Historians Rajmohan Gandhi, Romila Thapar, Ramachandra Guha and Irfan Habib are among the 160 academics who have renewed calls to release those in jail in the Delhi riots conspiracy case, including Umar Khalid.
They said in a statement to mark 1,600 days of Khalid’s imprisonment on January 30: “He had said (in a speech cited as evidence of his complicity) — ‘They are destroying the values of Mahatma Gandhi, and the people of India are fighting against them. If those in power want to divide India, the people of India are ready to unite the country.’
“Umar and many others like him are in prison charged under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, without bail, without trial, for years on end. Not because they motivated or instigated anybody to commit any act of violence, but because they stood in defence of peace and justice and advocated non-violent dissidence against unjust laws,” they said.
The academics added: “It pains us, for instance, to read Umar Khalid’s fellow-detenu Gulfisha Fatima’s poem — as she writes about the ‘silent walls’ of the prison. A bright young student activist, an MBA graduate and a history enthusiast, Gulfisha is spending her fifth year in prison.
“Similarly, one wonders if Khalid Saifi is being ‘punished’ simply for reciting the Preamble to India’s Constitution that speaks of secularism and equality. Sharjeel Imam, a bright scholar of history and student activist, in fact has expressed that while he did know that dissenters run the risk of arrest under this regime, he did not expect to be accused of ‘terrorism’, especially for riots that occurred a month after he had already been arrested,” they said.
Other signatories include novelist Amitav Ghosh, actors Ratna Pathak and Naseeruddin Shah, and academics Gayatri Spivak and Akeel Bilgrami. The statement concludes: “We, the undersigned, are deeply disturbed to witness how a bright and compassionate young man like Umar who is trained as a historian and nurtured as a critical thinker, has repeatedly been targeted, vilified and branded by an authoritarian regime. We sincerely hope to see Umar and these equal citizenship activists to be free so that they may contribute towards an equal and just future.”
Of the 18 people arrested in the case, seven are on bail, including two on parole to contest the Delhi elections.