosts and write
of your killings, with all the evidence.
You write jokes in court;
We will write ‘justice’ on the walls.
We will speak so loudly that even the deaf will hear.
We will write so clearly that even the blind will read.
You write ‘injustice’ on the earth;
We will write ‘revolution’ in the sky.
Everything will be remembered;
Everything recorded”
Watch the video here:
“I think this kid’s got a future,” Waters added, referring to Aziz after reciting his poem.
Watch Aziz’s original poem here: