Solidarity pours in from thousands of citizens, many organizations across India
New Delhi. Siyasat.net
19 July 2020 marked 100 days of the wrongful incarceration of Gulfisha Fatima, a young student and community educator from Seelampur, in North-East Delhi who has been falsely charged under the draconian UAPA law for defending constitutional values and peacefully resisting the anti-people CAA-NRC-NPR project. Thousands took to Twitter to condemn #100DaysofInjustice and demand #FreeGulfisha – sharing pictures, posters, solidarity messages and memories of the exuberant Gulfisha, who exemplifies compassion, clarity and courage. Her participation in the protests was inspired by the collective struggle of thousands of women, mostly Muslims, across the country and the world who countered the divisive CAA-NRC-NPR project by re-imagining democratic resistance as a collective, leaderless struggle that shatters farcical dominant narratives that ‘Muslim women need saving’.
Issuing a Joint Open Statement, over 450+ individuals and about 40 organisations called for Gulfisha’s immediate release. “The incarceration of Gulfisha and all the other anti CAA-NRC-NPR protesters bears testimony to a callous State that miserably failed to dialogue with communities that constitutionally and democratically appealed to the government to reconsider its anti-people policies. The country is witness to a brazen one-sided ‘investigation’[1]into the targeted violence unleashed in North-East Delhi in late February 2020, by the Delhi Police and the Home Ministry, who are using this pandemic as a convenient excuse to criminalise, interrogate and imprison peaceful anti CAA-NRC-NPR protesters, of whom, many are Muslims. This spate of arrests, has sparked massive outrage from democratic voices across the country and the world, including the United Nations which has expressed grave concern at this ruthless stifling of ‘dissent’,” the statement said.
In addition, the signatories asserted that, “As we stand with Gul, we stand equally with all the other young activists, students and other leaders including Safoora Zargar, Ishrat Jahan, Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal, Meeran Haider, Sharjeel Imam, Sharjeel Usmani, Khalid Saifi, Akhil Gogoi, Dhairjya Konwar, Bittu Sonowal, Manash Konwar and countless others who are bearing the might of the fascist, masculinist, police State for daring to stand by values of democracy, secularism, equality and justice.”
The signatories included:
· Prominent academicians like Uma Chakravarti, Roop Rekha Verma, Jayati Ghosh, Aisha Farooqui, Mary John, Nandini Sundar, Rosemary Dzuvichu, Veena Shatrugna;
· Well known activists like Annie Raja (NFIW), Mariam Dhawale (AIDWA), Kavita Krishnan (AIPWA), Ruth Manorama (Women’s Voice/NAWO), Gabriel Dietrich (Pennurimai Iyakkam), Vani Subramanian and Anuradha (SAHELI), Arundhati Dhuru & Meera Sanghamitra (NAPM), Bittu Kondaiah(Telangana Hijra Intersex Transgender Samiti), Chayanika Shah (LABIA – a queer feminist LBT Collective), Dr Ajita Rao, Nisha Biswas and Rinchin (WSS),Meena Seshu (Sangram), Poonam Kaushik (Pragatisheel Mahila Sangathan), Sarah Mathews (Sankalp Women’s Support Alliance)and Anju Khemani, Aflatoon (Samajwadi Jan Parishad), , Sandhya Gokhale (Forum Against Oppression of Women), Vijayan MJ(PIPFPD), Hasina Khan (Bebaak Collective), Naseema (Aman Biradari Trust), Sheba George, Maya John (CSW), Anjali Sinha (Stree Mukti Sangathan), Salim Saboowalla, Shabnam Hashmi (Anhad), Anjali Monteiro , Roshmi Goswami, and others;
· Senior journalists such as Anand K Sahay, Laxmi Murthy, Geeta Seshu, K Sajaya, Malini Subramaniam;
· Established writers such as Pradip Krishen, John Dayal, Farah Naqvi, Deeptipriya Mehrotra, Hemlata Mahishwar, Shreya Ila Anasuya, Subhash Gatade
· Acclaimed artists such as Maya Krishna Rao, Shital Sathe, A Mangai, Mallika Taneja, Gurpreet Sidhu;
· Eminent lawyers including Pyoli Swatija, Sumita Hazarika, Shalini Gera, P Vasantham;
· Film makers, doctors, students, teachers, scientists, and others
Together the signatories demand:
Summary repeal of the UAPA law that grants the government sweeping powers of arrest and incarceration without any safety net of accountability.
The State must immediately drop all fake charges foisted on Gulfisha, and all other anti-CAA protestors.
The State must take stringent legal action against those responsible for the targeted communal violence and hate crimes in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and other places all over the country in the past many months.
The State must release all political prisoners, and Urgent decongestion of prisons must be carried out ASAP, because overcrowding is resulting in a humanitarian crisis due to the Covid-19 Virus.
(www.siyasat.net is Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India based website)
