I received the following from my publisher, Daanish Books, which puts the recent police actions against them in the appropriate context.
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Sunita is free, has returned home to her husband, child and friends safe, even if a bit shaken by her first encounter with the State of India. On Friday, 20 October when she was narrating the experience she had with the Chandrapur Police before the press in Delhi, 53 Rashtriya Rifles were forcibly taking away Mohammad Maqbool Dar, a 17 year old boy , yet a child by the definition of the Child Rights Convention, from his home in Pakharpura, Charar E Sharif in J&K. A day later the local police found a dead body lying near an army camp which was later identified as the same Maqbool who was taken by the RR as they had evidence that he was an overground Hizb worker who had a pistol. Lt. Colonel A K Mathur told the press that Maqbool was taken into custody on Friday evening. But in the morning he complained of illness. He was rushed to hospital where he succumbed. Succumbed? To what? Mathur is silent on that. Was Maqbool ill when he was taken away by RR men? And why was he picked up in the first place?
SHO Muhammad Ashraf of the Charar police station is asking the same question. He tells the Indian Express that only 15 days ago the RR men had stormed into the house of Maqbool and searched it. Panicked by this state visit, the parents of Maqbool themselves delivered the boy to the police station asking Ashraf to check if anything was wrong with him. The boy was taken into custody, interrogated for four days and the police found nothing against him. Captain O P Yadav was called by Ashraf who agreed with the finding of the local police that the boy was innocent. He was released; his family was assured by the police not to worry. SHO Ashraf fails to understand what made the RR to pick him up again and kill him.
Sunita fails to understand why was her bookstall, which she was setting up at the Deeksha Bhoomi as part of the annual fair held at Chandrapur every year on 15-16 October to mark the DEEKSHA of Baba Saheb into Buddhism, raided by the Chandrapur police, why were books by and on Bhagat Singh, Lenin, a novel by B D Sharma, Che Guevara confiscated and why was an offence registered against her under Section 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act. Ravindra Kadam , S P, Chandrapur, however, had no doubts in his minds. When called by the panicky well wishers of Sunita, he very politely but firmly informed them that he had strong evidence against Sunita that she belonged to Jehanabad of Bihar well-known for being an area of intense Naxal activities, that her first husband was killed in police encounter, that she did have an extremist background. When her husband, owner of the Daanish Books told the SP that he is her husband, that her parents hail from Bhagalpur and she has nothing to do with Jehanabad, that her first husband is very much alive and active in Patna, that she was never part of any political group, that he himself was part of the CPI(ML), Vaskar Nandy Group, a lawful entity registered with the Election Commission of India, Kadam informed him with the assurance a SAB-JANANE-WALA state representative that he knew better, that she was under watch for last two years, that they had collected evidences sufficient for them to register an offence against and she would be interrogated on the basis of their information and then decision on her fate will be taken.
Sunita was interrogated on the evening of 16 October for nearly five hours. When leaving, the policemen apologized, regretted that she was put to so much of inconvenience and one of them could not resist from expressing his admiration for her. He would like to see her again, not in any official capacity but to understand her viewpoint. In a very informal, warm tone they told her that their SP wanted her to have a cup of tea with him in the morning. It is over, we thought and her husband lit his cigarette to inhale relief. At about one in the night Sunita was called by the same men, this time extending a very formal invitation on behalf of the SP to have a cup of tea with him in the morning . And we instantly knew that it was not over.
Next morning Sunitas stall was surrounded by two oversized vehicles, 40 policemen riding on 20 motorbikes and she was escorted to the headquarters of the Special Task Force. She was told that they would prove that she was Sunita from Jehanabad. The interrogation lasted ten hours. They wanted to know her political views, her definition of Maoism and she was subjected to piercing questions about her personal life. All in the National interest, she was told. They told her that there was no need to spread the ideas of Bhagat Singh now that India was free, that she should have known better and not displayed the books by Bhagat Singh, Marx, Lenin in a Naxal-prone area like Chandarpur. Meanwhile thousands of emails were taking rounds in her favour, phone calls were being made from all over to the SP and DM. Sunita was finally let off at 5 in the evening. Exhausted, physically and emotionally drained . But she was free at last. An undertaking was extracted from her that she would present herself before the police whenever she is asked to do so.
Now we know that an offence under section 18 of the unlawful activities prevention act is very much alive against Sunita which says, Whoever conspires or attempts to commit, or advocates, abets, advises or incites or knowingly facilitates the commission of, a terrorist act or any act preparatory to the commission of a terrorist act, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.
The section is very comprehensive. Police can prove that your activities were an act preparatory to the commission of a terrorist act. This becomes lethal when aided by the definition of Unlawful Activity given in the body of the Act: unlawful activity", in relation to an individual or association, means any action taken by such individual or association (whether by committing an act or by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representation or otherwise),-(i) which is intended, or supports any claim, to bring about, on any ground whatsoever, the cession of a part of the territory of India or the secession of a part of the territory of India from the Union, or which incites any individual or group of individuals to bring about such cession or secession; or (ii) which disclaims, questions, disrupts or is intended to disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India ; or (iii) which causes or is intended to cause disaffect-ion against India.
Cannot it be proved that Sunita was selling the books which contained word which could be used by the Maoists in their campaign against the state? Everybody felt so offended by the attack on a publisher. It is claimed that by this act of the Chandrapur police, rights to publish, read and write have been violated. But would writers, publishers ever see a connection between the Act under which Sunita has been booked the ACT which shield those RR men who picked up Maqbool Dar from his home on 20 October as they suspected that he was a member of a terrorist outfit? The relation between Sunitas freedom and Maqbools death becomes stark when we realize that the Act under which Sunita was declared an offender is being presented as the alternative to the Act, AFSPA, 1958, which is used in J&K and the whole of the NE region to search premises, arrest people and even shoot to kill them on slightest suspicion. The UAPA is applicable all over India. AFSPA can be applied after an area has been declared as a disturbed area.
Sunita is free , Maqbool is dead. Does it give the Indian state a reason to feel safer than earlier, more secure?
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Currently based in Venezuela.
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