G.N. Saibaba’s health continues to deteriorate in prison. He has been repeatedly denied adequate medical care by the authorities for the many conditions that he faces, from a heart condition, acute pancreatitis, and complications related to polio to constant pain in his left hand. All in all he is suffering from 19 medical conditions, all of which have been aggravated or brought on by the rough conditions and negligence he has experienced in prison.
In a recent letter to his wife, Vasantha, he said that “Inside the cell I cannot approach the toilet in my wheelchair. Two persons have to take me or hold me in my wheelchair to go for urine or defecation or for taking a bath. I have been reduced to ‘a cot ridden old man’. The conditions of incarceration have reduced me to dump of shrunken flesh and dried bones.”
This, in a country which has a constitution and claims to uphold both the rule of law and basic democratic rights for all citizens. The medical neglect that G.N. Saibaba has experienced in prison is unconscionable and is clearly a direct attack on his person by the Government of India and the Government of the State of Maharashtra. His case has drawn the attention of the U.N., with several U.N. officials calling for the Indian Government to “to release human rights defender Dr. G.N. Saibaba, a wheelchair user with severe disabilities whose health is deteriorating and who is reportedly being held in solitary confinement.”
The way that the Indian Government treats those who speak out on behalf of the poorest and most marginalized people is despicable and shows that the Government’s claims to uphold democratic rights, rule of law, and the rights of disabled people are nothing but shabby lies. These rights exist in the abstract, but they are effectively suspended for those who speak out on behalf of the people and in opposition to “development” which enslaves and destroys the people.
These democratic rights, by contrast, are protected and enshrined for those who spread Hindutva ideology and whip the masses up into anti-Muslim and anti-Dalit frenzies. The Hindutva leaders who organized the attack on the Dalit march at Bhima Koraegon last December were let free and have not been charged with any crimes, while many democratic activists, including G.N. Saibaba’s lawyer Surendra Gadling and the poet Varavara Rao, have been charged with an absurd conspiracy to assassinate Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Clearly for the Indian government the democratic rights of those who criticize them are not important, and they would sooner kill or jail their critics than allow them to exercise the rights guaranteed to them by the Indian constitution.
The Central government and the government of Maharashtra are working in tandem to assassinate G.N. Saibaba through medical neglect. This is an attack not just on Saibaba himself but on the broader right to dissent and free speech in India. It is an attack on all democratic activists, not just those who hold particular ideologies. If Saibaba’s release is not secured soon he will surely die from the many medical conditions he suffers from, and the Indian state will have his blood on their hands.
Free Saibaba now!
Release all democratic activists and political prisoners!
Stop the attacks on democratic rights and People’s movements!