Syed Khalique Ahmed | India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 26—The 68-year-old journalist-activist Nachiketa Desai was not allowed to sit on fast in Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati Ashram against the new citizenship law and police action against the anti-CAA protesters in different parts of the country.
On Wednesday, when he began his 12-hour fast from under the statue of Mahatma Gandhi inside the Ashram, he was removed by the Ashram trustees. The Ashram authorities had also not allowed the victims of 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat to take shelter inside the Ashram.
Nachiketa is the grandson of late Mahadev Desai, who was private secretary of Mahatma Gandhi. Nachiketa’s father, Narayan Desai, was a well-known Gandhian and a human rights activist.
Speaking to India Tomorrow over phone from outside the Gandhi Ashram on Thursday, Nachiketa said that he went to the Ashram at 8 am on Wednesday and began his 12-hour fast under the statue of Mahatma Gandhi. “I had planned to sit on fast for 12 hours every day till December 31 against police brutalities on protesters against new citizenship law all over the country and particularly, to demand immediate release of Sadaf Jafar of Lucknow who is just like my daughter”. According to Nachiketa, Sadaf was not only arrested but badly tortured by male policemen in custody.
Nachiketa said that he had informed the Ashram authorities a day in advance about his plans to go on dharna inside the Ashram. “As soon as I sat on fast, trustees of the Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust (SAPMT), including Amrutbhai Modi and Kartikeya Desai rushed and told me that such activities are not allowed inside the Ashram. They forcibly removed me and made arrangements for me to sit on the footpath outside the Ashram”, said Nachiketa.
Nachiketa, who has worked in about a dozen newspapers in his long journalistic career like The Indian Express, The Telegraph, Indian Post, Newstime and Dainik Bhaskar, said that the police outside the Ashram did not allow him to protest on the pavement. “The police waiting there detained me for over three hours”, he said.
“Police asked me to give an undertaking in writing that I will not sit on fast at a public place without permission. They threatened to arrest me in case I refused to give an undertaking”, journalist-activist said.
However, Nachiketa refused to give such an undertaking telling the police that it was his constitutional right to register a peaceful protest against any law or any action of the government which was unconstitutional. With half a dozen persons, he again went to the Ashram on Thursday morning to sit on fast. Till the writing of this news, Nachiketa was not arrested. “I feel the police will arrest me”, Nachiketa told India Tomorrow.
Nachiketa is a diabetic. He had to be given lemon juice with sugar mixed in it on Wednesday when his sugar level fell.
According to Nachiketa, Sadaf has suffered internal injuries in her abdomen due to police beating. He said she was beaten by the butt of the police gun. Nachiekta said that Sadaf’s advocates filed a plea in the court seeking her release but the vacation judge refused to grant her bail. The winter vacation of the court will be over on January 2 and Sadaf can get legal relief after January 2, 2020 only.
According to media reports, Sadaf was standing near the protest venue in Lucknow on December 19 and asked policemen to take action against some unknown persons who had sneaked into the protesting crowd and were pelting stones. Before being arrested, she had posted some videos, accusing the police of not taking action against the stone-pelters.
When police swung into action, they arrested Sadaf as well. She is single parent of two children. In her videos, she said the stone-pelting was staged as has been alleged by people at other places in UP where anti-CAA protests turned violent. She also accused the police of not taking action against unruly protesters.
When Sadaf was being arrested, she asked the police why they were arresting her and not the stone-pelters.
Her sister Naheed Verma told media that Sadaf was unarmed and was not raising any slogan against the government. She was staging protest against anti-CAA which she considered anti-Constitutional.
Naheed said that police have slapped sabotage and attempt to murder charges against her sister while she was simply reporting live on how police were complicit in sabotage at the protest site-Parivartan Chowk in Lucknow.
She said that none of the family members had been allowed to talk to her. Everyone, including children, are in panic.
Naheed alleged that Sadaf was beaten with a baton on her legs and hands. She also accused the police of kicking her in the belly due to which she was having internal bleeding.
