Civil Society groups during a large public meeting held at Press Club of India on September 13 strongly condemned the openly communal, false charge-sheets, doctored evidence and dubious witness statements against Umar Khalid and many other social and student activists. The event was organised to mark one year of imprisonment of Umar Khalid and atrocities and injustice against other social and student leaders.
A year ago on the night of 13 September, 2020 Umar Khalid, a PhD scholar and activist who had been speaking out against the CAA, was called in for questioning by the Special Cell, Delhi Police, and never let out. He had been arrested under the infamous FIR 59 of the Delhi Riots, and later charged under UAPA. He was the 16th person to be booked under UAPA in this FIR. One year later, as Umar continues to be denied his freedom, the case against him lies in tatters, utterly exposed for its falsehoods and communal prejudice.
Syeda Hameed, Ex-Member, Planning Commission and Women’s Rights Activist, while raising her concern on the arrest of student activists and lauding the role of Shaheen Bagh as historic, said, “Khalid’s only fault was to uphold the Constitution and oppose CAA, NPR, NRC. He saluted the women of Shaheen Bagh in Amaravati and called for upholding Gandhiji’s ideals. He saluted the women who came out on the streets when students of Jamia were brutally repressed, and stayed outside for 101 days. The regime was scared of this courage. For them an educated Muslim is an eyesore.”
Farah Naqvi, an author, activist and moderator, requested the audience to play in the house the speech Umar Khalid had delivered at Amravati in February 2020. This was the speech that was distorted and misused by the BJP IT cell to frame Umar. During the bail hearing, Umar’s lawyer Tridip Pais revealed that when he asked the Delhi police about the source and authenticity of the footage, he was told that this was procured from media houses and when the same media houses were asked, they said that they procured it from Amit Malviya’s tweet that was unauthenticated and doctored. Readers can find the full speech at https://youtu.be/9tpM9-llpOk
Siddharth Varadarajan, Founder-Editor of The Wire, spoke of the ridiculousness of the chargesheet. He said, “I would urge people to read the ridiculous chargesheets. One of the arguments being made was that the purpose behind the riots in Delhi on the eve of Donald Trump visit was to highlight anti-CAA sentiments and defame the Prime Minister. This is a brazen lie given that international media had been reporting the protests since last December.”
“The reason for criminalising anti-CAA protesters,” he said “is to cover up the real perpetrators of Delhi riots. Umar can be arrested under UAPA but Hindutva leaders who called for genocide against Muslims were booked under flimsy sections so that they can get easy bail.”
Prashant Bhushan also echoed the same viewpoints. He said, “This is not an investigation of a conspiracy, its rather a conspiracy to frame innocents and cover up real perpetrators.” It is not just Umar Khalid but each and every activist detained under UAPA in this case is being targeted and falsely implicated merely for opposing the CAA. Recently, the Delhi High Court, in a landmark judgment, granted bail to three of the accused and at the same time raised serious questions on the police investigation and the use of a stringent terror law like UAPA. It said that the government has blurred the boundaries between democratic dissent and terrorism.
Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, Ex-Chairperson, Delhi Minorities Commission (DMC), highlighted how, when he was Chairperson of DMC, “they made a committee, but the police did not co-operate at all with its proceedings. The report came nonetheless. But the police went to court, demanding that this report must not be placed in any court. Why are they afraid of this report if they have nothing to hide? What we need is a Judicial Commission.”
Manoj Jha, a Member of Parliament, spoke of Umar as “one of the brightest and most uncontaminated minds of this age.” He said Meeran Haider was one who was working for relief. He said, “In these difficult times you will not find heroes in films, but behind bars for speaking up against the government.” “The government,” he said, “could not deal with Shaheen Bagh, hence it resorted to demonising it.”
Jasbeer Kaur, a leader of Movement for Farmers Rights, said, “The protesting farmers were also being branded as terrorists, khalistanis, etc. They wanted to derail our movement too. Shaheen Bagh, just like the farmers, also raised its voice against an unjust law. It is Kapil Mishra and the rioters who must have been sent to prison, not Umar.”
Towards the end, Bharat Bhushan recounted the reasons why young souls like Umar are behind bars. He said, “An authoritarian state needs enemies, Umar has been made into one. The BJP is threatened by a young crop of leadership that has emerged from the people’s movement. Devangana, Umar and the others are all part of the educated articulate non institutionalised organic leadership vouching for secularism and constitutionalism for religious pluralism, ecological justice, gender justice, justice for Dalits, who scare this government. That is why he is in jail.”
Speakers pointed out those secular and peaceful demands for justice continue to be followed by a similar pattern of communalised targeting even today. They reminded the audience of Indore, Madhya Pradesh, where just recently ten Muslim activists have been sent notices for externment (exile) from six districts in Madhya Pradesh for protesting the injustice against a Muslim bangle seller and also about continuous lynching of Muslims across the country.
However the public meeting came to an end on a note of hope. Of faith in the judiciary, hope from courts that in recent weeks it has passed no less than 20 orders related to the Delhi Riots cases, damning the police for their ‘half-baked chargesheets’ and shoddy investigations. The truth shall prevail was the underlying message from the meeting.