Turning the COVID Crisis into an Opportunity to Arrest anti-CAA protestors and Activists critical of the Modi Government!

India has crossed 3 lakh cases of the novel Coronavirus cases and, at the time of publishing this article, is the 4th worst hit country by COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 9,000 deaths. After observing a countrywide Lockdown for more than two months, the government has announced Unlock 1, despite increasing new cases of COVID-19. This health crisis has not only exposed us to the dismantled public healthcare services but also to inherent loopholes in the neo-liberal economic model across the world. It took a Pandemic to prove the miserable failure of neoliberalism as an alternate economic model. The horrific scenes of lakhs of migrant workers walking to their villages from cities raises questions about the political establishment which did not do enough to address their plight.

Amidst this crisis, we also witnessed unprecedented attack on democratic voices, including students, activists and Muslims, within the country who were vocal against the Citizenship Amendment Act.  The CAA is against the constitutional ethos of secularism and democracy embedded in the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. This requires serious attention of all democracy loving citizens of India. One after another, arrests of anti-CAA Activists raises serious questions on the integrity of the police forces and various Security Agencies which appear to have succumbed to the pressure of the current political regime. These politically motivated arrests pose serious threat to the idea of India. Activists are being farmed in fabricated cases for their “alleged role” in Northeast Delhi riots, while BJP leaders Kapil Mishra and Anurag Thakur who have went on record to give hate speeches and incite attack on Muslims, enjoy state patronage. Kapil Mishra, former BJP MLA from Delhi, who gave provocative speech just hours before riots broke in Northeast Delhi has not even been mentioned in the charge sheet by the Delhi Police!

The anti-CAA Movement was a watershed moment in the history of Independent India in which Indian Muslims came out to assert their identity and for protecting their citizenship rights and the values enshrined in the Constitution of India. In states like Bihar, led by the CPI-ML and other progressive organisations, the Dalit and poor communities also came out to protect their citizenship rights and to stand solid infront of the attack by the BJP government on the Indian Constitution. CAA is not just anti-Muslim, but will affect the poor, the migrant workers, and the oppressed communities of the country. Non-violent resistance led by women and students, Shaheen Bagh and Jamia, and all the Shaheen Baghs that sprung across the country, reminds us of Gandhian Satyagraha.

The BJP government in the wake of pandemic has used the Lockdown as an opportunity to undermine the civil liberties and trample upon dissenting voices. The arrests of anti-CAA activists in past few months is only a reflection of the same. Booking of activists under extraordinary and draconian anti-terror laws such as the UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act) and Sedition has a pattern and messaging to the people of India – that anyone who dares to speak against the anti-people policies of the Modi Government will be targeted. Such arbitrary arrests of students and activists reminds us of the days when Emergency was imposed in the country by the Congress Government, when Opposition Leaders, Student Activists and Journalists were booked under MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act). However, the present time is far more dangerous. Even without the formal proclamation of an Emergency, the country is under an Emergency, where the BJP government can crack down upon anyone it wishes.

Three students of Jamia Milia Islamia, Meeran Haider, Safoora Zargar, Asif Iqbal Tanha along with the President of Jamia Alumni Association Shifa-ur-Rahman have been booked under UAPA and sedition. Safoora, a Research Scholar at Jamia, was denied bail thrice despite the fact that she is 6 months pregnant pregnant and suffers from a syndrom which puts her pregnancy at risk. Rights Activists, Civil Societies, including International bodies, have demanded the release of Safoora Zargar on Humanitarian ground. At a time when Governments across the world are ensuring decongestion of Jails by releasing under-trial convicts to check the spread of the Coronavirus, arrests of activists in India are putting their lives at grave risk. Two JNU students Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita have also been booked under similar charges by Police.

Activists Khalid Saifi, Ishrat Jahan, and many other faces of Anti-CAA Movement in the capital are subjected to state-sponsored witch-hunt. Earlier this January, we saw how JNU student Sharjeel Imam was booked for allegedly seditious speech and has been incarcerated since then for months. Dr. Kafeel Khan has been booked under NSA in Uttar Pradesh.

We have also noticed slapping of similar charges in past months on Journalists, Students and Activists for merely criticising the BJP government. Chiniz Khan, JNU Research Scholar was arrested by Manipur Police under Sedition for criticising BJP Government of Manipur in a newspaper article. Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde were denied anticipatory bail and were made to surrender amidst the pandemic. Photojournalist Masrat Zahra was booked under UAPA for her alleged Anti-National posts which created nationwide controversy on press freedom. She recently won the Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award 2020 by International Women’s Media Foundation. A journalist in Gujarat, Dhaval Patel, was arrested on charges of Sedition for an article critical of the BJP government of Gujarat. NIA in its charge sheet against Bittu Sonowal, Rights Activist based in Assam mentioned the use of “Lal Salaam” and “Comrades” by Sonowal to validate the UAPA charges against him. There are similar stories around the country where multiple journalists, intellectuals, activists and students have been arrested in past few months ever since the country went into a complete Lockdown.

At this critical juncture, we need to stand united and assert our collective strength, fight for truth and justice. Let us remember words of Comrade Chandu, “Our coming generations will ask us for an answer, they will ask us, where were you when new social forces were being unleashed, where were you when people who live and die every moment, every day strived for their rights, where were you when there was an assertion of the marginal voices of the society. They will seek an answer from all of us…” and intensify our struggle against this communal, authoritarian and fascist government.

– Satya Prakash (MA History, JMI)