The legitimacy of constitutional courts is imperilled by their tacit deference to indefensible state action.
The incarceration of student activist Safoora Zargar and the obduracy of courts in refusing her bail raises some fundamental questions on which the very survival of the Constitution depends. This is about Zargar first, but as she must, she leads us into the deeper, more searching quest for India’s soul.
Zargar, a 27-year-old research scholar in sociology at Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, was arrested almost exactly two months ago, on April 10, on charges of blocking a road and obstructing traffic. After securing bail in that case, she was re-arrested on April 13 under the draconian provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. She was implicated in a conspiracy that allegedly sparked the violence that engulfed Delhi at the end of February and placed in judicial custody.
In reality, Zargar was part of the peaceful resistance against the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act – a resistance led by women and students, notably the women of Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh neighbourhood. At the time of her arrest, Safoor Zargar was pregnant.
What does the brutality of the state towards a pregnant Muslim peaceful resister during a pandemic lockdown tell us about the deep perils in which our Constitution is mired at this moment? We have reached a nadir. The use of imprisonment and carcerality under conditions of pandemic vulnerabilities to willfully deny Zargar her right to personal liberty is one part of an exercise of state repression.
Added to this is the move by the state to target her in such a manner as to impose disproportionate punishment that includes imposing the risk of prenatal harms and inflicting injuries that may intergenerationally maim a pregnant resister.
Indefensible state action
It is far more grave than a violation of Article 21, which protects life and liberty. What does it tell us about the technologies of rule of this state, which presses its armed Hindutva civilian foot-soldiers, its supporters in the media, its armed police, and its collusive criminal justice system into service to hold Zargar in custody in the knowledge that she is pregnant, although the case against her is clearly one that is targeted and a display of executive vindictiveness?
Eduindex News 