From Solapur to Mumbai to Bangalore, she is followed by groups who disrupt and even shut down her performances. Twenty-nine-year-old Sheetal Sathe — wife to Sachin Mali, mother to Abhang, and Maoist to the Government — travels around the country singing on social issues. Since 2004, this gold medallist from Pune's Fergusson College and a trained singer has been singing on social issues.
At a recent performance in New Delhi, she begins by asking the audience, "If it's not too difficult for you, can I hear a 'Jai Bhim?'" "Jai Bhim," replies the audience, hailing BR Ambedkar. Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) of which she is a member is ideologically opposed to Maoists, she says, and instead puts its faith in the Constitution and Dr Ambedkar. She herself is out on bail while her husband and two other colleagues from KKM have been in jail for the past three years, accused of assisting Maoists.
Sathe says she was always a singer, and had considered pursuing commercial music when she was younger but now is happy singing "social songs." She was released on bail as she was pregnant at the time of the arrest. For two years, KKM and its defence committee set up by Anand Patwardhan, have been trying to secure bail for singer and lyricist husband. The same judge who recently acquitted Salman Khan, has refused to give bail.
Social-singing became Sathe's priority from her college days in Pune where she did her undergraduate degree in Sociology. She mainly employs music and street plays to increase awareness among the people. Since college, her voice has rung out for a range of issues — on Babasaheb Ambedkar, worker's rights, corruption and special economic zones. But it is her singing on caste issues that got her into trouble.
In 2006, four Dalits were murdered in Kherlanji in Maharashtra. The Kherlanji Massacre as it came to be known, was followed by violent clashes in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. KKM and other activists participated in an andolan for Kherlanji. Sathe explains how the home minister of Maharashtra, RR Patil, branded them all as Naxals. "We were representing the Kherlanji andolan. They made a list of so called Naxals, and even Medha Patkar was on that list. Lots of people were speaking against Kherlanji. Calling us Naxals was a strategy, so that whoever wanted to stand for truth, could be detained and stopped from taking part in the democratic movement. "
This is a feature that has happened with monotonous regularity— whichever Government is in power. The latest example is of Home Minister Rajnath Singh describing protesting students of JNU as having links to Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
So , KKM members began being picked up by the Maharashtra Police and Anti-Terrorism Squad. Sathe, her husband and others, went into hiding in 2011. But by 2013, they decided to surrender and appeared outside the Vidhan Bhawan in Mumbai. They felt confident that their names would be cleared. But nearly three years later, there is no sign of when this might happen. What amuses and angers her equally is that "the ideology that we don't subscribe to, is what we are being accused of following and we are being persecuted." "We don't appreciate Naxalites. Theirs is a movement that stands on violence. Our case is a test to the justice system. We surrendered in the full hope that we will find Justice."
When I ask her what her fears are, she doesn't seem to understand. I have to explain— are you worried about the state or the police or the opposition you receive? She seems to be one of those few people who has "freedom from fear," the very specific freedom that has become part of our discussions following the December 16 Delhi gangrape. "We don't feel fear as such. But we feel sadness. Sachin and I are young parents now. And my baby is unable to get her father's love. The time we should have spent as a family, will never be given back to us."