The elections to the Indian Parliamentone of the

most extravagant exercises in the worldhas brought

the BJP government to power. Quite unprecedented
was the amount of money spent on this election by
the corporate houses that it was unwittingly
acnowledged as the !victory" of the corporate
sector. #or all the ills of the economy that has been
inherited from the past$ not to say from the previous
government$ the BJP government is une%uivocal that
the only way out is more intensive !growth" &
!development"$ as they call it. 'evelopment has
become synonymous to ab(ect misery for the poor
and the woring people while the rich gloat on tax
holidays&subsidies$ sops. #or the masses of the
people of the subcontinent !development" is portent
with the fear of more people being framed )the poor
especially*$ increasing violence on the people from
the side of the state$ further criminalisation of the
everyday lives of the people and prolonged agony$
incarceration$ impoverishment$ hunger and death.
+ignificantly$ the people of the subcontinent
have been resisting peacefully or otherwise the
imminent threat to their lives and livelihoods
inherent in the policies of !,iberalisation$
Privatisation and -lobalisation" ),P-*the modus
operandi of state sponsored !development"being
implemented forcefully for the last two decades by
successive governments at the centre as well as the
states of the Indian .nion. Throughout this period of
intense onslaught on the lives of the people$ every
policy meant to tae away the land$ water$ forests$
hills and the other resources of the people including
their labour have been accompanied or preceded by
stringent forms of legislationsfrom anti/worer
regulations to the worst inds of draconian
instruments in the forms of .0P0$ 0#+P0$ to name
only a few. The last two decades since 1221 saw the
subcontinent changing from one national security
legislation to the other$ each time with the
assurance that the succeeding law has been inder &
humane to the targets of its implementation. The
experiences of the masses of people who have been
incarcerated by the state using these draconian
instruments under the garb of the so/called !war
against terror" or the much hyped fight against the
!single largest internal security threat" or under the
fanfare of !development" as !national interest" have
been brutal and worst dehumanising. #rom the days
of the T0'0 in the 1223s to that of the P4T0 in the
early years of 5333 to the amended .0P0 at present$
we are witness to thousands of the poorest of the
poor0divasis$ 'alits$ 6uslims$ worers$ 7ashmiri







6uslims$ 6anipuris$ 0ssamese$ 8agas$ Bodos$ +ihs
with the list getting endlessbeing incarcerated for
years together under one pretext or the other as
mentioned above. 6anmohan +ingh had termed
!development" as !national interest" and all those
opposing the present model of development as
against the !national interest". Taing the cue from
6anmohan$ the present government has sprung on
the plan of speedy !development" & !growth" and
has left little doubt regarding their intentions as is
evident from the recent railway budget not to say
the budget presented by the finance minister. 9e
have a scenario where the last vestiges of law that
had put some premium or pretension on environment
safeguards$ some protection to forests as well as the
adivasis who inhabited it are being redrafted to
legalise large/scale corporate land grab or control of
huge tracts of forest land$ hills$ rivers etc. for
mining or huge hydel pro(ects or for other purposes.
0t the same time the police and the paramilitary
forces$ in the name of security$ conduct themselves
with impunity resulting in extortion$ rape$ violence$
and illing of the people. The present government
have further increased the deployment of
paramilitary forces in :entral and ;astern India as
well as 4disha and the 9estern -hats. The money
that is allocated in the budget for defence sector
has been phenomenal. +o the ground is set for the
articulation of international capital in the
militari<ation as well as communalisation of
!development" in the subcontinent=
The presence of the military&paramilitary in
different parts of the subcontinent ostensibly to
restore !order"$ !reconstruction" and !development"
as espoused under the rubric of the policies of ,P-
have in many ways criminalised the lives and
livelihoods of the peoples living in these regions be it
the 8orth ;ast$ Jammu > 7ashmir or the vast tracts
of the adivasi inhabited regions in :entral and ;ast
India$ and those regions where anti/displacement
struggles of the people are on. #raming up people
for ransom as well as for getting benefits from the
governments has become a normal practice. The role
of the (udiciary has been submissive to the pressures
and pulls of the money bags and often communal in
its prevarications.
The growing militari<ation$ an important
facet of this model of development along with the
JOIN PROTEST DHARNA
23 JULY, 2014, 11.30 AM
JANTAR MANTAR, NEW DELHI
UNCONDITIONAL RELEASE OF ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!
REPEAL ALL DRACONIAN LAWS INCLUDING UAPA, AFSPA AND THE ANTI-
SEDITION LAW!
REMOVE ALL MILITARY/PARAMILITARY FORCES FROM PEOPLES STRUGGLE
AREAS!
POLITICAL PRISONER STATUS TO ALL WHO HAVE BEEN THE TARGETS OF THE
STATES WAR ON TERROR, OR THE WAR ON THE SINGLE LARGEST
INTERNAL SECURITY THREAT, STATE-SPONSORED XENOPHOBIA AND HATE
CAMPAIGN, CRIMINALISATION OF TRANSGENDERS, LGBT!
ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY!

rising (ingoism through slogans such as !emerging
India"$ India as !+uper Power" through !growth and
development" has brought with it a mass culture of
surveillance and xenophobia. The increasing
targeting of 6uslim youth$ especially the recent
illing of a 6uslim computer engineer by a ?indu
right wing group and the studied silence of the prime
minister and home minister of India on this pre/
meditated murder points towards a new form of
policing that is fast emerging as the BJP assumes
power. The rise of a maximum security state that
was predominant during the previous regime gets
further entrenched with the prisons of the
subcontinent crowded with large numbers of
people6uslims$ 0divasis$ 'alits$ worers etc
framed under .0P0$ 0#+P0 and similar draconian
laws which differ from region to region in the
subcontinent. 6any of them have been booed under
the notorious anti/sedition law. ;ven the political
prisoner status accorded through the 9est Bengal
:orrectional +ervices 0ct )1225* to many of the
political prisoners in that region is being taen away
by the state through the amendment of the said act.
#ew political parties have uttered a word against
this. It shows the growing consensus among these
parties as what they euphemistically call as !good
governance". That the Indian subcontinent is fast
becoming a garrison state with overcrowded prisons
is no more an exaggeration= @ather it is an
understatement= 'eaths in (ail custody have been
rising alarmingly in Indian prisons with Tiharthe so/
called !state of the art prison" in Indiatoo
recording high rates of deaths. 6any of the inmates
in prisons are left with abysmal amenities in
extremely unhygienic conditions. 9ith corruption$
sadism$ hatred$ discrimination and cruelty to the
inmates taing precedence$ prisons in India have
seldom been correctional homes. In none of the
prisons in India Jail 6anuals are followed. @ules and
regulations are changed %uite arbitrarily and often
whimsically by the local authorities. #or the elderly$
women$ children and the differently/abled$ prisons
in India have hardly any facilities. The plight of the
+ri ,anan Tamils put in special camps is worse than
that of the prisons in India=
6ost of the political parties are hardly
concerned about the plight of thousands of political
prisoners who are wrongly confined by the state as
part of the strategy of criminalising their right to
assemble$ associate as well as articulate their (ust
demands for a better life with no exploitation$
misery and oppression. -rowing number of re/arrests
before prisons when they are released on bail$ filing
false cases in different regions based on third party
confessions so as to prolong the incarceration of the
political prisoner are common practices being
adopted through coordinated efforts of the 8I0 and
the 8:T:. 6ost of the under/trial prisoners are not
even produced before the (udges on the dates of
hearing in the courts. The plight of the women
political prisoners is worse. 0ny act of protest or
%uery in this regard from the political prisoner is
met with the worst ind of torture and intimidation.
Physical violence on political prisoners is also on the
rise. 0nyone who raises their voice on behalf of the
most deprived and oppressed has also been
specifically targeted. 'r. -8 +aibaba$ the '.
professor$ who was abducted and arrested by the
6aharashtra police and implicated in a case with
other human rights defenders lie ?em 6ishra
)former ;: member of :@PP* and Prashant @ahi is a
test case of criminalising the voices of dissent
against the brutalising$ inhuman policies of the
Indian state lie 4peration -reen ?unt. The open
threats and innuendos being planted in the media
against leaders and activists of people"s
organisations$ and 8-4s$ intellectuals$ who have
been vocal against the policies of the government
past and present$ are signs of a fascist authoritarian
establishment trying to teeth itself with penal
instruments.
The series of (udgements given by the
+upreme :ourt commuting death sentences to life in
the recent months is a welcome step
notwithstanding the flawed approach to use death
penalty as deterrent to deal with the ills of the
society needing radical change. In many of the
(udgements given by the +upreme :ourt$ the grounds
for commuting death to life have been technical
rather than a change in perspective and mental
hori<on as envisioned by the .8 and all the countries
that are signatories against death penalty. The
pressing case of immediate consideration is the
release of Perarivalan$ -anesh$ Qadeer and others
who have spend more than 53 years in prison.
9e appeal to all political parties and the
present BJP government to address the %uestions of
ine%uality$ discrimination$ oppression$ exploitation$
hunger and death as fundamentals in any policy of
development$ to separate development from the cob
web of national security$ to do away with the policy
of criminalising political aspirations of the people
vis-a-vis their lives and livelihoods. 0s a fundamental
step towards this$ it becomes imperative that all
draconian legislations including the sedition act be
revoed to mar a watershed in the policy of dealing
with the four dreaded 's'evelopment$ 'estitution$
'isplacement and 'eathas a %uestion of law and
order. It is the responsibility of all freedom/loving
people of the subcontinent to stand up and demand
the present government to address these burning
issues without delay$ as fundamental steps to be
taen up in a democracy that aspires to be
!international" in its standards while its prisons
present a microcosm of a society that can implode
any time given the barbarity that it breeds.

COMMITTEE FOR THE RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS
PH: 9810081228 9810149990