A Muslim singing ‘bhakti’ hymns still awaits his pension

Nagpur: Sharana janara sadhuruya (good hearted devotees), sings Babusaheb Nadaf, a rendition of Shiva’s devotional song in Kannada. Sporting a beard and skull cap, 70-year-old Nadaf sat alone on the footpath opposite the South Central Zone Cultural Centre (SCZCC) at Civil Lines on Monday. The office was closed on account of the holiday for the consecration of the Lord Ram idol at Ayodhya, delaying by at least one more day Sadaf’s dream of getting a pension awarded to folk artists like him.A body under the ministry of culture, SCZCC is among seven centres established in the country to promote arts. It also patronizes folk artists. SCZCC, which has its headquarters at Nagpur, covers Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Karnataka, from where Nadaf hails.

A singer of Kannada devotional music, he has been performing at various centres across India and had been to Delhi too. Nadaf belongs to Muthur village of Karnataka’s Bagalkot district, where he ekes out a living as a farm worker and also sings Kannada devotional songs.“I have been performing these songs since years. Why shouldn’t I sing the song? After all, we all belong to one God,” he said. Nadaf affirms that he is also a devout Muslim.He had heard that the central government grants a pension to artists like him and had applied at New Delhi, from where he was sent to SCZCC Nagpur. A hopeful Nadaf reached the city on Monday to get his work done, but the office was closed on account of the consecration day at Ayodhya. He was resting on the footpath when TOI spotted him.“I get a pension of ₹2,000 a month from the state government but that is too less. I live with my wife and three children, we don’t even have a house of our own,” he says. Nadaf breaks down into tears as he says, “I have been running pillar to post to get the pension approved, but have got no help so far.”However, he does not have the option of giving up. “I’ll spend the night in a dargah and come to SCZCC again in the morning,” he says.