ARTICLES

Article 01
Article 02
Article 03
Article 04
Article 05
Article 06
Article 07
Article 08
Article 09
Article10
Article 11
Article 12
Article 13

-Vijayan MJ

Is there any relation between Sir Colin Powell and Syed Abdul Rehman Geelani, other than the fact that they are both ‘citizens of the same planet’? Yes, there seems to be one, and that is the fact that they are at two ends of ‘infinite justice’. While Sir Powell epitomises the aggressive, all encompassing foreign secretary of the one and only United States of America, which is at the giving end of the war against terrorism, Geelani is one of those at the receiving end by being made the ‘victim’ of POTO and whose future seems sealed for good.

Indian subcontinent seem all prepared for an intervention on the eve of Sir Colin Powell’s visit, though our political leaders might differ with it. General Musharaf has convincingly emerged as the ‘reverse swing’ expert Pakistan has ever seen and thus has portrayed himself, the soft nut. On the other hand, India, which is already in the good books due to the never-ending number of envoys to Washington, is busy preparing a new list of crimes against ‘Pakistani terror’. Now the question is “why is Powell coming?” To monitor Indo-Pak relationship (to be read as tension!) and to vouch for the loyalty of both would be the answer.

America was one of the first to realise the ‘potential’, terrorism has in this part of the universe. (If Mullah Omar or Osama Bin Laden had the option of going public without getting killed, they would have vouched for this) They aided the militants when it suited them -when the war was against communism- and now when the same terror bit them back, has become the patron in finishing it off. Thus America’s interest in the subcontinent can be summarised into one word, power, and that too, all aspects of it including commercial, military, economic and political power. Experts on foreign policies can tell us America’s achievement in the recent war against terrorism in simple economic terms. Otherwise a top-shot of ‘UNOCAL’ (a known American Oil Company) would have never become the special envoy to Afghanistan.

So as to keep up the jingoist spirit in India, it is essential for the Indian ruling class to portray that America is totally in support of the anti-terrorism moves India have adopted. Simultaneously, it is vital for America to express its support to the Indian ruling coalition and the measures taken by this group in the name of fighting terrorism, including the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO). Here again, nothing but the greed for economic, political and military power in South Asia is the inspiring factor for the US. Colin Powell through his mission will be proving this.

TOP

Now let us come to Syed Abdul Rehman Geelani in Tihar jail. The police arrested him after the December 13 attack on Indian Parliament, allegedly in relation to the ‘terrorists’ involved in the attack. He was at the time a reader in Delhi University for Arabic. According to him, he was picked up on the day of the incident from outside Khalsa college (DU) and taken to some farm house, where he was stripped and hung upside down, then beaten and filthiest communal abuse was hurled at him. During the third degree that he was subjected to, he was made to sign on blank papers as well as a statement that he was not tortured. When he was presented before the magistrate in his chamber, several high ranking officers were present. He chose to keep quite when asked whether he was maltreated, fearing further physical abuse. Geelani told a team of fellow teachers and civil liberties activists, who were visiting him, that when he asked one of the officers who was interrogating him what was his crime, he was told “you are educated”. The paranoia exhibited by the authorities was such that Geelani’s wife and two children, both minors, were kept in police station for three days and their whereabouts were hidden from their family and friends.*

Geelani has been booked under POTO, which according to govt sources is a byproduct of September 11th. Once under POTO, an innocent person has very little chance of escaping destruction of his/her life and liberty, as has been proved by its predecessors like TADA. No court has established that he is guilty of the charges made against him by the investigating agency. The rule of law in a democracy demands presumption of innocence, that a person is innocent till proved guilty, and not viceversa.

[My writing this is neither to argue that Powell is the worst human being on earth and that Geelani is absolutely innocent of the charges made against him, nor to intervene in the course of the investigation or judicial process, which the latter might be subjected to sometime in the not so recent future. This is only to point at the dangerous trends that have seeped into our thought process and thus into our political atmosphere, after September 11th, October 1st and December 13th.]

*With inputs from a statement issued by prominent human rights/civil liberties activists to protest the persecution of Geelani.

(The author heads the Civil Society Initiatives for Peace desk of ‘The Other Media’, a Delhi based Human Rights organisation and also the member of Coalition of Civil Liberties and Democratic Rights Organisations)