Former Delhi University professor and human rights activist G.N. Saibaba, who was imprisoned for his alleged links with CPI Maoists, interacts with journalists in Hyderabad on Friday.
| Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL
Former Delhi University professor G.N. Saibaba, who was acquitted of the charges against him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Actrecounted the prison horrors during an interaction with media, organised by the Telangana State Union of Working Journalists (TUWJ) on Friday.
“Prison is a microcosm of the external world, where all the societal evils are even more pronounced than outside,” he said during his first-ever media interaction after his release.
Caste bias in jail
“Caste-based discrimination is rampant in prison, and works are assigned based on the caste of inmates. In fact, assignment of jobs based on caste is mentioned in the jail manual too,” Prof. Saibaba said.
The amended Prisons Act 1894 allows ‘mild bodily torture’ as a means to control and discipline prisoners. While there is no way one can protest against such a system except through a hunger strike, even that would yield no result unless amplified by voices outside the prison.
All prisoners thrashed
Under the pretext of mild torture, all prisoners are beaten up upon arrival without reason. The only exceptions are gangsters, politicians of repute and ‘Naxal cases’, the academic said.
“When Anil Deshmukh visited me in prison as Home Minister in Congress and NCP coalition, I requested him for better conditions for prisoners. But he sought to know what I wanted for myself. Later, he was jailed, and experienced the conditions first hand,” Prof. Saibaba said.
Similar experiences were shared by Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut and businessman Naresh Goyal too, and yet there is no change in the conditions.
“After seeing all this, my opinion is that nobody should be sent to prison. Prison is a system that robs human beings of their value,” he said.
Tracing through the period that led to his arrest, he said he was warned and threatened by a posse of officials, including Maharashtra police, thrice before the arrest, with regard to his campaign as convenor of the ‘Forum Against War On People’ against Operation Green Hunt.
“Hany Babu had done some exceptional work in the field of Linguistics and had no part in any activism except for our combined fight for implementation of reservation in Delhi University. He is now in jail, and almost lost his eyesight during COVID time,” he said.
To a question about the loss of faith in judiciary, he said that it is part of the collapse of all institutions, and even courts are aware of this.
While Bench-hunting is severely castigated by the judiciary, even unlettered inmates of the prison discussed which Bench would give a favourable order, Prof. Saibaba said.
“They would tell me before which Bench my bail petition stood a better chance. General population is looking at a Judge as an individual and not as a system. All of them know that court orders depend on judges,” he said, recounting how his bail petitions were either rejected or never came up for hearing, and how the hearing on student activist Gulfisha Fatima’s bail petition was listed 65 times, but never came up for hearing.
