‘Prisoner No. 626710 is present’ – the curious case of Umar Khalid | Sagari Chhabra

Some years ago, I was early for a meeting at Constitution Club and seated with my notebook, pen in hand. Just then, a young man walked in with a flustered expression on his face. He sat a few rows behind me and muttered, ‘mujh pe goli chali hein - a bullet has been shot at me’. I must confess, my first reaction was to ignore the man dismissing it as a hallucination. Then he said, ‘kissi ne mujhe maarne ki cheshta ki hein – someone has tried to kill me.’ At that point someone in the hall went up to him and inquired. Then he shouted out aloud, ‘This is Umar Khalid and someone has tried to kill him!’

Immediately there was a furore and many people encircled Umar Khalid. A guard came and proceeded to lock everyone inside the hall. His argument was that if a bullet had been fired, everyone here was a witness and must not be allowed to leave. It was Professor Apoorvanand with an implacable calm demeanour who explained to the guard that the bullet had been fired outside on the road and that we were certainly not witnesses only trying to find out what had actually happened. The police was called and Umar Khalid marched off to have his statement recorded but I was clearly distressed. I have been at the Constitution Club the site of many fiery and even luminous debates while the road which adjoins the Club is so near the Parliament that this is a high security area; I had never ever heard of such an incident before. This did not augur well for democracy, human rights, law and order and even students’ rights as Umar Khalid was already a well-known student leader doing his Phd at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

What happened much later was that Umar Khalid was arrested under UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) on grounds of sedition and his been behind the bars without trial for over four years!

To arrest a young person and to put him inside a prison without bail or a trial is a travesty of both freedom and justice and all the constitutional values our country embodies, but who is listening?

When I heard that the well-known film director, Lalit Vachani who is known for his earlier documentaries, ‘An Ordinary Election’, ‘The Boy In The Branch’, ‘The Men In The Tree’ and ‘The Play Is On’ was screening his new film, ‘Prisoner No. 626710 is present’, I felt I must go and watch the film.

However, I will comment on the film later. What happened at the screening was that a man seated on the front row was noticed taking pictures of members of the audience. When called out by a woman that he cannot take her picture without her permission, he said, ‘mein sevak hoon aur mujhe bola gaya hein – I am a helper and have been told to do this.’ When asked who told him to do so, he responded that the police had asked him.

Now this seems to be a travesty that India purports to be a democracy from the pulpits and yet a screening of a documentary and members of the audience watching it is being recorded by someone for the police!

The film was a revelation, with speeches of Umar who says, ‘if they give us hate; we will give them love.They will give us stones; we will give them flowers.’ Nowhere did I see hate or ‘sedition’ emanating from the young scholar. Of great value is the account of his friend, Banjyotsna Lahiri who is clearly controlling her emotions and giving an account as it unfolded. She talks about the Shaheen Bagh movement and what was actually spoken by the grandmothers, daughters and young people. It was a people’s movement in the spirit of many movements that had earlier happened across the country, Narmada Bachao Andolan, Right to Information and the Right to Food campaigns; here the people’s voices, feelings and power was being unleashed against the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) that discriminates on the ground of religion.

The documentary film also shows hate speeches by two BJP leaders who are saying, ‘desh ke gadaaro ko, goli maaro saalo ko – the country’s traitors, shoot the …’ and another who says, ‘Jab tak Trump hein yahan hum kuch nahin kahenge. Uske baad agar yeh sarak khaali nahin kee toh hum nahin sunenge – till Trump is here we won’t say anything but after that if these roads are not emptied, we will not listen to anybody.’

Lalit Vachani’s camera is unobtrusive but revelatory. What follows are CCTV footage of the Delhi riots which are very disturbing as crowds enter the minority area. This is juxtaposed with Shudhabrata Sengupta’s narrative who is a friend of Umar Khalid and calls himself a ‘messy elder brother’.

Banjyotsna’s photos of her memorable times with Umar Khalid and her account of their mulaqati – meetings allowed at the jail through a screen and the books Umar chooses to read, the first being ‘Suitable Boy’ by Vikram Seth is both touching and heartrending. We are witnessing something here; a young man being accused of sedition, his friends visiting him in jail and his bail – which is his right – being systematically denied. Four years is a long time to take away anyone’s freedom. The film raises questions: what is seditious about Umar Khalid and why is the state incarcerating a young man without a trial? If this could happen to Umar Khalid, a young man with a Phd and a student leader from JNU with a group of committed friends, it could happen to just anybody.

The idea of the gulag is a chilling one; but if we do not speak up and protest now, just about anyone could be picked up and called an ‘urban Naxal’ - a new addition to the lexicon - or ‘seditious’ and be put away. It took a long time to win our freedom but very little to whittle it away. Even the British Raj did better with sedition.

Call for the release of Umar Khalid now; for tomorrow each of us can be turned into a prisoner number.

(Author: Sagari Chhabra is an award-winning author & film-maker.
She is the director of the Hamaara Itihaas Freedom Archives)