Democracy Held Hostage: Activists, Student Leaders, and CMs Face Stark Choices

Veteran priest and activist Father Stan Swamy died in jail. It was on 5 July 2021. He was denied bail several times, even though his lawyers pleaded for bail on medical grounds. He was among several activists who were arrested and imprisoned in Elgar Parishad/Bhima Koregaon case of 2018 and charged with the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which made sure it was near-impossible to get bail. 65-year old Prof. Shoma Sen received bail after spending nearly 6 years in jail in the same case. Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira also got bail after over 5 years in jail, on 5 August 2023. Some others –Jyoti Jagtap, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Sagar Gorkhe, Varavara Rao,Gautam Navlakha, Ramesh Gaichor, Mahesh Raut and Sudhir Dhwale are still in prison. They were accused of “waging war against the nation” and “promoting enmity between different caste groups” and “link with Maoists”, apart from a “plot to kill the Prime Minister”. Their real crime: speaking up against the Government.
My friend, linguist and DU Professor Dr. Hani Babu was later arrested in the same case. Trial is yet to begin for any of them.
Journalist Gautam Navlakha was granted bail by Bombay High court in December 2023 saying there is no material to infer that he had committed any terrorist Act, but NIA and the Government took a stay on his bail, and he remains to stay in prison to date.
Just to add: In December 2022, Sub-Divisional Police Officer Ganesh More admitted that the Elgar Parishad event had no role in the violence, in an oath before the judicial commission investigating the case.
Student Leaders, Doctors..
Delhi students / research scholars Sharjeel Imam (He did his B.Tech. and M.Tech. from IIT Bombay, did his Masters in History from JNU and was pursuing Ph.D. there itself), Meeran Haider (of RJD, Ph.D. scholar at Jamila Millia Islamia), Safoora Zargar (M.Phil. student, JMI), Shifa-Ur-Rahman (JMI), Khalid Saifi (‘United Against Hate’ founder), Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal (both of them students of JNU and associated with ‘Pinjra Tod’ womens’ collective), Ishrat Jehan (former Congress councillor), Gulfisha Fatima, Asif Iqbal Tanha (JMI) were all arrested in early 2020 in connection with anti-CAA/NRC protests or speeches.
(Safoora was later granted bail the same year, as she was pregnant. Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal and Asif Tanha were granted bail by the High Court in 2021.)
Umar Khalid (Ph.D. scholar, JNU; also part of ‘United Against Hate’) was arrested later in 2020.
Gulfisha Fatima was granted bail several times but every time she was granted bail by a court, the police slapped new charges against her and made sure she remained in prison. The same happened with Sharjeel Imam — cases were charged against him in several states.
They are all charged with UAPA, and interestingly, no charges have been framed against them in most of these cases even after four years.
Dr Kafeel Khan, hailed a hero after it was reported that he spent from his pocket to buy oxygen cylinders after the piped supply had been cut, at state-run BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur where a large number of deaths occurred after the hospital’s oxygen supply was cut, was also arrested, apparently for a speech he made in Aligarh. He later got bail and took political asylum in Rajasthan, which was then ruled by Congress, as he felt safer there.
.. to Chief Ministers
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader and ex-Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who led a coalition ministry that also had Congress and RJD in it, resigned from Jharkhand CM post and was arrested earlier this year, after he was accused in a land-scam case by the Enforcement Directorate. He is still in jail.
It is worth remembering that in January 2020, as CM, Mr. Soren announced that the state administration had recommended dropping the sedition charges slapped against 3,000 people for taking part in a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
“Laws are not made to frighten and silence the people but to instil a feeling of safety in the public. My government will work towards being the voice of the people. We have recommended taking back the sedition cases registered against 3,000 people and also asked for action against the concerned official,” Mr Soren said in a tweet that time.
After his arrest, he challenged BJP to show evidence naming him as the owner of the 8.5 acres of land in Ranchi that he allegedly owned and said he would leave politics and the state itself if BJP or ED could prove it.
Former Chhattisgarh Food Minister and Congress leader Amarjeet Bhagat said that an attempt was being made to malign the opposition and tribals by conducting raids, and added that as long as he was alive, he would keep talking about their rights.
Mr. Champai Soren took charge as new Chief Minister and won the floor test. It is indeed a sign that democracy still stands a chance.
And yes, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was arrested on 21 March 2024 on the state’s liquor policy-related charges, a day after senior AAP leader and minister Atishi Marlena revealed that AAP was getting threats from BJP that Kejriwal would get arrested if Aam Admi Party did not break alliance with Congress.
About ten days after Kejriwal’s arrest, Ms. Marlena revealed that she was getting further threats she would be arrested along with 3 more AAP leaders if they did not join BJP before the Lok Sabha elections.
Or die!
Apart from all this, Marathi writer Govind Pansare who wrote a famous biography of Shivaji (titled Shivaji Kon Hota) was killed in 2015. Kannada author and rationalist Kalaburgi was killed in 2015, and journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh was killed in 2017 in Karnataka. Many people were shot to death by Police during protests in 2019 December, mostly in UP and (then-BJP-ruled) Karnataka.
In short, the new Mantra of Democracy in India is ‘Align with us or get arrested or killed’– be it Activists, Student leaders, general public or even CMs.
There is a long struggle ahead, starting with these LS polls. Come, let us join hands in this struggle to make sure there is space for dissent for us and our younger ones. Because that is what breathes life into any democracy.