Incarceration of rights activists? None cares

Some of us who browse through the daily news might have heard the following names: Mahesh Raut, an anti-displacement campaigner, Rona Wilson, a political prisoners’ campaigner, Shoma Sen, a menist activist and professor, and Sudhir Dhawale, a dalit lawyer who takes people’s rights cases pro bono. Yet, we might have almost forgotten them. Our memory is short. Yes. So, the five activists continue to rot in jail for more than five years...without bail, without charges being framed and without justice.

A few years ago, we used to discuss such cases and meetings and rallies used to be organised by members of the civil society. Intellectuals, academics, students and Rights activists used to agitate for justice, and we would have been reminded of the highhandedness of the State and its numerous ways of attacking our liberties and freedom. But nowadays, the debates, discussions and arguments acquiring a larger bias are only looking at religious issues and the mythical values of a non-existent secular democratic nature of our governance. In addition, we are happier that the Western media is denouncing India and our own leaders are free to go abroad and denounce our country, our government and our value systems deriving a sadistic pleasure.

Here is a question that should be asked to those who believe that all is well with our country and to those whose political priorities make them target the Centre perennially over everything: Do you know that the Maharashtra government arrested the above five activists under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967 on June 6 of 2018? Prior to the arrests, ‘activists’ in several cities had been raided. On June 8, 2018, the Pune police showed a letter to the media which it claimed to have recovered during the raids. The letter dated April 2017, was addressed to ‘comrade Prakash’ by ‘R’ urging for plotting for the assassination of the Prime Minister, in the manner in which Rajiv Gandhi was done away with. A 5,000-page charge sheet was filed against the ‘urban Maoist operatives’ involved (these are the ones whose names are mentioned above).

The charge sheet claimed the five activists were involved in procuring arms and for mobilising the Maoist-backed Elgar Parishad meeting of December 31, 2017. Father Stan Swamy, too, was arrested later in the same case and we all know what our ‘State’ (not fate please) had in store for him. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the case in January 2020. Strangely, there are no signs of the trial beginning and no end in sight to the continued incarceration of the 15-surviving accused. It is common knowledge that the police did not have a proper court order, nor any protocols had been observed before the raids.

The digital evidence has not been fully shared with the accused. Bail applications are tossed around in the courts. In November 2022, the NIA told the Supreme Court that it could take another year to decide on framing of charges. The very charge sheet does not throw much light on the crime of the perpetrators.

Anyway, we don’t have time for them and rightly so. How does it matter if some Rights activists are incarcerated? We have better things to do like fighting over films, dress codes, food habits and inter-faith marriages and, of course, our ‘Gods’. Let those fools who fight for our freedoms suffer!