While libruls in India wax eloquent about a peaceful, tolerant India of yore, reality was different. If you protested, you died. Period.

Take Safadar Hashmi,

Hashmi founded the JANAM theatre company, a far left street theater group. He was a card carrying member of the SFI.

2/n When Indiramata rigged the elections, he wrote a play called Kursi Kursi Kursi criticising Indira. He then wrote / acted in many plays addressing the topics of the day. Unemployment, domestic violence etc.

3/n On Jan 1, 1989 he was performing in a street play in UP. The Cong candidate Mukesh Sharma and his goons set upon the group, bashed his head in and then shot dead another Left wing member and factory worker Ram Bahadur. He died the next day.

4/n Under the peaceful reign this was not new. Police and party goons regularly attacked theatre artists.

On July 20, 1974, Prabir Dutta of Silhouette company was performing in Kolkata. Nearby a Naxal group was in a public protest.

5/n The police charged both groups, beat mang, Dutta was not even performing but eating his rice dinner. He was bashed to his death.

1972, Ashish Chatterjee was performing in a play a called Bipani. Police arrived. Fired at the crowd and Ashish was killed by a bullet.

In both the cases here not even a charge sheet was filed.

This is the kind of "past" Congress wants us to go back to? Where you didn't have only lynch mobs but outright police execution squads

7/n In both the cases here not even a charge sheet was filed.

This is the kind of "past" Congress wants us to go back to? Where you didn't have only lynch mobs but outright police execution squads. When will court historians like Guha "speak the truth to power"?