It was a moment of huge relief when the Delhi High Court, much to the annoyance of the Delhi Police and their political masters, granted bail to three students -- Asif Iqbal Tanha, Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita -- all of whom were arrested under the draconian UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) for having protested against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
The Delhi Police, which argued that they cannot be granted bail, had arrested them for allegedly taking part in the communal riots that scarred North East Delhi in February last year. It was a collective relief especially so because the Delhi High Court has pulled up the Delhi police for having equated those protesting against the government’s decision to pass the law as a ‘terrorist act’, something which the Delhi High Court has come down heavily on.
Afraid that the judgement would be used to free the hundreds of political prisoners that this government has imprisoned on flimsy charges for having dared to protest the government’s decisions, the Delhi Police has quickly moved the Supreme Court, which on Friday declined to grant a stay on the order but has only directed that it not be used as a precedent for the moment.
So insecure have the powers become that they are afraid that even giving the opposition the slightest sight of victory will cause their whole fortress to collapse. But more than that, they are afraid that these warrior youth who are facing incarceration on the nation’s behalf will inspire others to take up the fight against the regime that with every passing day more and more looks like a colonial regime than a democratically-elected government.
The political prisoners who are facing incarceration -- from the prisons of Kashmir to those killed or imprisoned by the tyrants in uniform in Uttar Pradesh, to those imprisoned by the National Investigative Agency (allegedly based on doctored evidence) in the Bhima Koregaon case are the ones who are keeping democracy alive in his country.
They continue to be imprisoned on behalf of the rest of us -- not unlike the freedom fighters of the pre-independence era -- who faced the brute force of the state so that the rest of us could enjoy the benefits of freedom. The images that emerged after they walked out of prison is what this country needs to help awaken deflated spirits and a reminder that not only is the fight far from over but that it is worth fighting.
The challenge now is to ensure that all other political prisoners -- those who have been imprisoned simply because their beliefs are different from those in power today -- are also similarly released especially those who continue to remain imprisoned in the Bhima Koregaon cases, journalist Siddique Kappan, whose only alleged crime was that he was travelling to meet the family of the Hathras victim and many others who continue to remain in prison are finally released.
No country that keeps political prisoners can call itself a democracy. It’s for this reason that it’s no surprise that India has now been called an electoral autocracy and is no longer the fledgling democracy it once was.
