Indian poet and journalist Siraj Bisaralli was arrested February 2020 after a public poetry reading in which he protested India’s controversial Citizenship Amendment Act. He has since been released on bail but still faces trial on charges of “intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace” and “statements conducive to public mischief” for the content of his poem.

Bisaralli is a regionally well-known, published poet who was invited to participate in a state-sponsored poetry event on January 9, 2020. He recited a new poem, Ninna Dakhale Yaavaga Needuttee? (“When will you show your documents?”)—a thinly veiled critique of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Passed in December 2019, the CAA discriminates against a large number of Muslims in India and many Indians fear that it opens the door for a National Register of Citizens to further extend religious- and ethnic-based discrimination across the country. Without naming names, Bisaralli’s poem challenges the national leadership and suggests that Indians should demand as much of their government as the government does of them – up to and including demanding “documents” to establish legitimacy.

A video of the poem posted online on January 14 immediately went viral, and it has since been translated into at least 13 languages, including English, Hindi and Urdu. Soon afterwards, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) officials, representing the regional branch of the national governing party, lodged official complaints with the local police, alleging that Bisaralli had “insulted the policies of the Central government, Prime Minister Modi, freedom fighters and ‘Hindu dharma’”.

Bisaralli was arrested on February 18, but quickly granted bail after a brief initial hearing of his case. “They say I misused government space,” he said upon his release. “But even in a festival organised by the government, we have the right to speak. There has never been such censorship before.”

Although he is free, Bisaralli continues to face the spurious charges brought against him, despite having committed no crime. Please join The Voice Project in calling for the charges against Bisralli to immediately be dropped.