-for Chandra Shekhar Azad
When they finally write the history
of how we won this fight,
they’ll say the tide turned
at Jama Masjid
when Chandra Shekhar Azad
held up the constitution,
and a photo of Dr. Ambedkar,
before leading the charge that freed
first Daryaganj, then Delhi
from the idea that we could be
so easily cowed and beaten.
That evening we all somehow knew
that somewhere in Lutyens’ Delhi
the Home Minister was pacing
and pounding his fists on a wall—
and though the Chief
later turned himself in,
by then we all understood
that neither police, nor army—
nor the devil himself
can turn back the sea
when it rises.