JAILED rights activist Umar Khalid withdrew his bail application from the Indian supreme court last week, preferring instead to try his fortunes at the lower courts. Implicit in the move was a wry statement. Seeking justice in India could be like joining the end of another long queue for a routine government service after waiting in vain for the first queue to move. Umar’s activist father said the lawyers believed there was a better chance of getting a hearing from the lower courts, where they feel the atmosphere has ‘improved’ in recent days.

The decision to give up on the supreme court was prompted by countless adjournments before its judges, right from Umar’s arrest in September 2020 on unproven terror charges that are widely acknowledged to be flimsy and only a ruse to keep him in jail. The prosecution hasn’t produced a shred of evidence to suggest Umar exhorted anyone to street violence during president Donald Trump’s visit to India.

The pro-government TV channels, always ready to connive with the state, went so far as to accuse Umar Khalid of visiting Pakistan several times given his critique of India’s Kashmir policy. The anchors shut up when informed that Umar didn’t have a passport and didn’t plan to apply for one when he is set free. A bevy of intellectuals, academics, and activists at home and abroad, led by the venerable Noam Chomsky, have petitioned the Modi government, in vain obviously, to free the much-admired student activist who earned his PhD at JNU studying India’s tribal societies, and who has campaigned to defend........

© Dawn