Day 16 of 27 — Loss of Innocence

July 6, 2021

In November 2020 I’d blogged about Father Stan, a 84 year old with Parkinson’s, who had been arrested by the National Investigative Agency under the UAPA, an anti-terror law, and incarcerated without hope of bail in Taloja jail. He had approached a court to get a straw or a sipper-cup so that he could drink water as his hands shook due to his disease. The NIA had taken 3 weeks to reply to his petition and provide him with a sipper. 

 

The NIA opposed his bail ferociously even when his health deteriorated. They stated in court, ‘There is no evidence that his health is poor.’ But in all likelihood what there is no evidence of is materials and a case to convict Father Stan. He wasn’t present at the place where he was supposed to have given speeches that incited violence. But under UAPA a person can be held for 180 days without the need to produce evidence in court. Guilty until proven innocent is what the UAPA treats you as. The conviction rate for those arrested under the UAPA, since 2016, is 2%. Yet an increasing number of ‘terrorists’ continue to be booked under it, and held for months or years (they are simply re-arrested) without bail. I can cite case after case. This Orwellian Law even classifies dissenting thoughts as a crime. 

 

Father Stan’s health deteriorated in Taloja jail. A place which should house 2500 inmates, and less than 1400 in covid times, housed 3000 without a single allopathic doctor in the facility. Moving him to hospital was opposed when he became severely ill. He contracted covid and passed on yesterday. Even when he was in the ICU the NIA opposed bail. 

 

I watched three shows about his death last night. Lawyers and activists said that the NIA knew he would die, they wanted him to die. His death was a message to dissenters against the government, ‘We can hold you until you die.’ The friend I chatted with about Father Stan this morning said, ‘Not even a message, they (NIA and the Home Minister under whom they act) enjoy the power to be cruel.’ 

 

I hadn’t thought of that but it is possibly true. I have become numb to the inhuman brutality of those currently in power. But the viciousness of their spokespersons still shocked me. There were BJP/RSS ilk on the shows who said, ‘I have no feeling for him. People like him deserve to be in jail.’ 

 

Meanwhile on another show people debated the RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat’s statements, ‘Islam is not under threat in India. Muslims have no need to be afraid. Hindus and Muslims have the same DNA.’ This as Muslim men are lynched by RSS cadre. On that show the RSS spokesperson talked about how the RSS ideology was about Unity. 

 

I don’t need, anymore, to understand the unfeelingness of those in power. But I cannot fathom the barbarism of their followers in turning a blind eye. Of wallowing in the gaslighting and perpetuating the savagery. 

 

Gutted.