The day you demolished Babri
You didn’t kill any Hikmat or
You didn’t break a mere structure
You didn’t kill a land
You didn’t kill a country
You didn’t kill a nation.
You killed your mother, sons!
You killed the love
Your mother breathes in
When a Dalit boy writes the Constitution
and a Muslim writes school books.
You killed the kisses
Your mother feels
When two souls make love
Breaking the shackles of caste and creed.
You killed the pride
Of your mother’s eyes
When he or she becomes ‘they’.
You kill your mother every time
When you ask for votes
In mandir or masjid’s name.
You have never stopped since then!
You murdered the soul of your mother yesterday
When you called her son a terrorist
In classrooms.
You are killing Mother India every day
As you killed her
On December 6, 1992.
When will you be done?
How many times will you kill your mother, sons?
Moumita Alam is a poet from West Bengal. Her poetry collection, The Musings of the Dark was published in 2020. The book has about a hundred poems written in protest against the humanitarian crisis from the abrogation of Article 370, the Delhi riots, and the Shaheen Bagh movement to the unbearable sufferings of the migrant labourers due to the unplanned COVID-19 induced lockdown.
Featured image: A violent mob mobilised by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Sangh parivar demolished the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.