Strength of any country is in its young minds, say academics, rights activists condemning Umar Khalid’s arrest

A group of rights activists, academics and lawyers in a statement issued after the arrest of former JNU student Umar Khalid referred to the political activist as “one of our bravest young voices who spoke for the constitutional values of our country”. They also condemned the police action against him as a ‘witch hunt’.

Umar Khalid was arrested late night on September 13 and charged with sedition, offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act as well as murder and attempt to murder.

“As citizens deeply committed to Constitutional values, we condemn the arrest of Umar Khalid who has been subjected to a malicious investigation targeting peaceful anti-CAA protestors. He has been booked under several charges including UAPA, sedition and conspiracy for murder. With deep anguish we have 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,” they said.

“Umar Khalid was one of the hundreds of voices that spoke up in favour of the Constitution across the country during these anti-CAA protests, always foregrounding the need for peaceful, non-violent and democratic means. Umar Khalid has emerged as a strong and powerful voice of young Indians in favour of the Constitution and of democracy. The repeated attempts by the Delhi police to implicate him in a number of fictitious cases of conspiracy for the Delhi violence are part of a brazen attempt to try to suppress his voice of dissent. It is very significant that of the 20 arrested, 19 are under the age of 31,” read the statement.

Here is the entire text of the statement:

WE CONDEMN THE ARREST OF UMAR KHALID, ONE OF OUR BRAVEST YOUNG VOICES WHO SPOKE FOR THE CONSTITUTIONAL VALUES OF OUR COUNTRY

As citizens deeply committed to Constitutional values, we condemn the arrest of Umar Khalid who has been subjected to a malicious investigation targeting peaceful anti-CAA protestors. He has been booked under several charges including UAPA, sedition and conspiracy for murder. With deep anguish we have 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.

Umar Khalid was one of the hundreds of voices that spoke up in favour of the Constitution across the country during these anti-CAA protests, always foregrounding the need for peaceful, non-violent and democratic means. Umar Khalid has emerged as a strong and powerful voice of young Indians in favour of the Constitution and of democracy. The repeated attempts by the Delhi police to implicate him in a number of fictitious cases of conspiracy for the Delhi violence are part of a brazen attempt to try to suppress his voice of dissent. It is very significant that of the 20 arrested, 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. Of the ones incarcerated, five are women, except for one all are also students.

The essence of our democracy is the freedom of conscience and the strength of any country is in its young minds. We strongly condemn the targeting of Umar Khalid and other young activists, both women and men.

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. The nature of investigation has been mainly to silence democratic voices and instill fear, and this is precisely the objective of this witch hunt.

Given the past precedence of physical attacks in court premises in the instance of Kanhaiya, and the attempt on Umar’s life in 2018 by gunmen in public, we urge that it is imperative that all measures are taken to avoid any threat to his life and limbs so long as he is in the custody of the state / judiciary.

It has also been observed by the court that the media is peddling false information and selective leakages in an attempt to conduct a full-fledged media trial and are also trying to influence the course of justice. This must cease by all means. If left onto the course of law, we are confident that justice would prevail.

Signed,

1. Saeed Mirza, filmmaker

2. Syeda Hameed, ex-Planning Commission

3. Arundhati Roy, Writer

4. TM Krishna, Artist

5. Ramchandra Guha, Historian

6. Prashant Bhushan, Senior Advocate

7. P. Sainath, Senior Journalist

8. Brinda Karat, CPI (M)

9. Jignesh Mewani, MLA Gujarat

10. Kavita Krishnan (AIPWA)

11. Mihir Desai, Senior Advocate

12. Aakar Patel, Journalist & Activist

13. Biraj Patnaik, Public Policy expert

14. Darab Farooqi, Writer and lyricist

15. Farah Naqvi, Writer and Activist

16. Githa Hariharan, Author and Activist

17. Harsh Mander, Author & Activist

18. Jayaram Venkatesan, Social Activist, Chennai

19. Kavita Srivastava, Activist

20. Navsharan Singh, independent researcher

21. ND Pancholi, Senior Lawyer

22. Prabir Purakayastha

23. Prof. Atul Sood, JNU

24. Prof. Nandini Sundar, Delhi University

25. Prof. Apoorvanand, Delhi University

26. Prof. Jayati Ghosh, JNU

27. Prof. Mary John

28. Prof. Prabhat Patnaik

29. Prof. Satish Deshpande

30. Prof. Surajit Mazumdar, JNU

31. Prof. Ayesha Kidwai, JNU

32. Prof. D. K. Lobiyal, JNU

33. Purwa Bhardwaj, Educationist

34. Ravi Kiran Jain, PUCL

35. Shuddhabrata Sengupta (Raqs Media Collective)

36. V Suresh, PUCL

Meanwhile, Swaraj Abhiyan’s Yogendra Yadav tweeted:

Shehla Rashid too took to twitter to express her anguish over the development:

Actor Swara Bhaskar reacted to the development: