India - 'the best democracy in the world'...No more political prisoners from outlawed outfits?

KOLKATA: The Mamata Banerjee government has drafted an amendment to the West Bengal Correctional Services Act, 1992, to deny members of banned organizations – such as Maoists – the status of “political prisoners. As the act stands now, terrorists – those who have been charged with waging war against the state – qualify to be treated as “political prisoners”. The proposed amendment will delete certain clauses to deny members of banned organizations this status.
Political prisoners are accorded several privileges and more freedom than others: a separate cell, access to homemade food, newspapers, books and other reading material. They are also given more relaxation while meeting relatives and lawyers. The bill may be tabled in the forthcoming Assembly session in August. “Quite a number of bills are scheduled to be passed during the monsoon session. The list of bills has not been finalized yet.
We shall convene an all-party meeting to fix the dates for passing them in August,” said speaker Biman Banerjee. A senior official of the correctional services department said: “After the amendment was mentioned in the state cabinet in April, we drafted a proposal and sent it to the law department so that the bill could be passed in the monsoon session of the Assembly.” All banned organizations have been included in the bar, on the basis of recommendations made by the city police commissioner last year, a source said. So, if members of banned organizations will not be treated as political prisoners, who then would be given that status after the bill is passed?
It’s a bit sketchy at the moment. “We are not going into those details right now,” the official said. A Calcutta high court order last August, passed under the West Bengal Correctional Services Act, had rattled the security establishment when it declared eight suspected Maoists, including Maoist Telegu Dipak and Maoist-backed People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) convener Chhatradhar Mahato “political prisoners”.
A flummoxed Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) subsequently wrote to the state government to amend the law and move Supreme Court against order. Proving the ministry’s apprehensions right, American Center attacker Aftab Ansari petitioned the court demanding the same status. An MHA letter to the state home department read: “The status provides grist to the CPI (Maoist) propaganda machine… and has serious “pan-India” security implications”.
According to the original act, all those charged with offences such as “waging war against the state”, “collecting weapons with the intention of waging war against the state”, “aiding escape of, rescuing or harbouring prisoners who are suspected of waging war against the state” should be treated as “political prisoners”. It also includes anyone who had committed an offence, including murder, during a political or democratic movement, with a political objective, free from personal greed or motive.