CASR event highlights acquittal, prison experience of cultural activist Hem Mishra

Ex-Delhi University Teachers Union DUTA president Nandita Narain argued that merely carrying Maoist literature and raising the demand for Jal-Jangal-Jameen Our Water, Our Forest, Our Land does not make one liable for arrest under the UAPA.

Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) held an event here on Monday to mark the acquittal and prison experience of cultural activist Hem Mishra after the Bombay High Court cleared him of all charges. Saroj Giri, from Delhi University's department of political science and member of Forum Against Corporatisation and Militarisation (FACAM), in a press conference pointed out how the arrests and imprisonment of political prisoners like Hem Mishra is not a matter of legal victories for individual political parties. Instead, Giri believed that it was because Mishra raised the issues of corporate loot of natural resources, displacement of adivasis, caste-based oppression and the exploitation of workers and peasants, that he was imprisoned. Mishra, who was incarcerated for 10 years under the charges of being a Maoist courier, said in the press conference, ''It is not about just the six of us in my case. It is about all political prisoners.'' ''As long as the fight for jal-jangal-jameen remains, as long as the fight of dalits, adivasis, workers, peasants, oppressed nationalities remains, as long as the question of creating a better world for all people and a better state for all people remains, the fight of all political prisoners will rage on,'' he said. Renowned Supreme Court lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan said the political prisoners are stuck in this situation due to the draconian UAPA law being used against them where bail becomes an exception and jail becomes the rule, even when one is not guilty. Ex-Delhi University Teachers Union (DUTA) president Nandita Narain argued that merely carrying Maoist literature and raising the demand for Jal-Jangal-Jameen (Our Water, Our Forest, Our Land) does not make one liable for arrest under the UAPA. ''We are students, scholars and educators. Reading and carrying Maoist literature is no crime but our right, for we must study all thoughts, ideologies and philosophies and come to our understanding,'' she said. CASR, a joint platform of over 35 organisations, celebrated the 'International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners'.

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