We, the undersigned organizations and
individuals, have come together to form a platform, “Defence
Committee for the Release of Comrade Hem and All Other Political
Prisoners”. The need for such a committee has been felt
for a long time, and is more necessary than ever in today’s context
when all forms of dissent and protests against the state are being
increasingly criminalized. For the JNU student community, this
criminalization of dissent has come very close home. Comrade Hem, a
former student of this campus has been languishing in Nagpur Central
Jail for the past one and a half years now. Contrary to the claims of
the police, it has become clear how he had been virtually abducted
(three days prior to his official arrest), tortured brutally in
custody and has been in solitary confinement for the more than 6
months after he participated in protests inside the jail – details
which he has elaborately spoken about in his recent open letter from
within the confines of the Nagpur Central Jail. All this while, he
has been denied the minimum constitutionally guaranteed rights to
which every political prisoner is entitled. The police took over 6
months to even produce a charge sheet against him – thanks to the
provisions of the draconian UAPA – and the first time his bail
petition was heard was only in September 2014, i.e., almost 13 months
after his arrest, where it was rejected by the Aheri Session Court.
As we intensify our campaign for the release
of one of our fellow comrades, who fought shoulder to shoulder with
us in various struggles, we also realize that his case is not an
isolated one. As the ruling classes of the country,
especially under the present BJP led NDA government, increasingly
align with big capital and feudal forces and intensify oppression
manifold on the toiling masses, it is also simultaneously arming
itself with a plethora of draconian laws to suppress the resistance
of the people. The jails of this country today, from Maharashtra,
Jharkand, Chattisgarh, West Bengal, Odisha, are full of dalits,
adivasis, muslims and several people’s activists, intellectuals,
civil liberties activists, students and teachers who have stood in
solidarity with people’s movements and spoken out against state
oppression. What has happened with Hem, has in the recent past also
happened with prominent civil liberties and political activists like
Binayak Sen, Sudhir Dhawale, Abhay Sahoo, Manorma Devi, Jitan
Marandi, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonzalvez, members of Kabir Kala Manch
and so on. The workers of Maruti languishing behind bars face similar
fate. In the Dantewada and Bastar districts of Chattisgarh alone,
more than 1300 activists of the CPI have been arrested after being
branded as Maoists. We were all witness to how a DU professor Dr.
G.N. Saibaba was abducted in broad day light by plain clothes
policemen of the Maharasthra police and then framed on similar cooked
up charges. The same story has repeated itself with a professor in
Andhra University in Vizag and now against two well known activists
of Kerala – Jaison Cooper and Thushar Sarathy.
We believe that all those who have been
jailed, under such draconian laws, for their political ideology or
for having participated in people’s movements should, at least, be
granted the designation of political prisoners and be given the
constitutionally guaranteed rights – including the right to speedy
trial and the right to bail. On the contrary, in reality we
see the state prolonging incarceration deliberately by not hearing
cases, extending incarceration of political activists by not
producing witnesses or evidence, etc. They are being kept for months
in solitary confinement, so that they cannot associate with others.
In the recent past, the state has also resorted to a method of
video-conferencing for trials, by which political prisoners are not
even produced in courts for hearing. In February this year, thousands
of prisoners across jails in Maharasthra, Jharkhand and Odhisa, went
on a 9 day long hunger strike (largely unreported by the media)
protesting against these practices. We have seen repeatedly how most
of those charged under these draconian laws are given bail or
acquitted only after years and years of incarceration. All these made
clear that these arrests and detentions are extremely political in
nature – clearly aimed at keeping political activists away from
organizing against the anti-people policies of the state.
Democratic and civil rights organizations and
committees have been speaking for the rights of political prisoners.
Some of them even providing legal aid to these prisoners. But
at a time when there is also an attack on students’ movement,
unions and students’ activism in people’s movements outside the
campus, in this country and across the world; there is a need for a
committee of students to fight these attacks. This is
especially imperative since one of our fellow students, Hem continues
to face the brunt of the state machineries, be it the police, courts
or jail authorities. This committee is a step towards building broad
solidarities against state repression against political activism. The
scope of this committee will be taking forward a political campaign
inside & outside campus, about the growing clampdown on
dissenting voices.
In this context, we felt that there should be a
committee from the student community in defense of all political
prisonersthose arrested for being a part of mass movements that
challenge the dominant power structures; individual activists who
have been branded and targeted by state machinery under the black
laws and also various legal provisions in general. This committee
will largely launch political campaign for their rights as political
prisoner – right to bail, time bound hearing, in person trials,
right to reading material, not to be tortured in custody and other
democratic and civil rights. The committee will be composed of left
and progressive, political, cultural organizations and individuals.
The future course of action will be charted out through transparent
and democratic mechanisms.
All India Students Association(AISA), All India
Students Federation (AISF), Birsa Ambedkar Students Association
(BAPSA), Campus Front of India (CFI), Dastak, Democratic Students
Union, IPTA, Jagriti Natya Manch, Janrang, Jan Sanskritik Manch,
Krantikari Naujawan Sabha (KNS), Revolutionary Cultural Front (RCF),
Students Federation of India (SFI), The New Materialists (TNM),
United Dalits Students Forum (UDSF)
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