When a 90% disabled Saibaba is denied bail and Arundhati Roy who questioned charged with Contempt of Court, you are failing the largest democracy

The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, presents Saibaba with his doctoral degree at the 90th convocation of Delhi University on March 19, 2013 .


Do you remember Ajmal Kasab? May be you remember or maybe you don’t. In any case he was the lone surviving 26/11 Mumbai attacks terrorist who was executed in November of 2012. There’s an infamous ‘anda’ isolation cell in Nagpur prison where this Kasab was lodged before execution. It’s an extremely isolated place which in winter becomes unbearably cold making life extremely miserable to live but given how brutally the 19 year old had assassinated people in Mumbai it begs for no sympathy for such a murderer. Point taken.
Enter Professor G N Saibaba of Delhi University.
In that same infamous ‘anda’ cell of Nagpur is now this professor, a man with 90 per cent disability. Don’t even try to imagine how he spends his life in that isolated cell with denied access to any help or medicines. Sometimes he is given the medicine but not the food that should go with them. His is no ordinary flu but a condition deterioting day by day. It’s question of life and death for him. But who cares and who is this Saibaba? Dr. Saibaba has been actively campaigning against the government’s anti-Maoist offensive operation, better known as ‘Operation Green Hunt’. It was he who mobilized people through public meetings and rallies which brought the attention of international media onto the scene and much of what was happening in the forests of India was revealed to public eye. The backlash was so severe from Human Right organizations that government started to deny any such operation! And how do they stifle any such public movement which speaks for civil liberties? Simple, they take into custody the man who pulled the curtains on them. Saibaba who has lost his legs to polio as a child and has a cardiac problem is kept in solitary confinement in a cell where he is unable to use Indian style toilet because of his disability. His is a remarkable story of rise from poverty and add to it his disability. Just think over this – Until coming to Delhi he used to move by crawling.
Born in a poor family of Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Saibaba has seen poverty first-hand. Thanks to his stellar performance in class which ensured his scholarship throughout. Later on he was supported by his then girlfriend, Vasantha Kumari whom he later married.
The case against Saibaba is that he had links with Maoist extremists. However, in Sri Indra Das vs. State of Assam, 2011. The Supreme Court observed that mere membership of a banned organization (i.e. banned under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act or TADA or any other statute) will not incriminate a person. There are many amongst us who were convicted of murder and other heinous crimes but are out on bail today. Then why is a man who is 90% disabled, is permanently confined to wheelchair, and was held in jail for 17 months in horrible conditions could be incriminated and charged as being an imminent threat to state security, and denied bail? Is fighting for people’s civil rights wrong and criminal in our country? Is someone who fight for our own citizens without using any arms is equal to a dreaded terrorist? If not, then why is he treated such? Think over this.
The second tale is more vague and absurd at best.

Arundhati Roy who wrote an article (read here) against granting bail to Prof. Saibaba is charged with contempt of court. In case few of us forgot, ours is a democratic country having Constitution that grants us freedom of speech as guaranteed right vide Article 19.
The cornerstone in a democracy is that the people are supreme. Yes, not judges, legislators or bureaucrats but the people are supreme. The rest are servants of this very people. Once we understand this basic concept of democracy other things slowly starts to make sense. It then becomes obvious that people of India are masters and all including the respected courts are their servants. So there remains no question of we the masters not allowed to criticize the courts who are our servants. Now one of the two could be wrong, courts or our Constitution. I believe, the wise reader would decide that for himself/herself. The Contempt of Courts Act is given to courts to ensure that they function and not to prevent people from criticizing them. The makers of Constitution were wise enough not to make freedom of speech absolute so they formed such an act for the courts so that they can limit the powers granted by Article 19. It is to be understood here that the primary aim of the act is to make sure the courts function and not to hold the dignity of it. The sole responsibility of that resides with the judges themselves. If you start to call every criticism of your order as Contempt of Court then sorry, you have already lost it. So does Arundhati Roy’s article criticizing courts order stop courts from functioning? There lies your answer if it was contempt of court or not. You my wise reader, decide.
England from whom we inherited such a law has already revised it without compromising the majesty of their courts, what then are we waiting for? Not just this but there are many laws which are archaic and outdated like the draconian Section 377, which are best scrapped or revised to suit the present era. Prime Minister Narendra Modi while campaigning for general elections had raised this issue to scrap the unwanted laws; he is yet to do away with any of them. May be it’s early to question his intention. Let’s wait for another three years and half of his remaining tenure to see if he really meant what he then only said!

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To complete this piece I have referred Markandey Katju’s article and other sources on the web.

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