By Arré Bench May. 26, 2020
Two members of the Pinjra Tod movement, who were held for taking part in a protest against the CAA, were re-arrested soon after they received bail. The police have been accused of using the lockdown to curb civil rights.
The ongoing coronavirus lockdown has seen most of the country confined to their homes, but for a few, the location of their confinement has been updated to prison. In Delhi, the police has been making a string of arrests of activists who were involved in the protests against the government’s Citizenship Amendment Act. The latest arrests have seen Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, two leaders of the student movement “Pinjra Tod”, which fights for the rights of women students, be arrested by the Delhi Police not once, but twice. After the duo received bail for the first arrest, they were held again.
India is turning this lockdown into lockdown of rights by throwing its students and activists into jails. Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, activists from Pinjra Tod, Faraz Usmani from Allahabad are the latest in the line of numerous activists unlawfully jailed. 1/2
— Nabiya Khan | نبیہ خان (@NabiyaKhan11) May 23, 2020
The first time the Delhi Police picked up Kalita and Narwal was on May 23, due to an FIR registered against them under the charge of “assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty” for their involvement in a peaceful protest against the CAA in Jaffrabad in February. After the local magistrate held that the case against them was “non-maintainable”, the court refused to grant the police custody of the two Pinjra Tod activists on May 24. The magistrate said that the women were not involved in any violence and were protesting peacefully.
However, hours later, the police re-arrested Kalita and Narwal, this time under the more serious charges of attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy in connection to the riots that took place in Delhi in February. This time, the court granted the police custody of the two activists until May 26, when the next hearing in the case would be held.
Two young women want to shatter the cage, they shout pinjra tod, and so the government puts them in prison, a cage by another name. The state of India today.
— saliltripathi (@saliltripathi) May 24, 2020
The Pinjra Tod movement, to which both Kalita and Narwal belong, was founded in 2015 to act as a platform for women students in Delhi to challenge patriarchal institutions like unfair curfew timings. Kalita and Narwal were arrested in connection to the Delhi riots, but the organisation and their many supporters claim that the arrests were made more because of their anti-CAA stance.
IMMEDIATELY RELEASE PINJRATOD ACTIVISTS DEVANGANA AND NATASHA AND ALL ARRESTED ANTI-CAA PROTESTERS!
STOP THE CRIMINALISATION OF DISSENT AND PERSECUTION OF DEMOCRATIC ACTIVISTS! pic.twitter.com/yIeBiXsu2g
— Pinjra Tod (@PinjraTod) May 24, 2020
The two members of Pinjra Tod are the latest to be arrested by the Delhi police, but not the only ones. Delhi Police have also held Jamia Millia Islamia student Safoora Zargar following a similar procedure, where Zargar was first arrested for being involved in a sit-in, granted bail, and then rearrested in connection with the February riots, where bail was denied.
And then this government assaulted the civil liberties of women students, under cover of lockdown and manipulated media. Seek the release #SafooraZargar, Gulfisha, Devangana and Natasha now. Tomorrow it’ll be your child. pic.twitter.com/6hd6I1Z8wn
— Karuna Nundy (@karunanundy) May 24, 2020
Sociologist Nandini Sundar also found similarities between the approaches followed by the government in the case of the arrests of the anti-CAA activists in Delhi, and the Dalit activists in the Bhima-Koregaon case. While outlining six motives for why these arrests are being made, Sundar points out the first reason being the Centre’s desire to “delegitimise all constitutional protests, as well as efforts to invoke the Constitution”.
“Blaming student groups like the Jamia Co-ordination Committee (JCC), All India Students Association (AISA) or Pinjra Tod for organising peaceful protests is also a clear attempt to break links between students and society,” she added.
#Opinion: Amit Shah’s ‘Bhima Koregaon Model’ used for anti-CAA protests – by @nandinisundar https://t.co/PdKpVF7YdV pic.twitter.com/ADMHEz608l
— NDTV (@ndtv) May 25, 2020
The Delhi police, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Union Home Ministry, has once again received flak for prosecuting those raising their voice against the government’s controversial citizenship laws.
Ha!
If you are just going to arrest everyone who protested against CAA-NRC, then there are many like us who should be arrested first @DelhiPolice.
Don’t use corona lockdown to curb civil rights and target citizens who raise voice @amitshah. Don’t! https://t.co/CJUma8QH5c
— Kannan Gopinathan (@naukarshah) May 23, 2020
Many say the lockdown has been used to curb the rights of protesters, especially since courts are not easily accessible.
India is turning this lockdown into lockdown of rights by throwing its students and activists into jails. Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, activists from Pinjra Tod, Faraz Usmani from Allahabad are the latest in the line of numerous activists unlawfully jailed. 1/2
— Nabiya Khan | نبیہ خان (@NabiyaKhan11) May 23, 2020
Am shocked at the continuing arrests of students in Delhi during the lockdown. The #PinjraTod members Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal must be released immediately. This is brutal. This is wrong. This goes against the ethos of democracy.
— Alankrita Shrivastava (@alankrita601) May 24, 2020
Even as the threat of the coronavirus pandemic threatens to keep the country in an extended lockdown, it appears that the Delhi Police are more focussed on targeting dissenters.
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