Lawyers, students take up 'release political prisoners' cause

Ahna Prakash | NT

Bengaluru: All India Lawyers Association for Justice (AILAJ) and All Indian Student Association (AISA) organised a protest at Freedom Park on National Protest day on September 28, the birth anniversary of Bhagat Singh.

The protestors demanded the release of all political prisoners, scrapping of the UAPA, and NSA and providing immediate top-quality medical care to all political prisoners.

Maitreyi Krishnan, senior advocate and activist, said, “This is just unconstitutional that when you raise your voice against something, you're taken into custody. The government is misusing the law where people don't have the space to express their dissent. ”

She also added how the protests could only be held in Freedom Park and nowhere else in the city and stated that this curtails an individual’s right to freedom of speech and expression.

Avani from AILAJ said that laws like UAPA existing are bad in themselves and considering how discriminatory these laws are, it might just not be about that. “There is a problem in the law itself and how people are just taken into custody and no medical care is provided to these prisoners. There are many people who die in the prison due to deteriorating health conditions as they don’t receive proper medical services," she said.

She also added that the state should provide immediate and quality medical care to all political prisoners including Vernon Gonsalves, GN Saibaba and Gautam Navlakha.

The activists also condemned the action taken by the government to ban PFI and they said how this is unconstitutional and the government is curtailing the right to express.

Arindam, a member of All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) says, "Today it's somebody else, tomorrow it will be us. We should speak up before it’s too late. The government is locking up people behind bars who dare to speak."