In Solidarity With The Prison Hunger Strikers, You Are Not Alone !
By Students of Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai
10 February, 2014
Countercurrents.org
Since January 26, 2014, close to 500 prisoners in the jails of Jharkhand, Nagpur and Odisha have been on hunger strike to highlight gaps in India’s criminal justice system. They are demanding the basic right to bail, for speedy trials and to be produced physically in court for trials. On Monday, 169 prisoners in Maharashtra’s Nagpur Central Jail awaiting trial completed the fifth day of their indefinite hunger strike. More than 200 fellow inmates joined them in a rotating chain strike.
In Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh Jail, a hunger strike involving more than 100 prisoners also entered its fifth day. They demand the review of the sentences of all convicts who have completed 14 years of life imprisonment. Since January 30, the protest has triggered a wave of similar protests across 26 prisons in the state. Most of the prisoners come under the category of under trial prisoners, who constitute one third of the total prisoners in India. In the context of an emerging discussion on undemocratic laws and fabricated cases, the hunger strikes of the under trials and political prisoners in various parts of the country demands highest attention from the students community. The draconian acts like UAPA, TADA, POTA etc. have provisions like secret trials, trial in absence, and are pro prosecution and anti-accused. The last amendment of UAPA made a provision where the remand period was increased from 90 days to 180 days. The most dangerous aspects of these acts is that these can determine an association and the Police can do so. So, an innocent group of students sitting and having tea on a tapri can also be termed as 'an association' and falsely accused without any concrete evidence. These acts also make provisions wherein if civil society groups or other groups raise funds for any cause in India or outside then they could be suspected (and not actually) to be used for terror activities and hence the individual or organization can be targeted.
The plight of the under trial prisoners kept in prison for years hardly ever come out open. While they are kept behind the bars using various undemocratic and draconian laws by the state, they are further deprived of their constitutional right to bail, physical attendance in courts and fair and speedy trials. Six months before, Hem Mishra, a student of JNU was arrested and framed with false charges under UAPA. The arrest of Hem shows the trickery of Indian state to silence a generation ofpolitically active students.
The political prisoners are the people who raised their voice to safeguard the constitutional and democratic rights of the most marginalized sections of our country .As the ‘informed’ and ‘educated’ political class, we students have the responsibility to stand with them in their struggle for justice.
We, Students of Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai join with the progressive democratic sections of the society in demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all other political prisoners along with immediate bail of all other under trials.
Students of Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai
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