India Gate Protest Accused: Student Activists Can't Be Threats to Sovereignty

"I was strip-searched by male police officers, every time I returned to prison from police custody," says Kranti. 

 A transwoman in her early twenties, Kranti was suddenly perceived as a threat to the sovereignty of the world’s fourth largest economy. Arrested for participating in the India Gate protests staged against worsening air conditions in November, the passage into the new year was different for numerous young protesters like Kranti. A student was, again, a national threat.

Convener of the environment research collective, The Himkhand, Kranti was granted bail along with 21 others, in December, almost after a month of incarceration at the Tihar Central Prison. 

Kranti recounts her experience at Tihar’s Jail No 3, a designated special ward for senior citizens, where she found herself in the company of six other transwomen and people who are facing charges of terrorism . The 22-year-old says it took her 10 days to get access to a phone call to inform her family of her arrest. “I was to be accompanied by a male sewadar, but as they were busy, my request for the procedural first phone call, a basic right, was being ignored,” she says.

In November, Delhi Police had arrested 23 people, including Kranti, for allegedly shouting pro-Maoist slogans, unleashing violence on police personnel and obstructing traffic. Two FIRs were filed at Kartavya Path and Parliament Street which cited that pro-Maoist slogans were raised by the protestors in support of Maoist commander Madvi Hidma killed a few days prior to the protest.

The protests took place on November 23 near India Gate, where students affiliated with the Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch (BSCEM) and the environmental collective Himkhand demonstrated against worsening air pollution in the capital. The protests were organised by the Delhi Coordination Committee for Clean Air - a joint forum which had around fourteen different organisations including multiple environmental, left, and student organisations. “The Himkhand was the organisation which gave the call for the formation of Delhi Coordination Committee for Clean Air. This was not the first protest that we were organising at India Gate. We had organised another one on the 9th at the same place,” a member of the Himkhand said.

The members deny the allegations of the protest turning violent from their side. “There is a two hour-long video footage on YouTube which clearly shows how violence was not unleashed from the students' but from the police's side,” Kranti says.

Following the initial arrest of six, numerous students assembled outside Parliament Street Police Station raising a cry for the release and the whereabouts of the people detained. “The police did not give us any details as to where our comrades were. Instead, they started picking us up and detaining us- brutally dragging us by our feet. The clothes of numerous women protestors were ripped in the process,” says Vageesha, 20, of the Himkhand.

“As we were detained our mobile phones and ID cards were taken away without any seizure memos. We were taken into rooms without any CCTV cameras, where we were beaten up by 15 to 20 police officers asking for the password to our phones and other details at the threat of violence. Many of us did not concede as we asked the police for a democratic right - be given a seizure memo if they wanted to seize any of our devices but they resorted to only increasingly brutal torture,” recalls Kranti.

With allegations surfacing which tagged the protests to organisations raising slogans in the support of slain Maoist commander Hidma, the Himkhand believes this was a result of an intense political smear campaign. Branded Maoists, urban naxals and deshdrohis, numerous right-wing pages and media outlets branded the group of people in their early 20s a ‘Maoist organisation’ resorting to radical politics under the garb of environmentalism. “The charges were pressed against us included ones of allegedly conspiring against national sovereignty and belonging to banned organisations like Radical Students Union Andhra Pradesh (RSU AP) - an organisation which is banned in Andhra Pradesh and has been defunct for the last 20 years,” mentions Kranti.

Addressing the claims of supporting slogans raised in remembrance of Hidma, Vageesha says, that a particular slogan was raised by the Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch where they stood in solidarity. "The Himkhand refuses to see the fight for environmentalism in isolation. We see it as a systematic plundering of our resources by imperialist forces. So, we see Hidma as a tribal leader who was fighting for Jal Jungle Zameen and therefore stood in solidarity with that sentiment only,” the group clarified.

The members of the Himkhand believe the politically targeted campaigns gained significant momentum as most of the students belong to disadvantaged sections. “Majority of the protesters were either women, transpeople, queer people or belong to tribal and Dalit groups and thus we had to face intense online trolling targeted at our gender, caste, and tribal identities. Expectedly, inside the prison as well, our identities were easy targets for the jail authorities,” says 19-year-old Aahaan, one of the first students to be detained by the Delhi Police.

The students representing the Himkhand also mention episodes of bullying, sexual, and physical harassment which followed any demand inside jail - especially for basic nutrition and water heaters. “Like we would do outside, we kept pressing for basic rights inside as well and continued voicing against systemic injustice by signing mass memorandums and the like,” Aahaan adds.

On December 26, with the release of the final six, including Kranti, 22 of the 23 people arrested over the demonstration were out on bail. “It is an admitted position that 16 co-accused out of the (23) arrested accused in this case have already been admitted to bail. It is further an admitted position that it has not been mentioned in the reply and thus not the case of the prosecution that any of the applicants is a member of banned RSU (Radical Students Union),” Additional Sessions Judge Amit Bansal noted while granting bail to the final six. 

Despite being out on bail, the students remain constricted by strict bail conditions which include producing themselves at Kartavya Path Police Station, where the FIR is registered, every alternate Wednesday. “This is only so that the police can keep in touch with us and keep on harassing us further. The other conditions are vague - like influencing other people. How do you see if you are influencing other people? We also can't ‘commit offences of similar nature,” says Kranti.

Himkhand’s members believe that their arrest is just a product of the current political atmosphere. “Communalism and religious hatred have been the norm but behind this garb of religious and caste chauvinism, what is happening is blatant sale of our natural resources. The fourth largest economy that we boast of, is built on the backs of selling away natural resources - our lands, forests, and jungles,” says Kranti.

Kranti formed a special connection with the Kashmiris detained under charges of terrorism, while the others became emotional counsel for many inmates. “Since most of us are aged between 18 and 24, we were called people who had no clue and just were hungry for footage. Whereas inside Tihar, people asked us about so many things. We offered help, as we were valued as the generation capable of valuing knowledge,” says Kranti.

Most of them have had to sever ties with their families to be a part of the collective. The members of Himkhand have not been able to contact one of their peers whose family has restricted them from mere contact with people outside. While young people across the country found themselves ushering in the new year with pomp and gloss, a group of students in their early twenties were suddenly termed threats to the nation for speaking against air pollution. Smiling, as they recalled their experiences and expressing their solidarity towards other political prisoners, the members pointed at the words, inspired by Brazilian activist Chico Mendes, on their Instagram bio-

“Environmentalism without politics is just gardening.”