The three blind mice By Jawed Naqvi Monday, 14 Jun, 2010
Source: DAWN
Suicide and torture have a strange nexus. Both are increasingly used as strategies in today’s terror war. There is no dearth of survivors of the most horrendous forms of torture in liberal and democratic India. Not everyone survives the ordeal of course. In the wider world, prisoners including, ironically enough, death-row convicts are said to have hanged themselves to escape the pain inflicted on them. Gory details of Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib are beyond normal human capacity to absorb or accept. But India’s middle classes and its ruling elite made a strong statement to the contrary when they stood by George W. Bush, the overseer of some of the worst forms of torture, after everyone else had deserted him.
There is a widespread belief that Muslim suicide bombers kill themselves for some divine rewards in the afterlife. The theory does not explain, however, why LTTE cadres carried poison vials or the fact that the American crew of the plane, which dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, had to each keep a cyanide capsule handy. It would be what they were required to bite or swallow should the Japanese get to shoot down their plane first.
Studies have shown that suicide is linked to a struggle against occupied land and that torture is very much part of an instrument of occupation. In Kashmir, for example, tens of thousands have been tortured as a matter of routine. This is not to deny that some Muslim militants do fall victim to the promise of a divine tryst also. That thousands of Indian farmers have been killing themselves has little to do with the promise of life hereafter of course. Bobby Sands of IRA and Rachel Corrie of the International Solidarity Movement for Palestine were icons who gave their lives for a cause they steadfastly believed in. Torture and suicide have both played a hand in the grisly battle between terror and retribution.
So it was more than noteworthy that India’s Supreme Court recently forbade the use of narcoanalysis as a tool for criminal investigation. The Indian government moved a bill during the parliament’s budget session last month to prohibit several forms of torture. And yet all is not well with the country’s flaunted liberal ideals as its middle classes and ruling elite slide into bloody-mindedness that seeks military solutions and kangaroo court-style justice to deal with an intractable problem of terror.
In a recent TV debate on greater use of the death penalty, ostensibly to keep the TRP ratings warm in view of two headlines-making death row convicts, a nauseating chorus of demand to hang Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru in a public square so that the world can their eyes pop out of their sockets, as one discussant demanded, pretty much defines the prevalent “national mood”. The so-called mood is of course by no means representative of a majority opinion, but it remains a handy tool for the government to use it as a red herring to quietly push unpopular economic and political measures.
What does the government want us to believe about the state’s recent moves to initiate anti-torture legislative measures. An analyst for the prestigious Economic and Political Weekly bluntly described the torture bill as a whitewash.
The bill does not grant any right to compensation and rehabilitation to the torture victim. It also lacks any provision for mandatory, un-intimidated visits by the local judiciary to all detention centres and lock-ups within its jurisdiction. Both these are essential remedial measures put forth by the human rights movement for the prevention of torture. There, no doubt, exists a need for a special and effective anti-torture programme. Historically, torture has been institutionalised in India during the British rule, when it had been used as a weapon to keep the “natives in submission” and suppress any national liberation movement. The present ruling elites continue using this inherited institution for similar purposes. Here torture is not an exception perpetuated by some “evil subordinates”, but rather a deliberate practice sanctioned by top ranking officials and policymakers. Special draconian laws have further institutionalised torture.
According to the Economic and Political Weekly, India’s Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010 seems to be an attempt to preserve the foundation of this institution. It is a sham with the only objective of playing to the international audience in an effort to establish the façade of being the “world’s largest democracy”.
The analysis has cited a shocking case of Arun Ferreria. The Mumbai-based social activist who was arrested on 8 May 2007 on allegations of being communications and propaganda head for the Naxalites. “It is a textbook example of everything that is wrong with India’s criminal justice system,” says the EPW. Against the backdrop of the recent Supreme Court judgment prohibiting the use of narcoanalysis, this article calls upon the governments of India and Maharashtra to investigate Ferreira’s claims of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in jail. The recent Supreme Court judgment prohibiting the use of narcoanalysis, brain mapping and polygraph tests could not be more timely. The problems with such tests were evident in a number of cases.
Ferreira’s case is a textbook example of everything that is wrong with India’s criminal justice system. Not only was the 39-year-old Mumbai resident forced to undergo the tests now banned by the Supreme Court, but he was also subjected to torture in custody and was denied due process – both endemic problems that need to be urgently addressed. The police said Ferreira was allegedly carrying a “pen drive” containing information that was evidence of “anti-national” activities. The media, shorn of all objectivity and reason, as is increasingly common in such cases, swallowed the police’s claims.
Meanwhile, Ferreira was subjected to various forms of torture by police and intelligence officials following his arrest. He was repeatedly slapped and punched and his head banged against a wall. He was seriously beaten on the soles of his feet with a bajirao, a one and a half foot whipping strip made from conveyor belt material. This form of torture, called falanga, has been found to cause severe pain as well as long-term damage without showing external marks of injury. In addition, Ferreira faced long harsh interrogations, for 16 to 20 hours a day. He was often forced to remain in painful positions. For example, he was made to sit for extended periods of time on the ground with his back against the wall and his hands handcuffed above his head, while two security guards stood on his thighs, causing severe pain. Similarly, at times he had his hands handcuffed on the floor for interrogation sessions that lasted days, was made to stand for entire days, and was forced to stand with his arms parallel to the ground for extended periods, all of which caused significant pain and all of which were forced under threat of beating.
Ferreira was also deprived of adequate sleep for days on end, and he was constantly issued various threats – that his family members would be arrested or raped in front of him, or that he would face electrocution of his genital organs or have ice cubes laced in his underwear to cause permanent impotency. Ferreira believes that he was targeted and arrested under false charges because of his work as a social activist. He is known to have campaigned for the rights of slum-dwellers against forcible eviction and has highlighted the plight of victims of religious and caste violence. Ferreira’s own claims and the police allegations notwithstanding, the use of torture and the denial of due process are unacceptable.
Ferreira’s case is not different from that of Iftikhar Gilani, the Kashmir Times reporter who was picked up and subjected to torture for virtually no crime for seven months under BJP rule. Today he is believed to be among the favourite journalists of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Torture, suicide and terrorism are the three blind mice of our era with no one knowing clearly which of them is leading us astray. However, nascent efforts in India to stem the tide of torture need to be welcomed despite its glaring shortcomings.
jawednaqvi@gmail.com
Suicide and torture have a strange nexus. Both are increasingly used as strategies in today’s terror war. There is no dearth of survivors of the most horrendous forms of torture in liberal and democratic India. Not everyone survives the ordeal of course. In the wider world, prisoners including, ironically enough, death-row convicts are said to have hanged themselves to escape the pain inflicted on them. Gory details of Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib are beyond normal human capacity to absorb or accept. But India’s middle classes and its ruling elite made a strong statement to the contrary when they stood by George W. Bush, the overseer of some of the worst forms of torture, after everyone else had deserted him.
There is a widespread belief that Muslim suicide bombers kill themselves for some divine rewards in the afterlife. The theory does not explain, however, why LTTE cadres carried poison vials or the fact that the American crew of the plane, which dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, had to each keep a cyanide capsule handy. It would be what they were required to bite or swallow should the Japanese get to shoot down their plane first.
Studies have shown that suicide is linked to a struggle against occupied land and that torture is very much part of an instrument of occupation. In Kashmir, for example, tens of thousands have been tortured as a matter of routine. This is not to deny that some Muslim militants do fall victim to the promise of a divine tryst also. That thousands of Indian farmers have been killing themselves has little to do with the promise of life hereafter of course. Bobby Sands of IRA and Rachel Corrie of the International Solidarity Movement for Palestine were icons who gave their lives for a cause they steadfastly believed in. Torture and suicide have both played a hand in the grisly battle between terror and retribution.
So it was more than noteworthy that India’s Supreme Court recently forbade the use of narcoanalysis as a tool for criminal investigation. The Indian government moved a bill during the parliament’s budget session last month to prohibit several forms of torture. And yet all is not well with the country’s flaunted liberal ideals as its middle classes and ruling elite slide into bloody-mindedness that seeks military solutions and kangaroo court-style justice to deal with an intractable problem of terror.
In a recent TV debate on greater use of the death penalty, ostensibly to keep the TRP ratings warm in view of two headlines-making death row convicts, a nauseating chorus of demand to hang Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru in a public square so that the world can their eyes pop out of their sockets, as one discussant demanded, pretty much defines the prevalent “national mood”. The so-called mood is of course by no means representative of a majority opinion, but it remains a handy tool for the government to use it as a red herring to quietly push unpopular economic and political measures.
What does the government want us to believe about the state’s recent moves to initiate anti-torture legislative measures. An analyst for the prestigious Economic and Political Weekly bluntly described the torture bill as a whitewash.
The bill does not grant any right to compensation and rehabilitation to the torture victim. It also lacks any provision for mandatory, un-intimidated visits by the local judiciary to all detention centres and lock-ups within its jurisdiction. Both these are essential remedial measures put forth by the human rights movement for the prevention of torture. There, no doubt, exists a need for a special and effective anti-torture programme. Historically, torture has been institutionalised in India during the British rule, when it had been used as a weapon to keep the “natives in submission” and suppress any national liberation movement. The present ruling elites continue using this inherited institution for similar purposes. Here torture is not an exception perpetuated by some “evil subordinates”, but rather a deliberate practice sanctioned by top ranking officials and policymakers. Special draconian laws have further institutionalised torture.
According to the Economic and Political Weekly, India’s Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010 seems to be an attempt to preserve the foundation of this institution. It is a sham with the only objective of playing to the international audience in an effort to establish the façade of being the “world’s largest democracy”.
The analysis has cited a shocking case of Arun Ferreria. The Mumbai-based social activist who was arrested on 8 May 2007 on allegations of being communications and propaganda head for the Naxalites. “It is a textbook example of everything that is wrong with India’s criminal justice system,” says the EPW. Against the backdrop of the recent Supreme Court judgment prohibiting the use of narcoanalysis, this article calls upon the governments of India and Maharashtra to investigate Ferreira’s claims of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in jail. The recent Supreme Court judgment prohibiting the use of narcoanalysis, brain mapping and polygraph tests could not be more timely. The problems with such tests were evident in a number of cases.
Ferreira’s case is a textbook example of everything that is wrong with India’s criminal justice system. Not only was the 39-year-old Mumbai resident forced to undergo the tests now banned by the Supreme Court, but he was also subjected to torture in custody and was denied due process – both endemic problems that need to be urgently addressed. The police said Ferreira was allegedly carrying a “pen drive” containing information that was evidence of “anti-national” activities. The media, shorn of all objectivity and reason, as is increasingly common in such cases, swallowed the police’s claims.
Meanwhile, Ferreira was subjected to various forms of torture by police and intelligence officials following his arrest. He was repeatedly slapped and punched and his head banged against a wall. He was seriously beaten on the soles of his feet with a bajirao, a one and a half foot whipping strip made from conveyor belt material. This form of torture, called falanga, has been found to cause severe pain as well as long-term damage without showing external marks of injury. In addition, Ferreira faced long harsh interrogations, for 16 to 20 hours a day. He was often forced to remain in painful positions. For example, he was made to sit for extended periods of time on the ground with his back against the wall and his hands handcuffed above his head, while two security guards stood on his thighs, causing severe pain. Similarly, at times he had his hands handcuffed on the floor for interrogation sessions that lasted days, was made to stand for entire days, and was forced to stand with his arms parallel to the ground for extended periods, all of which caused significant pain and all of which were forced under threat of beating.
Ferreira was also deprived of adequate sleep for days on end, and he was constantly issued various threats – that his family members would be arrested or raped in front of him, or that he would face electrocution of his genital organs or have ice cubes laced in his underwear to cause permanent impotency. Ferreira believes that he was targeted and arrested under false charges because of his work as a social activist. He is known to have campaigned for the rights of slum-dwellers against forcible eviction and has highlighted the plight of victims of religious and caste violence. Ferreira’s own claims and the police allegations notwithstanding, the use of torture and the denial of due process are unacceptable.
Ferreira’s case is not different from that of Iftikhar Gilani, the Kashmir Times reporter who was picked up and subjected to torture for virtually no crime for seven months under BJP rule. Today he is believed to be among the favourite journalists of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Torture, suicide and terrorism are the three blind mice of our era with no one knowing clearly which of them is leading us astray. However, nascent efforts in India to stem the tide of torture need to be welcomed despite its glaring shortcomings.
jawednaqvi@gmail.com
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