[Dr. G. N. Sai Baba, a teacher of English literature in a college in Delhi University, is currently in prison after he was sentenced to life-imprisonment by a lower court on charges of waging war against the country by helping maoist rebels. Sai Baba is a paraplegic with 90% physical disability. Recently he wrote a letter to his wife stating that he doesn't hope to survive till the end of winter; the state has refused his medical care. In this grim context, I am posting below an article on Sai Baba published earlier in 2015 soon after Sai Baba was arrested. The article may be useful for people who are not familiar with the contours of the case.]
The Arrest of G. N. Sai Baba: Insane, inhuman
Nirmalangshu Mukherji
Former Professor of
Philosophy, Delhi University
G. N. Sai Baba, an Assistant
Professor of English in Ramlal Anand College of Delhi University was arrested
by Maharashtra Police in opaque circumstances in May 2014. For the past year,
there has been a small but sustained protest against Sai Baba’s arrest. Most
recently, a day-long fast was held by some activists and university teachers in
front of the Art’s Faculty in Delhi
University Delhi ,
and the rest of the country, has once again failed a vital democratic cause.
Sai Baba is one of those rare
individuals in the current Indian academia—otherwise marked by its unconcealed opportunism
and abject surrender to the establishment—who is at once a serious scholar, a
dedicated and widely-popular teacher, and a death-defying political activist.
Sai Baba believes that Indian
society must undergo an armed proletarian revolution along Maoist lines to
usher in a new democratic republic as a step toward a classless egalitarian
society. He has strengthened his beliefs with a deep study of
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and has advocated them in a variety of public forums.
From his student days, Sai had
been an active member of revolutionary student politics in his home state of
Andhra. While most of those students have since deserted revolutionary
politics, Sai Baba not only continued with it, he actually expanded his zone of
activities several folds to cover the rest of the country in terms of writings,
lectures, tours, meetings and organization of a range of revolutionary mass
forums such as the earlier All India People’s Revolutionary Front (AIPRF) and,
in recent years, Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF). He is one of the
well-known faces in revolutionary politics in the country; in fact, by now he
is internationally known by his writings, organizations and lectures abroad.
Incidentally, I largely disagree
with the Maoist politics, especially the horrendous ways in which it has been
implemented by the CPI (Maoist) in Chattisgarh and elsewhere. I have written
about it extensively (Maoists in India : Tribals under siege,
Amaryllis, 2013.
So, my great admiration and sense of solidarity with Sai has little to do with
his political views, except that I have deep respect for the moral courage,
personal sacrifice, and compassion that underlie such otherwise mistaken
beliefs.
There is one more fact about Sai
Baba. He is totally paralytic from his waist downwards due to childhood polio.
According to medical estimate, his paraplegia affects 90% of his body. Before
he could procure a wheel-chair for himself—to be followed later on by a
motorized auto—he basically moved around crawling on his hands, dragging the
rest of his massive torso along. If he is required in a room upstairs without a
lift, he needs to be physically carried in arms by his friends (I had the
friendly privilege of doing so on some occasions). Years of dragging his body
around even for basic daily functions has left a severe toll on his heart and
lungs and continues to damage his spinal system. No wonder, he survives with
heavy specialised medication that takes its own toll.
With this level of disability,
Sai Baba had been able to maintain the scholarly and revolutionary life
sketched above with sheer determination bolstered by his belief that one day
it’s going to be a better world for all people.
I recall an incident over a
decade ago during a demonstration in Jantar Mantar against the US attack on Iraq . Some of
us were appalled by the sight that two radical forums—AIPRF and CPI
(ML-Liberation)—were holding separate demonstrations on the same issue on two
sides of the same street. I located Sai Baba in a wheelchair engrossed in some
pamphlets and memorandums. I went over to him and protested about the glaring
sectarianism. I knew that I was stepping into historical hostilities between
different naxalite groups. To my surprise, he listened carefully with a very
friendly smile on his face. At first, he tried to raise some hackneyed
ideological issues. When we briskly brushed them aside, he wheeled around and
away to meet Dipankar Bhattacharya, the leader of the other group. That is Sai.
Soon, the two groups joined forces and we had a very meaningful joint rally.
This mixture of steely political determination with a disarming demeanour makes
Sai one of the most effective organizers in mass politics.
Just to remind, he is in constant
physical pain, very much like another brave person constantly in pain, Irom
Sharmila Chanu.
What does it mean for the Indian
state to arrest this person under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention
Act (UAPA) and incarcerate him in the solitary anda-cell of the Nagpur jail meant for
hardened criminals? According to the notorious anti-terrorism cell of the Maharashtra police, Sai has been found to be in touch
with some leaders of CPI (Maoist); it is totally unclear what the alleged
connections are. I return to the absurdity of this charge in a moment.
For now, even assuming some
contact between Sai and some Maoists, according to the Supreme Court of India,
it is no crime at all if (a) a person is merely acquainted with some persons of
a banned organisation, and (b) a person is sympathetic in mind to the cause
espoused by a banned organisation. These injunctions directly follow from the
principles of free speech and association.
The Supreme Court has also held
that (c) it is no crime if someone is found to be a member of a banned
organisation if the person cannot be linked to the unlawful activities of the
organisation. The police has not provided even a glimpse of an evidence that
Sai was involved in any unlawful activity of the Maoists. In any case, the
apparently baseless charges need to be examined by a court of law.
Pending legal examination, not
only principles of natural justice but also various sections of the Indian
Penal Code require that an invalid, physically challenged accused must be
granted bail immediately when other things are equal. The police has no evidence
that other things are not equal in Sai Baba’s case. Thus, Sai Baba’s severe
physical restrictions fully qualify him for the relief granted in law.
Sai Baba has always cooperated
with the police in their investigations conducted in detail before his arrest
in dubious circumstances; he has continued his cooperation since his arrest
including furnishing passwords for his computer and moblie phones. Therefore,
there is absolutely no basis for the police to keep him in jail under the excuse
of investigations.
His physical handicap is such
that it is impossible for him to flee or to affect the course of justice in any
manner. In fact, his medical condition has deteriorated rapidly in prison
during the past year due to lack of proper medical care and facilities. By any
measure, his continued imprisonment is an inhuman act and is in violation of
law.
Most importantly, there is
absolutely no reason to believe that Sai Baba, despite his life-long attachment
to Maoist politics, will ever get in touch with maoist activists on the ground.
This is because both Sai Baba and the maoists are rational people. I took some
pain to detail Sai Baba’s politics and life to highlight his extreme public
visibility. When this fact is combined with his acute physical disability
affecting his movement, he is probably the last person the Maoists would want
to be in touch with. And, as a veteran activist himself, Sai Baba would know
that as well. Let me explain.
Anyone with little a greymatter
understands that the maoist armed struggle in the hills and forests of
east-central India
is a serious life and death affair. For reasons of security and survival, the
entire complex operation has to maintain utmost secrecy to prevent the police
from penetrating the organization. These include the identity of the personnel,
the complex network of hideouts, source of money and arms, network of maoist
intelligence, their courier system, operational codes, and the like. An armed
struggle, in which hundreds of cadres die each year from police bullets,
cholera, or snake bites, is no picnic. As such, no active maoist will reveal
her political identity except before the most trusted.
G. N. Saibaba, as noted, happens
to a very visible political activist with ‘Maoist’ written on his words and
actions in bold letters. He is perhaps the most well-known maoist face in the
country. Naturally, branches of Indian police will be after him wherever he
goes to keep track of whom he meets, corresponds with, etc. This is done not so
much to gather evidence for an allegedly criminal case, but to maintain a
surveillance of possible recruits in the future. The actions of the police are
mostly either political or criminal; they are seldom meant to serve the cause
of justice in these ‘anti-terrorist’ cases. There must be a substantial file by
now in police quarters detailing Sai Baba’s rather colourful political life.
Maoists know this, so does Sai
Baba. So, the two will avoid any possible physical contact. It is impossible to
believe that Sai Baba, so sympathetic to the cause of revolution, will actually
maintain contact information with the maoists on his mobile and computer to
endanger the very movement. It is even more improbable that the veteran
activist will actually meet someone and send the person on some errand with the
maoists. It is said that Swami Agnivesh, not exactly a veteran activist in the
style of Sai Baba, once made this fatal mistake that led to the killing of the
maoist leader Azad. Sai Baba of course knows dozens of less prominent cases of
the same variety.
Sai Baba is the last person to
initiate action that has any chance to expose a link in the maoist network even
if we assume that Sai Baba is politically connected with the maoists. The
so-called charges against Sai Baba must, therefore, be viewed as entirely
political in character without any legal basis.
Sai Baba must be released on bail
at once.
