May 9: A teacher in jail
May 9, 2015
http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/2015/05/6562?page=show#sthash.IrjXWqSo.dpuf
A teacher in jail
Why is Saibaba such a threat? Why do the songs of Kabir Kala Manch need
to be silenced? It is because ideas have power
Manisha Sethi; Delhi
Today, teachers from universities across the city of Delhi are sitting
on hunger strike in solidarity with their colleague from Delhi
University, Dr G.N. Saibaba. It will mark precisely one year since
Saibaba was abducted by the Maharashtra police, literally plucked from
his car, blindfolded, bundled and taken away, first to the Civil Lines
Police Station, and thence to Aheri, and then Nagpur. A non-stop 72
hours ordeal. While it may come as no surprise to those familiar with
detention practices of our police – D.K. Basu guidelines issued by the
Supreme Court notwithstanding – what makes this even more perverse than
usual is that Saibaba is 90 per cent disabled and wheel chair bound. He
suffers from heart ailment and high blood pressure. He was hauled
through out the journey, from Delhi to the Aheri lock up, to the
magistrate’s court to the solitary anda cell in Nagpur jail like a sack
of potatoes, forced to spend the three days on his wheel chair. By the
time he reached Nagpur, deprived of sleep, food, medicines, and even
access to the toilet, Saibaba fell unconscious, his ears, nose bleeding.
What heinous crimes had Saibaba committed that necessitated this
dramatic arrest and assault on his dignity and life? Saibaba has been
charged under various sections of the anti-terror law, Unlawful
Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). To be sure, none of the sections (13,
18, 20, 38, 39) relate to any allegation of violence; instead they
pertain to membership of a terrorist organization and support provided
to such an organization. Saibaba has been a bold and vocal critic of
Operation Green Hunt, and a well-regarded figure on the question of
democratic rights.
Under the UAPA, ‘intention’ of the suspect becomes central in condemning
him/ her as a terrorist (“whoever does any act with intent to threaten
or likely to threaten the unity, integrity, security or sovereignty of
India…). Moreover, the sweeping definition of ‘unlawful activity’ as
“any action taken by individual or association (whether by committing an
act or by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible
representation or otherwise)”, practically hands over to the government
the power to criminalize any idea, thought, art or writing that
challenges the dominant narratives of development, governance, and
social inequality. Commission of violence thus has become peripheral to
the charge of terrorism. It is what you say, write, sing.
Citing judgments from across the world that maintain a distinction
between active and passive membership of banned organizations – between
sympathy for a cause and participation in an act of violence to realize
that objective – the Supreme Court in State of Kerala Vs.Raneef, (2011),
remarked: “We are living in a democracy, and the above observations
apply to all democracies”.
The Supreme Court may have been overly optimistic. Because routinely,
before magistrates and judges, the state counsels argue how the recovery
of books, magazines, computers, posters, songs and CDs illustrate the
guilt of those accused of terrorism. The accused’s commitment to justice
and equality are offered as incriminating evidence. And routinely, these
magistrates and judges accept this fraudulent argument and deny bail to
the accused. Is there any reason why Saibaba’s bail should be denied
thrice, twice by the Gadhchiroli sessions court and once by the Nagpur
Bench of the High Court, both on grounds of merit and health? Can one
imagine a reasonable ground to deny bail to the Kabir Kala Manch singer
Sheetal Sathe, eight months pregnant, who had voluntarily offered
herself for arrest? Our courts can.
In what has become a revolving door of justice, one sees a set of
accused entering the criminal justice system, charged under a readymade
package of sections of UAPA (with some sections of IPC thrown in for
variety), denied bail, suffering long periods of incarceration, finally
acquitted to make way for another group of accused. In 2011, Sudhir
Dhawale, editor of Vidrohi, and founder of Republican Panthers who had
played a key role in organizing Dalits in the aftermath of the
Khairlanji massacre, was arrested, again for Maoist sympathies. Dhawale
was acquitted of all charges just days after Saibaba was abducted.
Arun Ferreira was arrested as a “dreaded Naxalite” in 2007. A total of
eleven cases were filed against Ferreira: variously for blasting a
police vehicle, arson, for assault, murder and firing on police party in
Nagpur, Gondia and Gadchiroli – one of which was said to have occurred
while Ferreira was in jail. In fact Colours of the Cage, Ferreira’s
memoir of the time spent in Nagpur jail would have disabused the
magistrate who denied Saibaba bail on health grounds of any illusion
that Saibaba would be looked after well in that jail.
Over the years successive governments have spawned the theory of
over-ground Maoists, who are even more dangerous than guerrillas because
they can invoke the promise of the Constitution and rule of law. Why is
it that the day a new avatar of the Salwa Judum was inaugurated in
Chhattisgarh (bear in mind that Salwa Judum had been declared both
“illegal and unconstitutional” by the Supreme Court) and just days
before PM Modi was to unveil steel and rail projects in the state,
Inspector General Kalluri issued an ominous threat to ‘NGOs’ offering
legal aid to those accused of Naxalism. Lawyers appearing for poor
adivasis rotting in jail are being criminalized.
Why is Saibaba such a threat? Why do the songs of Kabir Kala Manch need
to be silenced? Why must Sudhir Dhawale be sent to jail? Or Arun
Ferreira slapped with close to a dozen cases? It is because ideas have
power. As George Orwell once said, in a time of universal deceit,
telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
– See more at:
http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/2015/05/6562?page=show#sthash.IrjXWqSo.dpuf
