Mumbai: If I’m a Hindu, it does not mean that I hate a person who’s a non-Hindu or put him behind the bars for their religion or political ideology, said retired justice BN Srikrishna, who headed the Srikrishna Commission to investigate the Bombay Riots of 1992-93.
Justice Srikrishna was speaking at the book launch of ‘The Feared’ by Neeta Kolhatkar, which is a compilation of conversations with 11 political prisoners from across the country. In ‘The Feared’, Kolhatkar has highlighted the fragile realities behind resolute prison bars, bringing together interviews of political prisoners, their loved ones and their everyday lives within the walls of multiple prisons across India.
Justice Srikrishna, who has contributed to the book by writing its foreword, pressed on the issues pertaining to the long incarceration of political prisoners and the state of Indian jails. He reflected that free voice should be heard irrespective of the person’s ideology and the person should not be put behind the bars just for the sake of silencing their voice.
“I am a Hindu but that does not mean I hate a person who’s not Hindu or put him behind bars. These political prisoners are not convicted of any criminal charges but still continue to languish in jails. Even if a person is convicted, he does not cease to be a human, even though a few constitutional rights might be restricted,” he said.
Senior advocate Aspi Chinoy, who also attended the book launch, highlighted the bad state of Indian jails. “Any self respected civilized country cannot have such jails. We do not look towards these inhuman conditions of Indian jails because we think that we will not end up being there. With the incarceration of these political activists, it forces us to focus on the atrocious state of Indian jails,” Chinoy said.
He highlighted that political prisoners like Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Arun Pereira and other accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, have not been convicted in any of the multiple cases registered against them and have been acquitted in most of them.
“The object is not to convict but to detain you for years so you cannot come out for years. People are incarcerated for years for holding particular political beliefs. Anand Teltumbde was not provided a mosquito net whereas Father Stan Swamy was not provided a sipper. Jails are overcrowded, where you don’t get a mattress and the food is filthy, unhygienic and unfulfilling. They should not be treated like concentration camps,” he added.
The book includes conversations with political prisoners including Sudha Bharadwaj, Nilofer Malik and Sameer Khan, Koel Sen, Prashant Rahi and Shikha Rahi, Sanjay Raut, Kishorechandra Wangkhem, Anand Teltumbde and Rama Ambedkar, Binayak Sen, Kobad Gandhy, Muralidharan K and P Hemlatha.
Kolhatkar also reflected on her journey of writing the book and the need to give voice to such political prisoners. She said, “The perception in public’s mind is that you might have done something wrong therefore you’re behind the bars. It’s time that we realise that it’s okay to be behind the bars. One of the aspects I wanted to focus was the toll of these incarceration on the prisoners and their family members’ mental health. Even after they have been acquited, most of them continue to be under the fear of law as the cases do not end.“
