Free Sharjeel Imam

It has been 14 days, since Sharjeel Imam surrendered to the Delhi Police, under charges of Sedition and UAPA slapped against him by 5 state governments and one union territory slapped against him in an attempt to muzzle the voices of dissent coming from the otherised Muslim minority, and to deligitimise the popular protests against the fascist CAA, which further intensifies the corporate communal onslaught on the struggling poor massess and minorities of the country.

Sharjeel’s judicial custody was extended for another 6 days, almost a week after he had surrendered for delivering a speech at AMU where he calls for staging a chakka jam, in order to protest the brutal killings of people protesting against CAA and NRC in Assam, by the Assam Police. A part of the video of this speech was then manipulated and projected as if Sharjeel was giving a call for the secession of the North East from India, which was then sensationalised by the enablers and stooges of the fascists on national mass media. A hateful campaign has been unleashed against Sharjeel Imam, who has been portrayed as a seditious mastermind of the ‘terror camp’ operating as Shaheenbagh by BJP leaders. BJP leaders have on record raised slogans inciting violence against the protestors, and their hateful ideology has so strongly struck the youth of the country, that we’ve witnessed them open fire at several protest venues with total impunity from the law. While the youth struggles to find education and employment in the country, BJP leaders have brainwashed them to believe their hateful propaganda to keep them distracted from the crisis that the ruling establishment has unleashed on the country. Throughout all of this, many left-liberal-popgressive voices on campus including several students’ organisations as well as the Students’ Union, have either taken dubious stances on Sharjeel, or their solidarity has merely been a delivery of lip-service to the struggles of students coming from minorities and marginalised backgrounds and identities, as a deafening silence is being observed, in the lack of a sustained and dedicated campaign in support of a fellow student, who has now been in custody for nearly two weeks.

We have all seen how the government has abused the law to persecute any and all forms of dissent. Sharjeel Imam represents a voice of dissent coming from a minority community that has been historically persecuted and excluded from the ‘secular fabric of the country’, which has proved to be nothing more than a manifestation of majoritarian hindutva politics of the RSS-BJP, along with many other critical voices such as those of Dr. Kafeel Khan, Akhil Gogoi, and many other activists voicing the injustices faced by the people in the majoritarian Hindu Rashtra along with alternative imaginations to a more inclusive, more egalitarian country. There’s nothing violent, communal, or seditious in what Sharjeel Imam is saying, if we move beyond the manipulated clipping of Sharjeel’s speech, and watch it entirely, as he’s repeatedly found emphasising the need and expectation for larger solidarities from other communities, and extends them the call to join the protests, along with stressing on non-violence as the conductive strategy for the protests.

At a time when the state authorities have intensified the onslaught against dissenters and minorities to such an extent that even school children are being charged with sedition for staging a play critical of the government’s policies, and having a telephonic conversation in a cab can invite a police interrogation, we must understand that our primary opponent is the fascist nexus of the RSS-BJP and the crony corporates of the country, and at a time when Sharjeel is persecuted by this very nexus, we must stand in his support unconditionally. As this unholy nexus plunders the resources of the country to fill up their personal coffers, it deprives the larger population of a dignified existence, and resorts to communal polarisation targetting the minority as the enemy of the people, in order to deploy hatred and violence as smokescreens to deviate attention from the real concerns of the people. It is imperative for us to realise, that as this unholy alliance propels further, it will only intensify the exploitation and violence against the poor struggling masses as well as the minorities of this country, and will thus keep looking for new communities to portray as the enemy of the people, as it deepens the crisis amongst the people. At such a time, when each and every criticism of the government by the people is being repressed, and minorities are being persecuted for asserting their identity and being forced to give up on their culture, our disagreements with the nuances of Sharjeel’s politics can wait. With new assualts being launched on the people of the country, either by mobs on the streets, or by the leaders backing them, who enjoy a thumping majority in the parliament. We witnessed a Hindu mob enter the premises a women’s college in one of the safest geographical location in the entire country, and molest and harrass women students merely one day before the day of polling in the capital city, a time when security deployment is significantly heightened. Yesterday itself, on the eve of the declaration of poll results, students from Jamia Milia Islamia University were brutalised by the Delhi police, for carrying forward their struggle against the CAA. The moment demands that we must rise in rage against the witch hunting of our fellow research scholar Sharjeel Imam, because to defend him, is to defend an academic’s right to critique mercilessly. To defend him, is to defend the culture of debate and dissent, which fosters critical ideas, and provides us with alternative imaginations of a better world to live in. To defend him, is to defend the right of an individual to freedom of expression, and that must be done absolutely. We must rise in not just unconditional solidarity for Sharjeel Imam, but rather take to the streets to protest unconditionally his persecution and assert that we won’t be silenced by this intimidation, and fight every injustice that we witness around ourselves, with the undying spirit of our collective struggles and aspirations.