Three Press Releases / Press Conferences
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Press Release, May 25, 2020
Stop Incarceration of Feminist Activists and Anti-CAA Protesters
We have been in a state of lockdown for two months. It has been a very harsh time for lakhs of our citizens, who have lost work, possessions, and been left hungry and homeless. Dalits, adivasis and the working Bahujan poor are the worst affected, with women amongst all communities having to bear the brunt of hunger, unemployment, illness, death and persistent family violence.
Throughout this period, we have seen the capital city of Delhi reeling under another sort of violence: the continuing action of the Delhi Police against anti-CAA protesters allegedly involved in the violence that erupted in Delhi in end February and took a toll of over 53 lives. As we know the violence followed and effectively ended weeks of peaceful protests led by women from across the city, against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and the creation of a National Registry of Citizens, and a National Population Register.
Police action since then has led to the arrest and incarceration of, among others, a large number of young people, studying in various Delhi colleges and universities. The latest in this list are two activists of Pinjra Tod, a feminist collective that has been active in the capital since 2015. On Friday evening, May 23, Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal were arrested by policemen attached to the Jaffrabad Police station, Delhi for the ostensible role they played in the anti-CAA sit-in protests. Both are students of JNU and play a leading role in Pinjra Tod. Their arrest came at the end of three hours of interrogation. The two young women have since been charged under IPC sections 186/188/353/283/341/109/147/34. When produced before the Duty Magistrate at Mandaoli Jail yesterday, he said “the accused were merely protesting against NRC and CAA and did not indulge in any violence”. However, at the verbal suggestion of bail being granted, the Crime Branch officials moved a fresh application on the spot seeking arrest and 14 days police custody on FIR 50/20 PS Crime Branch.
They thus join a group of other young women, who have also been arrested in connection with the Delhi violence and have been charged under even more draconian laws. Gulfisha, an MBA student is languishing in jail since April 9 on charges of sedition. Safoora Zargar, member of the Jamia Coordination Committee and Ishrat Jahan, former Municipal Councillor are in jail for the past one and a half months. Safoora is pregnant and stands in danger of being infected with Covid1-19, given her vulnerable condition, and petitions for her release have gone unheeded.
Background to the Arrests
These young women, along with several others were inspired by the sit-in at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi. Begun in December 2019 by a large group of Muslim women from the locality, against the CAA-NRC-NPR triumvirate, the protests inspired similar peaceful protests in Delhi and across the country. All protests were peaceful, spontaneous, and leadership everywhere was largely female and local, with all decisions made in a decentralized manner.
A number of women’s groups, feminist and queer activists, students and citizens from all walks of life, including members of Pinjra Tod, have been part of the protests in Delhi. The presence of women was striking, especially of young women, and this was unprecedented. Their mode of protest was also unique. Peaceful and persistent, they challenged the unequal citizenship laws by redefining nationalism. They have made it clear that nationalism has to do with the Constitution and the rights guaranteed to all citizens, irrespective of gender, caste, class, sexual orientation, religion and ethnicity. They have also made it clear that they will stand by their fellow citizens, from minority and marginal communities, who stand to be disenfranchised by the new Act, and whose very existence is in threat of being criminalized.
Thousands of protesters have asserted the citizenship rights of all protesters in unique ways: by reading out the Preamble to the Constitution in marches, rallies, and sit-in protests that raged on from mid December to February. This has been in stark contrast to those who are given to angry and violent rhetoric in the name of the nation, and who are disinterested in constitutional morality.
Rather than engage in dialogue with the protesters, the authoritarian regime of the BJP-led government has resorted to punitive and repressive measures. Protesters have been lathicharged, met with water cannons, stopped by barricades and subject to random arrests. Yet they persisted in peaceful resistance. However, on February 23(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Delhi_riots) , matters took a violent turn, when BJP MLA Kapil Mishra led a pro-CAA demonstration in North East Delhi. Within a matter of hours, there was hurling of stones followed by systematic attacks on Muslim properties and households by masked goons. Many Muslims were killed and houses and shops attacked. Tragically, the recently elected AAP government in Delhi maintained a stony silence.
Since the attacks, hundreds of Muslims are languishing in makeshift camps while protesters continue to be arrested by the Delhi police. On the other hand, perpetrators of the Delhi violence are yet to be brought to book.
Therefore, we collectively:
- Condemn these arrests and the attempt to malign young peoples’ democratic protest campaigns, especially the charge that the arrested young women were responsible for the violence and disruption that unfolded on February 23 and thereafter.
- Object to the criminalisation of the right to protest. It is not only unconstitutional, but also effectively deprives the citizen of her rights to free expression and criticism.
- Oppose this deliberate targeting of young women who have made a conscious political choice to be part of the democratic life of this country. We think that this sends out a wrong and malicious signal to other young women that they ought not to step outside the confines of their homes and take to public causes.
- Find it inadmissible that in the present moment, when all other business of government, except that related to the pandemic and related emergency measures, remains suspended, the Delhi police appear to be in deliberate hurry in dealing with the Delhi violence.
- Demand an immediate end to the deliberate targeting of students and members of the Muslim communities in the name of prosecuting those who engaged in the violence. We also demand that all those arrested be set free and that provisions of the law such as the UAPA, which allows for detention without trial for a year, be revoked.
- Continue to demand the repeal of CAA_NRC_NPR.
- Continue to demand the release of all political prisoners.
Statement endorsed by:
Several hundred activists, intellectuals and people’s organisations. The full list is available at countercurrents.org.
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Delhi Riots: Govt Flattening Protests, Not Coronavirus Curve, Say Student Leaders, Activists
Newsclick Report, 26 May 2020
Addressing a joint online press conference, student activists, leaders and members of civil society said that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre has turned the pandemic into an opportunity for crushing the dissent manifested during anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests across the country. The statement comes two days after the Delhi Police arrested two members of the women’s group Pinjra Tod, Davangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal in connection with their alleged role in Delhi riots in February.
Jignesh Mewani, Dalit activist and MLA from Vadgam in Gujarat said that the latest series of arrests of students activists is “vendetta politics of the worst nature” and indeed a “ conspiracy by the government” to silence its critics. He said, “It’s a joint struggle for people like Khalid Saifi, Kafeel Khan, Gautam Navlakha, Anand Teltumbde and Akhil Gogoi. What we are witnessing is the replication of the Bhima Koregaon model where the media outlets dear to the establishment ran consistent programmes on TV and mobilised opinion against people who were the victims in the violence. Later, the Pune police launched a successive campaign to arrest the activists. It is happening in connection with anti-CAA protests and Delhi riots.” He added,” I am a lawyer by profession and [I can] clearly say that the charges are not legally tenable. I remember an incident prior to Godhra riots where then Chief Minister Narendra Modi climbed on a charred S-6 bogey of the train and claimed that it was an act done by the supporters of Pakistan. Remember, the statement came out even before local intelligence units or local police could come out with preliminary findings.”
Former Jawaharlal Nehru University student Umar Khalid said, “The government not only used it [the opportunity by way of a lockdown] for arresting the activists, but demolished the labour laws, went on a privatisation spree and auctioned airports. The pandemic was announced for flattening the curve of the coronavirus cases, but indeed, flattened the protest. It is also a credibility crisis for Delhi Police, which did everything to silence the protesters. The activists were arrested in another case minutes after they were given bail in one case. It does not have the courage to question culprits like Kapil Mishra even after people produced impeccable evidence.”
Kanhaiya Kumar, ex Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president and leader of the Communist Party of India, said that when we should have been fighting the COVID-19 together, it is extremely unfortunate that the government is fighting against the students and youths. “When people accused of very heinous crimes are being given bail, then what is the urgency of accusing students and throwing them behind the bars? These students who have been arrested were not ordinary students. Along with studying, they were also raising extremely important questions regarding education, employment and livelihood; but, this government is constantly demonising and attacking students since it came to power to hide its own failures. The government is killing two birds with one stone. On the one hand, it is trying to do the politics of vendetta by targeting the activists who were in the forefront of the anti-CAA struggle. On the other hand, it is sending out a larger message of intimidation to everyone else with the threat of incarceration,” he said.
N Sai Balaji, national president All India Students’ Association, noted that the arrest of the student activists followed a peculiar trend in which some media organisations played a dubious role. He said, “The Delhi Police is following a script, which was drafted by the likes of Monika Arora, who is affiliated to the RSS and even contested DUSU elections from ABVP. She led a delegation to the MHA with a report that blamed AISA, PinjraTod and other student-youth organisations even before these arrests. The way the Delhi Police has subsequently acted shows that they have simply borrowed from the script. People read out the preamble of the Constitution at every anti-CAA protest and that is shown as ‘anti-national’ and a crime that requires invocation of UAPA. On the other hand, the BJP leaders shouted goli maaro saalo ko (shoot the traitors), but that is seen as nationalistic.”
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Delhi Riots Probe Reminds of Bhima Koregaon, Gujarat Violence, Say Activists
Ronak Chhabra, 21 May 2020
The ongoing police probe into February riots that left Northeast Delhi smouldering reminds of the investigation processes in cases related to Bhima Koregaon and 2002 Gujarat violence, activists alleged, adding that similar to the later ones an attempt is underway to turn the narrative of Delhi riots on its head.
In a joint virtual press conference on Thursday, eminent personalities including human rights activists and political figures accused the Delhi Police of “targeting” the anti-CAA protesters by “framing them under false charges”. This is when the FIRs against BJP leaders for inflammatory speeches have not been registered, even after almost three months of them allegedly inciting violence.
“Delhi Police, under the name of investigation, is attempting to turn the whole narrative on its head. The students who were engaged in peaceful protests are now being targeted, while those who instigated violence are not being questioned,” Delhi University professor Apoorvanand said.
He added that the way in which the probe into February riots is being carried forward reminds him of similar tactics that were used to target social activists after the Bhima Koregaon violence. “A fictitious plot involving a conspiracy was written then and those who had no connection to the violence were put behind the bars under stringent laws,” Apoorvanand alleged.
Two months after the violence erupted in the Northeast region of Delhi, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) was invoked against at least five including former JNU student Umar Khalid, RJD’s youth wing president Meeran Haider and JCC’s media coordinator Safoora Zargar among others.
“Bulk FIRs and mass arrests by Delhi Police in connection to February riots reminds [one] of 2002 when during the investigations into Gujarat violence such FIRs were registered and mass arrests were carried out – which majorly targeted one community,” Teesta Setalvad, a civil rights journalist, said.
Indian Express had earlier reported that as many as 800 arrests were made till mid-April in connection to the northeast Delhi riots. Through such mass arrests, among whom majority belong to the Muslim community, the police are onto creating an environment of fear, according to Setalvad. “The educated and democratic leaders who rose from within the Muslim community in recent times are being warned to not raise demands for equality.”
The alleged ‘witch-hunt’ by the Delhi Police also comes at a time when the country is struggling to battle the coronavirus outbreak, and is reeling under pressure of virus-induced lockdown.
However, the imposition of movement restrictions has not stopped Delhi Police from continuing its investigation, despite as many as 110 policemen having tested positive for COVID-19. Among those who tested positive, is also an inspector who has been part of the Northeast Delhi riots probe.
“The police investigations amid lockdown are highly questionable,” said Kavitha Krishnan, Secretary of All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA) and politburo member of CPI-ML. “At a time when the jails are being directed to release prisoners, Delhi Police are conducting inquiries and arresting innocents, putting them at a risk of getting infected by the virus.”
Similarly, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan raised the issue of holding the police accountable for their action even though the courts are not functioning properly—conducting case hearings through video conferencing, owing to nationwide lockdown.
On Wednesday, Delhi High Court issued a notice to the Centre and state government in Delhi on a petition filed alleging illegal detention under UAPA, due to non functioning of NIA courts amid lockdown.
Calling such arrests amid lockdown as “malafide actions”, Bhushan said “the police must be answerable” and demanded setting up a high-level enquiry committee to look into the same.
(Ronak Chhabra is a Bengaluru based reporter.)
