Noted poet and lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri has won the hearts of the people with his poems and songs.  Besides writing many popular songs for Bollywood in a career spanning half a century, Sultanpuri was a Leftist communist who read Marx and Lenin and was also jailed for two years in Mumbai for reciting poetry against Jawaharlal Nehru.

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His  Left leanings got him into trouble. During one of the meetings organised for the mill workers, he recited a poem that was written against Jawaharlal Nehru. He refused to render an apology for the same and was jailed in 1949 along with actor Balraj Sahni. The order to arrest him was given by none other than Morarji Desai, the then governor of Bombay. During his two years in prison, he continued to write meaningful songs and poems.”

The lines which lends him in jails are mentioned below-
मन में जहर डॉलर के बसा के
फिरती है भारत की अहिंसा
खादी के केंचुल को पहनकर
ये केंचुल लहराने न पाए
अमन का झंडा इस धरती पर
किसने कहा लहराने न पाए
ये भी कोई हिटलर का है चेला
मार लो साथ जाने न पाए
कॉमनवेल्थ का दास है नेहरू
मार ले साथी जाने न पाए
Majrooh Sultanpuri won his only Filmfare best lyricist award for the song “Chahunga mai tujhe saanjh savere” for the film ‘Dosti’ in 1965. Majrooh Sultanpuri died of respiratory failure on May 24, 2000.

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