TCN News
Over 30 individual artists, rights workers and professionals have condemned the arrest of Umar Khalid on charges of instigating the Delhi riots.
The artists including Harsh Mander, Saeed Mirza, Arundhati Roy, Jignesh Mewani, Mihir Desai and several others have expressed their resentment with the Delhi Police through an open letter declaring their “deep commitment to constitutional values,” and have praised Umar Khalid for being one of the bravest voices to speak for the values of the Indian constitution. The youth leader and one of the forefront voices in the nationwide protests against the discriminatory Citizenship Act, Umar Khalid was booked on Sunday evening under several charges including UAPA, sedition and conspiracy for murder.
The signatories have praised Khalid for “always foregrounding the need for peaceful, non-violent and democratic means; emerging as a strong and powerful voice of young Indians in favour of the Constitution and democracy.” Further accusing the authorities of “repeated attempts to implicate him in several fictitious cases of conspiracy for the Delhi violence,” the individuals accuse the Delhi Police of subjecting Khalid “to a malicious investigation” that has been running an organized campaign of targeting peaceful anti-CAA protestors. Drawing parallels between the other 20 scholars and activists who have been recently arrested, the signatories highlight that among them “19 are under the age of 31, of which 17 have been charged under the draconian UAPA and have been imprisoned on charges of a conspiracy for the Delhi violence whereas those who actually instigated and participated in the violence has not been touched.” Among those incarcerated, five are women, except for one all are also students, they pointed, remarking that all of this is “a brazen attempt to try to suppress the voice of dissent.”
“The essence of our democracy is the freedom of conscience and the strength of any country is in its young minds,” the letter states, reiterating that there is “no doubt in saying that this investigation is not about the violence in February 2020 in the national capital, but on the completely peaceful and democratic protests across the country against the unconstitutional CAA.” Speaking on the similar pattern of the investigation into the Delhi riots, the letter has pointed that “the nature of the investigation has been mainly to silence democratic voices and instil fear, and this is precisely the objective of this witch hunt.”
The signatories have spoken about the physical attacks in court premises in the instance of Kanhaiya Kumar, and the attempt on Umar’s life in 2018 by gunmen in public, demanding that “all measures must be taken to avoid any threat to his life and safety so long as he remains in the custody of the state/judiciary.” The statement also reminded that “the media is peddling false information and selective leakages in an attempt to conduct a full-fledged media trial and influence the course of justice,” which must stop immediately and the authorities must “let the law take its own course.”
The signatories have expressed “deep anguish” over targeting of Umar Khalid and other young activists, both women and men, and have demanded their immediate release, stating that “the right to life, is not just to be allowed to eat, live and breathe; it is to live without fear, with dignity and with freedom of expression, including dissent.”