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Is A Democracy A Real Democracy, If I Can’t Say That It Is Not A Real Democracy?

By Anirban, Asawthi, Balakrishnan, Deepti, Komal, Neyaz, Reyaz, Samar, Srilakshmi, Ufaque & Umar

29 December, 2015
Countercurrents.org

On 23rd of December, the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court passed an atrocious judgment. It not only cancelled the regular bail petiton of Dr. Saibaba, but also ordered that Saibaba, who was out on temporary bail to avail much crucial medical treatments for his multiple ailments, should go back to prison. That too within 48 hours! The timing of pronouncing the judgment was not without calculations. Because of the Christmas vacations, Saibaba was not left with any possibility to explore legal relief from the Supreme Court. He had no other options but to go back to the notorious anda cell of Nagpur prison, from where he had come out in June after spending 14 months there. The High Court refused to take into cognizance the necessity of continuing Saibaba’s treatments and deemed him ‘fit’ to go back to prison. The same judgment also initiated criminal proceedings for “contempt of court” against writer & activist Arundhati Roy for the ‘crime’ of writing an article ‘Professor PoW’ on Saibaba in Outlook last May!

Prof. Saibaba, 90% disabled wheel chair bound Professor of English in Ram Lal Anand College DU was abducted from Delhi and taken to Nagpur by the Maharashtra police in May 2014. He was framed as a Maoist and was booked under the draconian UAPA. His trial is going on at the usual snail’s pace in the court, however, five other accused persons in the same case have all been granted regular bail. Saibaba was released on temporary bail granted suo-moto by the division bench of Bombay High Court, led by the then Chief Justice. The Bombay High Court noted with alarm that the progressive degeneration of his health in custody was becoming life threatening. The jail authorities through their deliberate negligence of his medical condition were about to kill him in custody. Saibaba, who is wheel chair bound and cannot walk at all, was left without any assistance in the anda cell. He quickly developed problems in his spinal cord, followed by complications in heart, kidney and gall bladder. Most seriously his left arm became completely paralysed owing to gradual muscle deaths. For the longest time the jail authorities refused to build even a disability-friendly toilet for him. Repeated intervention from the Court was sought and Saibaba once went on hunger strike to avail his treatments. Finally the Chief Justice sensing the gravity of his ailments granted him temporary bail for three months and as his doctors sought more time, he extended it for three more months. Well neither those three months were over, nor did the doctors supervising Saibaba declared him fit. He was rather in the middle of treatment and the muscles of his left hand were slowly regenerating. In such a context the order to send him back to prison is just yet another manifestation of the fact that the judiciary in our country can selectively flout all norms and strike most ruthlessly at the voices of dissent or at the most oppressed people, when it allows itself to be a potent weapon in the hands of the ruling class. While working as a stooge of the ruling class, it allows mass-murderers, rioters and brazenly corrupt people walk scot free starting from Ranvir Sena to RSS. But at the same time, those of the likes of Saibaba - who was a tireless voice against the brutal war waged by the Indian state against the adivasis at the behest of the corporate and mining mafias, who was vocal against all forms of oppression against the dalits, minorities, workers and oppressed nationalities - are identified as “threats”.

The case against Arundhati Roy also demonstrates the same. All that she did in her article was to show how Saibaba is being denied the most basic rights in prison, how he was meticulously framed and how the discriminatory justice brazenly pervades in the country. That the judiciary denies bail and medical treatment to a wheelchair bound Professor, who is fearlessly outspoken against the anti-people policies of the state, while notorious criminals and fascist goons like Babu Bajrangi, Maya Kodnani and Amit Shah are allowed to go scot free and are provided best of health care and hospital facilities when they are in custody! The judgment however proclaimed “speaking such facts only reveals the author appears to have invented a novel idea of bashing the Central Government, the State Government, the Police machinery so also judiciary and that was, prima facie, with a mala fide motive to interfere in the administration of justice. The language used by the author in her article against the Government and the police machinery is as nasty as it could be and one really wonders whether the same would befit to the prestigious awards the author is said to have won. Calling the Government and police as being “afraid” of the applicant, “abductor” and “thief” and the Magistrate from a “small town”, demonstrate the surly, rude and boorish attitude of the author in the most tolerant country like India”! If at all, this order in fact demonstrates the intolerance of the judiciary towards freedom of speech and particularly criticality & dissent! So the judiciary henceforth will blatantly breathe over every shoulder and control and arm twist every opinion that generates dissent and opposition.

As the tentacles of fascism, choke every democratic voice with bullets and bars of prison, with threats and intimidation, with draconian laws and witch-hunting of dissenters; we need to raise louder voices of protest and fight back this assault on our democratic rights. The attack on Saibaba or Arundhati Roy is an attack on each and every democratic minded person in the country. We must resist in unison such attempts by the state to silence the voices of dissent. We must strike back at fascism and build a united resistance to safeguard our hard earned democratic rights.

This is a pamphlet on the rearrest of Dr. Saibaba and criminal contempt of Arundhati Roy, that Anirban, Asawthi, Balakrishnan, Deepti, Komal, Neyaz, Reyaz, Samar, Srilakshmi, Ufaque, Umar issued in JNU



 



 

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