An extraordinary appeal to the Chief Justice of India from an ordinary Citizen
Considering the grave danger there is to our democracy, the latest indicator of which is the brazen, brutal and cowardly attacks on Faculty & Students of India's premier academic institution - Jawaharlal Nehru University, I have written this Open Letter to the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India.
In this letter I have urged him to take up Suo Moto, today, Monday, 6th of January 2020, this grave attack on the Freedom of Expression of JNU community. I have also urged him to summon the Delhi Police Commissioner to Court to explain how there was such colossal intelligence failure, first, given how lethally armed the goons were, and how the police and security personnel of JNU allowed them to walk into campus in broad daylight, and in the hundreds.
It is well documented that the goons were then allowed to leave the campus, after several hours in fact, and without any arrest. Lights were turned off around JNU to offer them the cover of darkness! Even as they left, these goons heckled several senior political leaders, faculty, students and also journalists, brazenly, while shouting slogans such as 'goli maro sa____ ko' (shoot dead - and then expletive). All of this is on record and has been widely telecast. The police did nothing at all to these goons.
This grave situation is normally to be brought to the attention of the Union Home Minister, demanding he intervene and stop the mayhem. However, Mr. Amit Shah has systemically been encouraging such violence, both in his speeches and also by his lack of action, as is evident in how he has allowed violence to escalate in Jamia Millia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University, and across swathes of Uttar Pradesh and in other parts of the country.
In this situation, as an ordinary citizen deeply troubled by the state of affairs, I have no recourse but to address this letter to the Chief Justice of India. I sincerely hope Justice Mr. Bobde will be as troubled as I am by this horrendous state of affairs, and will employ the enormous power vested in him to ensure there is some semblance of Rule of Law in the Capital of India.
Hon'ble Mr. Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde
Chief Justice of India
5th January 2020
Your Honour,
I write to you with trepidation, very deeply disturbed, over violent attacks that have taken place (and probably still are taking place, as I write this appeal) against Students and Faculty of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) from the evening of Sunday, 5th January 2020. These attacks reportedly have been caused by armed lumpen goons who entered the campus in large numbers, without being stopped by police and security personnel, and when faculty and students were taking out a peace march.
In my most humble opinion, the attack on JNU was impending ever since you chose to say to students of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMU) who came running to you for protection following brazen attacks on them by Delhi Police for protesting the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA), that: “First, we want to be assured that there would be peace, and if you want to take to street, then in that scenario, do not come to us”.[1]
As has been argued in their Open Letter to you by three students of Gujarat National Law University[2], this statement by you in open court amounted to making justice ‘conditional’. Besides, it imposed on the wider public deterministic behavioural constraints, inimical to the Right of Expression. It further implied that students were violent, when, as has been proven by multiple reports from across India, the contrary has been the case.
In any case, that statement by you tore to bits the faith we need to have in the Supreme Court: that we can fearlessly and without hesitation approach you when our Fundamental Rights are trampled upon, and that without being required to suppress any of our Rights. You will agree, your Honour, that to peacefully protest is an intrinsic part of our Fundamental Right of Expression. Else, our very Right to Life is as good as dead.
As events that have unfolded subsequently reveal, the JMU students who were lending their voice to fears of millions across India, and with clear, cogent and categorical reasoning, were made victim of brutal attacks by Delhi Police, directly under the control of the Union Home Minister, quite possibly to send a message to all the rest of us all over the country to behave in a particular way, a way that is suitable to the dispensation in power. Failing which we would face the consequences suffered by JMU students. The people of India, instead, have stepped out in unprecedentedly large numbers to exercise their democratic rights to express, pariticulaly against the CAA, and also condemning police brutalities. Each of us who dissent, every one of us who shout slogans of freedom and justice, are taking important steps to protect the liberal democracy of India.
At this time it would most certainly help if you would assist the people of India to exercise their Fundamental Rights without fear or favour. The Judiciary’s words have serious bearing on our Fundamental Rights. The Constitutional responsibility of the Judiciary to uphold Constitutional values, to set right any errors that it may have been party to, and with due dispatch, is extremely necessary now, as it will help restore much needed public trust in this institution critical to our democracy.
I write candidly and openly about these developments because we all have been witness to the most brutal abuse of police power unleashed on peaceful dissenters and protestors. There has been organised and target intimidation and violence against particular communities, especially Muslims, including by going into their homes causing unspeakable horrors to women and children, to wreck their property, and to spread fear amongst them.
A Chief Minister, several Indian Police Service officers, and even the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister, are on record endorsing such violence with their silences; sometimes they actively encouraged it through specific and public messages, all of which are widely and well documented. The Prime Minister has actively aided the climate of fear that has been unleashed when he said they can be “identified by their clothes”.
While certain sections of the media have systematically reported this violence, those sections which have been supportive of the ruling dispensation who initially chose not to report, have now been reporting this violence, as it has become impossible for them to ignore it any more. So egregious has been the violence unleashed, which as has been widely reported, has been organised with the police causing mayhem, and collaborating with lumpen elements, all with the intent of clamping down on dissent.
The Supreme Court of India has stepped up to defend the Fundamental Rights of the Peoples of India multiple times over the decades. But it has chosen to be silent over the current violent attacks, which are unprecedented. It frightens us that the Supreme Court which has not hesitated to address suo moto multiple public causes, including more recently issues relating to Delhi’s terribly bad air, has now decidedly not spared time to attend to this extensive and terrifying abuse of police power and violence. I believe lumpen elements wreaking havoc on faculty and students of JNU, are empowered by your silences. I seek your pardon in advance for sharing this deep fear, as I believe the evidence we now have before us is indicative of the impunity with which rogues and goons are destroying our sacred and secular spaces of learning. I share with you below links to videos tweeted by terrified students from JNU, and from some journalists who were present at the campus.
We implicitly rely on you to safeguard our Constitutionally mandated Fundamental Rights. We believe it is a core demand of the basic structure of the Constitution that our voices, howsoever displeasing it may sound to those in power, will not be suppressed by the Executive, and if resorted to, Judiciary will be there to restore balance necessary. That is the quality of democracy Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. B R Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Dr. S. Radhakrishna, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, Sarojini Naidu, and just about every great leader who secured us our Freedoms, intended should be the praxis of governance in this great land.
Considering this grave situation in JNU, I urge you and pray to you to take up Suo Moto on Monday, 6th January 2020, the matter of violent attacks on JNU students,.
I urge you and pray to you to summon the Delhi Police Commissioner to explain how there was such colossal intelligence failure about the premeditated violence, and how the force allowed lumpen elements, equipped with deadly weapons, to enter JNU and attack faculty and students.
I urge you and pray to you to summon the Vice Chancellor of JNU to explain how he allowed this situation to prevail at all, and why neither he nor the Registrar did anything within their vast powers to stop the mayhem.
I urge you and pray to you to demand an explanation from the Delhi Police why they chose not to enter JNU to protect faculty and students from the dangerously armed goons.
I urge you and pray to you to set up a Commission of Enquiry to deliver a report with due dispatch, so those guilty are punished.
These are extremely difficult times for us ordinary citizens who have no special protections except to rely on your benevolence and your appropriate action.
Thus this letter petition.
Yours respectfully,
Leo F. Saldanha
Links to videos of attacks on JNU:
[1] “If you want to take to streets, then don't come to us: CJI Bobde to students”, The New Indian Express, 16th December 2019, accessible at: https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2019/dec/16/if-you-want-to-take-to-streets-then-dont-come-to-us-cji-bobde-to-students-2076926.html
[2] An Open Letter to the Chief Justice of India, The Leaflet, 2nd January 2020, accessible at: https://theleaflet.in/an-open-letter-to-the-chief-justice-of-india/