Victory will be that of Mahatma Gandhi: Umar Khalid

Why is Umar Khalid being denied bail again and again? timesheadline.in is reproducing the speech delivered by Umar Khalid in Amravati on February 17, 2020, for the readers and all concerned. The speech has repeated references to Mahatma Gandhi, the Constitution, the non-violent movement of Shaheen Bagh led by women, and the idealistic values of the freedom movement

By Amit Sengupta

Umar Khalid is a brilliant scholar, thinker, writer, and a PhD from the prestigious Centre for Historical Studies/School of Social Sciences, JNU, Delhi. He was arrested in September, 2020, under the draconion UAPA. Among other charges by the Delhi Police , still not proved, he was charged with conspiracy and inciting riots in North-west Delhi which broke out in late 2020. Question marks have thereby remained on the nature of charges against him and other young scholars — all them educated Muslims.

Notably, nothing happened to the likes of BJP leaders Anurag Thakur and Kapil Sharma who openly and in public speeches, incited, and called for violence during the non-violent Shaheen Bagh protests and the riots in Delhi.

It has been more than four years now since Umar has been jail, along with others like highly educated scholar, Sharjeel Imam, and social activist Khalid Saifi. Some students were released on bail in 2021, like JNU PhD scholars Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, also Asif Iqbal, a student of Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. The Supreme Court granted them bail.

On June 15, the Delhi High Court granted bail to Pinjra Tod activists Devangana, Natasha and Asif, who were arrested under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in connection with the Delhi riots case.

In charges very similar to that imposed on Umar and others, Natasha and Devangana were arrested in May 2020 for alleged premeditated conspiracy in the communal violence that broke out in Northeast Delhi, during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). Civil society groups and students have since than constantly stated that like the protest movement, as in Shaheen Bagh in Delhi, led by grandmothers, mothers and daughters, these students never ever indulged in any act of violence, or conspired to do so. Natasha and Devengana were part of a group doing dharna on the street, peacefully, it was stated.

Significantly, in its bail order, the Delhi High Court had said, “We are constrained to express that it seems that in its anxiety to suppress dissent, in the mind of the State, the line between the constitutionally guaranteed right to protest and terrorist activity seems to be getting somewhat blurred. If this mindset gains traction, it would be a sad day for democracy.”

Wrote lawyer Naren Singh Rao (August 2024, timesheadline.in): Gulfisha, Umar, Sharjeel, Khalid Saifi, Shifa-ur-Rahman…

Certainly, this chapter is poised to be remembered as one of the darkest in the history of the Supreme Court. It has squarely failed to safeguard the fundamental right to personal freedom of a young social activist and a brilliant scholar, who has been in prison for years as an undertrial, based on largely inadmissible evidence… Justice DY Chandrachud, the Chief Justice of India (CJI), recently remarked, ‘‘…the trial court judges are increasingly playing it safe, not granting bail on important issues of serious crimes…

…Ironically, the CJI’s remarks not only pertain to the lower judiciary but also hold relevance for significant sections of the highest judiciary. There is indeed a growing, discernible inclination towards accepting the prosecution’s theory, in a rather stenographic fashion, while not applying the substantive application of judicial scrutiny.”

Predictably, in the court proceedings this week, the Delhi Police has stuck to its line. It said, according to media reports, that speeches by Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and others created a sense of fear in the context of CAA-NRC, Babri mosque, triple talaq and Kashmir. The Delhi Police was arguing before the Delhi High Court on Thursday, January 9, 2021.

Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur presided over the court. The police, while making submissions in the case related to UAPA, repeated the same argument. “Speeches by Meeran (Haider), Sharjeel Imam, Khalid Saifi and Umar Khalid show a common pattern. All are on identical lines. They create a sense of fear in the people hearing them,” said special public prosecutor Amit Prasad.

Significantly, he said, aside from the speeches, Umar Khalid gave an “objectionable speech in Amravati” which was made “viral”. He accused Umar Khalid of deliberately travelling outside Delhi at the time when violence erupted in the capital to evade any responsibility. “There was a concerted plan to remain outside Delhi. When violence broke out, there was immediate reaction,” he said.

“Each action was concerted and had a pattern.. It is important to appreciate the size of the violence. When we are looking at ‘terrorist act’, we have to fall within its meaning, whether the city was held to ransom,” he said.

All those who have heard Umar Khalid in private or public spaces, or, as a public speaker, can easily vouch that never has he used any inflammatory, defamatory or abusive language, politically or otherwise. He would be transparently forthright and intellectually strong in his argument, he would criticize the government with coherent logic, facts and figures, he would always stand with the Indian Constitution, and the values and principles of the non-violent freedom movement led by Mahatma Gandhi.

This reporter has spoken to him in private conversations, and heard him in public platforms, and never has he supported violence of any kind. His speeches were mostly scholarly, emotional and stirring, brave, citing from history, and he would inevitably deliver them while it would be pin-drop silence among the listeners; never ever did he incite violence.

Undoubtedly, there was a lot to learn from Umar Khalid.

He was always deeply sensitive, humble, highly intelligent, and articulate — often, with an uncanny sense of humour. And he would smile and laugh easily, even in adverse circumstances.

That is why, it is widely believed that he is being victimised by the Indian State under the current, partisan regime. Said a political observer: “A young and outstanding history scholar who seems an atheist and modernist, an ardent supporter of the Constitution, who represents a secular, democratic modernity in his community, and who refused to succumb as an enlightened dissenter — is a clear threat to this hardline, Right-wing, Hindutva regime Unlike their retrograde mindset, these young Muslims are creating new rainbows of knowledge, social engagement and hope. It is therefore a message to all scholarly and young Muslims, that if you choose to be an enlightened dissenter, however non-violent, we will condemn you in a prison, or hound you. A certain ‘godman’ is repeatedly getting bail or parole, accused of rape; why should bail be denied to Umar and others. Why has he been declared guilty before even ‘proved guilty’.”

Thereby timesheadline.in is reproducing the speech delivered by Umar Khalid in Amravati on February 17, 2020, for the readers and all concerned. This speech has earlier been reproduced or excerpted, and is in the public domain. The speech has repeated reference to Mahatma Gandhi, the Constitution, and the idealistic values/vision of the freedom movement.

“Syed Azizul Hasan Sahab, Ilyas Sahab, Abdur Rehman Sahab, Kolse Patil Sahab and everyone else sitting on the stage, and all of you present in this gathering, young and old, I give my revolutionary greetings to each one of you, to your spirit of fighting against this government for your rights. A special thanks to the person who introduced me and told all of you that my original hometown is Amravati, and that today is a kind of a homecoming for me. A big thanks for this Ghar Wapsi. I don’t have a problem with this Ghar Wapsi. Yes, we certainly have a problem with the other one.

Right now, when IPS Abdur Rehman was speaking, he spoke about Gandhi and told us that the weapons that Mahatma Gandhi has given us to fight are Ahimsa and Satyagraha. Civil Disobedience and Non-Cooperation were the methods of Mahatma Gandhi in his fight, and it is through these methods of struggle that we achieved our freedom.

That was the time when we were fighting the white colonisers, and when we were fighting against them, the ancestors of the present-day rulers of India — the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha — were acting as agents of the British. Today, they are asking us for the records of our ancestors. It is important to ask them about the record of their ancestors.

When the people of India were giving sacrifices — from the Jallianwala Bagh massacre to many other incidents when the British shot Indians down, imprisoned so many who dreamt of India’s freedom, the ancestors of the present-day rulers were acting as agents of the British. We want to tell them that at that time, we carried out civil disobedience against the white colonisers (goro), and, now in 2020, we will do civil disobedience against the thieves (choro).

If there is anyone following principles showed by Mahatma Gandhi in India today, it is the people of India. And if there is anyone who has shown the path to the people of India, it is the women of Shaheen Bagh (in Delhi).

I live about 10 minutes away from Shaheen Bagh. Two months ago, no one besides the people of our locality knew about Shaheen Bagh, but we should thank Narendra Modi that he gave us an opportunity because of which Shaheen Bagh is now known across the country. And the path showed by Shaheen Bagh has made our country into one big garden (baagh) and we will bring spring in this garden. I want to thank the women – the mothers, sisters, nanis and dadis — of Shaheen Bagh who stood up when oppression was its peak.

The movement began from Jamia Millia Islamia (central university in Delhi) and Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. Then on the painful night of 15 December, the police entered the premises of Jamia Millia Islamia, its library, and beat up students and used tear gas against the students. The hands of students were fractured, one student lost an eye permanently. There was a fog of fear in the entire locality.

They were using a gun — called stun grenade. When that is fired, it causes a huge sound, as if there is an explosion. It sounds as if a bomb has exploded. That night, such sounds could be heard in the entire area.

Tear gas had engulfed the entire area. Even if you were two kilometers away from the university, even then tears would come out of your eyes, because of the amount of tear gas that was fired.

There was a reign of terror in the entire area on that night. In that area, people are usually out on the roads till 11 pm-12 midnight, but on that night, the entire area had turned desolate by 7 pm. People were inside their homes. Some of us went to the local police station to request them to end all of this, but the police station closed its doors and refused to listen to us.

In that environment of fear and terror, if there was anyone who showed the courage to come out on the streets, it was the dadis of Shaheen Bagh, and they went and did a chakka jam of the highway, and showed us the way. We cant thank these women enough.

In the last two months, they have tried to scare Shaheen Bagh, to crush Shaheen Bagh, to defame Shaheen Bagh, but the more they tried to crush Shaheen Bagh, the more Shaheen Bagh flourished and came up. Today, there is a Shaheen Bagh in every corner of the country.

They can’t crush us. Till yesterday, our Home Minister was saying that protest as much as you want, we are not going to move an inch back. And now, four days back, he made a statement asking for three days time after which he will be ready to talk.

The ones who were saying that they wont move an inch back are speaking in a different tone today. The credit for that goes to the women of Shaheen Bagh.

The women of Shaheen Bagh saw the offer of talks as something great. After all, that is what they had been demanding — a dialogue. But the women of Shaheen Bagh said that now no one person would go for these talks, because this movement is not led by one leader, or one party or one organisation. It is a movement of the people, and the people will go and talk to the Home Minister. They started marching towards the Home Minister’s residence, but the Home Minister and the Delhi Police got so scared that they stopped them at Shaheen Bagh itself.

This offer of talks was another jumla by this government. Ever since the Home Minister made this statement (of talks), several people wrote that they would want to talk and that a democracy functions through dialogue, and that we would correct you on CAA/NRC/NPR. But he did not respond to even a single person. This shows that the Home Minister is trying to misguide.

They might do a drama after this, they might call some of their agents from among us, take them to a TV studio and after fixing the entire match, do a farce of talks. Now, we want to tell them, that if you want to talk, now you will have to come to us — to Shaheen Bagh, Sabzibagh, Bilalbagh, Motibagh, the Shaheen Baghs of Kerala, the over 20 Shaheen Baghs of Maharasthra. Now, we want to tell the Home Minister, Aao Kabhi Haveli Pe, Aao Hamari Haveli Pe!

IPS Abdur Rehman Sahab told us that civil disobedience was taught to us by Gandhi. The first time, Gandhi did Non-Cooperation against the British, one institute, one university, that came out of that was Jamia Millia Islamia. At that time, Gandhiji had given a call to boycott schools and colleges run by the British, and to Indians to establish their own schools and colleges. The first university to come up to fight for India’s independence was Jamia Millia Islamia.

(Above: Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi)

Today, the university is being lathi-charged upon, fired bullets upon, being defamed and being called a den of anti-nationals. We want to tell them, that when your ancestors were acting as agents of the British, the students, teachers and even the VCs were fighting against the British government. They were being imprisoned, and unlike your ancestors, they never apologised to the British to be released from jail. Instead, they fought till their end against the British government.

The history of Jamia Millia Islamia, our history, is a history of sacrifices for the country. If there is any threat to the freedom of our country — that Jamia Millia Islamia and several freedom fighters fought for — or, to the values of our country laid by its founding figures and those who drafted its Constitution…if there is any threat to our country, then, like our freedom fighters, we would stand up to save our freedom, our democracy and our Constitution.

If you want to rain us with lathis or bullets, you can go ahead. If you want to jail us, you can go ahead. We are ready for sacrifices.

We will not respond to violence with violence.

We will not respond to hate with hate. If they spread hate, we will respond to it by spreading love.

If they beat us with lathis, we will hold aloft the tri-color.

If they fire bullets, then we will hold the Constitution and raise our hands. If they jail us, we will go to jail happily singing, ‘Saarey Jahaan Se Acha Hindustan Hamara’. But we will not let you destroy our country.

We are talking about Mahatma Gandhi. The year — 2019 — when this CAA was passed, was also the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. And, in this year, we became a country which sent a person to the Parliament who openly called the killer of our Father of the Nation as a patriot. We sent such people to the Parliament, and they used the floor of the Parliament to destroy the vision and idea of India envisioned by Gandhi.

We swear by Mahatma Gandhi, that it is our responsibility to now defeat you. You might have brought CAA in 2019, but we will fight to end CAA in 2020. We will not let this country be divided, irrespective of how hard you try to divide it.

A lot of other things happened in the last two months. On the one hand, they were dividing the country, and we were busy in how to save it, but in the meantime, they were also selling away the country. An entire budget was passed in the meantime, but we barely discussed it. LIC was privatised, but it was not discussed. They are trying to sell off the railways, but who is discussing it?

They made cuts in education and health, but we could hardly discuss it. The budget for food security was cut down upon. Once again, we barely discussed it.

The people of this country are hungry. If there is a country which accounts for the highest number of deaths of children due to malnutrition, it is unfortunately our country. There are so many people who go to bed hungry in this country. In the global Hunger Index, we rank at 102 out of 119 countries.

We needed to fight against hunger, we needed to fight against unemployment, against price rise, but they are instead trying to divide the country. They had promised us ache din (good times). Today, looking around, I am reminded of a song by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for those who might have believed in those slogans:

Sochta Hoon Ki Woh Kitne Nadaan Thei,

Kya Se Kya Ho Gaya Dekhte Dekhte!

The biggest joker of the world, Donald Trump, is coming to Gujarat. The president of the US and our prime minister claim to be great friends. A few months ago, our PM had gone to the US. Donald Trump saw it as a nice opportunity, considering US is going to have elections next year, to use PM Modi for election campaign among the Indians who live in the US. They were called to the stadium, and Narendra Modi campaigned for Trump there.

Anyway, all that our prime minister does is election campaigns — from one election to the other. But it happened for the first time in the history of our republic — as Narendra Modi keeps saying he has done things which never happened in the past 70 years — that our prime minister campaigned in another country for a president of that country. And while campaigning for Donald Trump, he said that people should’nt worry about India as everything is fine in India. Bharat Main Sab Changa Si!

Now his friend is coming to India, and on 24th of February he will go to Ahmedabad. For his visit, they are covering and hiding the slums of Ahmedabad — crores are being spent to hide the slums of Ahmedabad. A lot has been said about the development in Gujarat, how it ranks right up there with the cities of Japan and China. Today, this is the truth of Gujarat that the PM is ashamed of it and its development, that he has to hide its slums. Lest Donald Trump gets to know that Bharat Main Sab Changa Si Nahi Hai, Modi Nanga Si Hai.

We promise when Donald Trump comes to India on 24th, then we will tell that the PM of India and the Government of India is trying to divide the country, destroying the values of Mahatma Gandhi and that the people of India are fighting against the Government of India. If the rulers want to divide India, the people of India are ready to unite the country. We will come out on the streets. Will you?

A lot of thanks to you. While concluding all I would want to say that this is a long fight, we have been fighting for the last 50 days, but don’t ever be hopeless. Don’t ever think that we have not achieved anything in the last 50 days. Don’t be hopeless that the Government has not, yet, withdrawn CAA/NRC/NPR.

The greatest thing we have achieved in the last 50 days is courage. Over the last five-and-a-half years, there were many kinds of oppression on the people of India, its minorities, and specifically Muslims. Mob-lynching became so common that even those who don’t know English language now know the meaning of the word ‘lynching’. Akhlaq, Pehlu Khan, Tabrez Ansari…the list is long.

When lynchings happened, the ministers of the government garlanded those who carried out such acts. No one went to the houses of those lynched. Even we didn’t raise our voices or come out on the streets. Because we were fearful that what happened with Akhlaq might happen with us.

When Article 370 was revoked in Kashmir, no one protested. When the Ayodhya judgement came, no one opposed that judgement. They (the government) had become so drunk on arrogance and power, that they started thinking that the people of India are so afraid that they will never oppose them.

Today, we told them that by oppressing us so much, by trying to scare us again and again, today, you have removed fear from our hearts. And if the people cease to remain afraid anymore, the government should be really afraid.

Because people shouldn’t be afraid of their government, the government should be afraid of its people. It is because of our votes that governments are formed. If they are there because of us, we can also remove them from power. Look at their audacity — they came to power through the votes of the people, and now they are asking us to prove our citizenship. Who are you?

Because of our votes, you are sitting in power. You are there because of us, we are not here because of you. You cant raise questions on our citizenship. If you raise questions on our citizenship, if you cross the line of the Constitution, if you cross the line, then, just like the dadis of Shaheen Bagh, we promise that we will bring you in line.

Amit Shah keeps talking about a chronology, so I will also end with a chronology for him: First CAA will go, then NPR will go, then NRC will go, and then this government will go.

All of you present here, a big thank you to all of you. Keep fighting. Keep up the courage. We will win.

Victory will be that of Mahatma Gandhi. Godse-wadis lost earlier as well, they will lose again. Inquilab Zindabad!”