Covid-19: A chance for Modi govt to show its humane side to Kashmiris

The Modi govt should release all political detainees as a pandemic threatens the state and country

Viruses, including coronavirus, spread quickest in closed environments. Prisons and army camps are powder kegs ready to blow up. The initial outbreak of the Spanish flu spread through outbreaks in army camps and prisons in the US. The disease travelled to Europe with US soldiers joining the Allies on the battlefields of France.

While no case of Covid-19 positive prisoners in army camps have come to light as yet, in Jammu and Kashmir about 200 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in Kashmir Valley have reportedly been quarantined in their respective units. In Srinagar alone, 27 CRPF men have been quarantined. Thankfully, none of them has tested positive as yet.

The dimension of the problem in prisons, however, can be on a different scale. Their populations are uniquely at risk from such pandemics. In prisons the affected inmates cannot self-isolate because of the common spaces they share. Indian prisons are overcrowded, unhygienic and lack emergency medical facilities.

In the wake of Covid-19 spread, several countries have already released ‘low risk’ prisoners. Afghanistan has released 10,000 prisoners – critically ill inmates over 55-years-old as well as women and youth.  Iran has temporarily released 54,000 prisoners. Spain has also released certain categories of prisoners. In the US, judges have ordered the release of thousands of inmates, especially those medically vulnerable. There have been prison breaks in Italy, prison riots in Colombia and several countries have restricted family prison visits. Bangladesh has conditionally released two time former prime ministers and chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, 74-year-old Begum Khalida Zia for six months on ‘humanitarian grounds’.

In India, on March 24, the Supreme Court ordered all states and Union Territories to set up review panels to consider releasing on bail convicts sentenced up to seven years. Those awaiting trial for offences with maximum sentence of up to seven years will be extended the same benefit. Family visits are either to be barred or limited.

The court, however, has not addressed the plight of elderly inmates with existing health problems. Nor has it addressed the issue of those who are under preventive detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA) in J&K, which allows individuals to be detained without being produced before a magistrate for up to two years.

Two high profile prisoner releases in J&K, however, took place before the apex court order. Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah was released from detention on March 13 when coronavirus cases in India had already climbed to 83 and the first positive case confirmed in J&K on March 9. Farooq Abdullah lives on a donated kidney and at 82 years he could be particularly vulnerable to a virus infection. His son and former Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, was released on March 24 when the positive cases in India had reached 536 and a “super spreader”, a Kashmiri preacher who had after attending a Tablighi Jamaat convention in Delhi probably triggered community transmission in Srinagar.

There is speculation that the Abdullah duo were released under US pressure. But if Washington pulled this off as quid pro quo for Islamabad’s help in the US pull-out from Afghanistan, Pakistan is hardly likely to have chosen the staunchly pro-India Abdullahs. It is far more likely that Delhi does not want to take the blame if they were to contract the virus in detention.

One wonders why other Kashmiri leaders, especially former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, some of her former cabinet colleagues and other prominent leaders have not yet been freed. Perhaps the Union government is wary that a critical mass of Kashmiri leadership will be created if they are all released. They had come together despite their differences on the eve of dismantling of their state in August last year and may do so again. Delhi and its mendacious mandarins have tried to create an alternative leadership by forming a King’s Party. However, the spread of Covid-19 may yet put paid to their plans for J&K. Ultimately, Delhi will have to overcome its fear and do the right thing by releasing Mehbooba Mufti and others as well.

The Modi regime would also have to decide urgently what it is going to do with ordinary Kashmiris who are in preventive detention under the PSA. Union Home Ministry data shows that a total of 7,357 individuals were arrested from Kashmir following the revocation of the provisions of Article 370. Of these, 451 remain in custody -- with 396 held under the PSA and the rest under Section 107 of Criminal Procedure Code (“likely to commit a breach of the peace or disturb the public tranquillity”).

A majority of these prisoners are kept in Central Jail Srinagar, Kot Balwal and Kathua Jails in Jammu. However, 261 Kashmiri detainees are lodged in Tihar jail in Delhi, Agra, Meerut and Naini jails in Uttar Pradesh, and in Haryana. Whereas it was difficult even earlier for family members to travel to these far off jails to visit their kin, now it is impossible. The PSA is not a punitive law. In the spirit of the Supreme Court’s order for convicts and under-trials, these political detainees should be released forthwith and reunited with their families before the virus hits prison populations.

Kashmiri prisoners in Jammu’s Kot Balwal Jail have already written to the Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court for ‘conditional release’ citing the unhygienic living conditions in the jail. Several Kashmiri civil society activists and political leaders, including former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, have appealed to the government to release those under the notorious Public Safety Act, and bring back those in jails outside the state.

The coronavirus spread offers an opportunity to the Modi regime to show its human face to the Kashmiris at this time of crisis.  It must show 'karuna' (compassion) which the prime minister advised his constituents of Varanasi, is a primary quality needed to deal with the present pandemic. It would also be a pragmatic thing to do.

Twitter: @Bharatitis