Celebrating the second acquittal of G.N. Saibaba and co-accused

The following statement was presented during the international solidarity meeting on 10 March 2024, celebrating the second acquittal and release of GN Saibaba and co-accused. See our YouTube channel for a recording of the meeting.

See also statements and interviews with GN Saibaba and his co-accused here:

The Statement by the Committee for the Defence and Release of GN Saibaba

‘State has become an anarchy & they're crushing humanity’: GN Saibaba's Moving Speech Post Release

‘My 7 years in Anda cell were the most inhuman form of solitary confinement’ — Jyoti Punwani’s interview with Prashant Rahi

‘I only spread the message of suffering’ — Outlook’s interview with JNU student Hem Mishra, who was in prison for 10 years as part of the same case

‘To believe in humanity, social progress, is that extremist?’, Scroll.in’s interview with GN Saibaba

എന്നെ വേട്ടയാടാൻ കാരണം ആദിവാസി വംശഹത്യയ്ക്കും കോർപ്പറേറ്റ് ചൂഷണത്തിനുമെതിരായ നിലപാടുകൾ, Interview with GN Saibaba

'We Need Ideas, Patience, And Hope', Outlook’s interview with GN Saibaba

Must-read commentaries on the judgments:

Was the trial judge who convicted G.N. Saibaba biased? We will never know, and that is part of the injustice by Nihalsingh Rathod, advocate and member of the legal team

The Acquittal of GN Saibaba Raises More Questions About the Judiciary by N Venugopal, 8 March 2024

On Justice and State Accountability: The Acquittal of GN Saibaba and Others by Karen Gabriel and PK Vijayan, Committee for the Defence and Release of GN Saibaba, 12 March 2024

Strange case of G.N. Saibaba and the Supreme Court, another new abnormal by Justice Madan B. Lokur, 11 October 2022

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Welcome to everyone, Jai Bhim, Johar,  and thank you all for joining this special international solidarity meeting celebrating the second acquittal and release of Prof. GN Saibaba, Prashant Rahi, Hem Mishra, Vijay Tirki and Mahesh Tirki. 

It is a moment to honour their immense sacrifices as well as the perseverance of their families and communities; it is a moment to commemorate the tragic custodial death of co-accused Pandu Narote; it is a moment to celebrate and thank the legal team that worked untiringly in the service of justice; it is a moment of affirming the importance of international solidarity and coalitions for democratic rights and social justice. 

This meeting is organised by International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF India), a collective of people from around the world dedicated to issues related to academic freedom in India. It is endorsed by the following international groups:

South Asian Diaspora Action Collective (SADAC), Indian Workers Association (Great Britain) (IWA-GB), India Labour Solidarity (UK), Foundation The London Story, The Humanism Project, Australia, Hindus for Human Rights (USA), Free Saibaba Coalition (USA), Boston South Asian Coalition (BSAC), India Civil Watch International (ICWI), South Asia Solidarity Group, London⁩⁩

As we start this meeting we would like to begin with a moment’s silence to remember Pandu Narote, 32-year old father of a young daughter, the fifth accused who should have walked out of jail free, but died of a fever under custody due to wilful negligence of the prison authorities. [20 second silence] 

We also remain mindful that Surendra Gadling, Professor Saibaba’s lawyer, who pinpointed  all the technical errors and conspiratorial machinations in the chargesheet, himself remains incarcerated as a political prisoner in the Bhima Koregaon case, along with Delhi University Professor Hany Babu, who was part of the civil society Committee for the Defence and Release of GN Saibaba and numerous others who continue to remain behind bars in yet another fabricated case.

In the two press conferences after his release, Professor Saibaba’s words have provided a searing critique of the dehumanisation practised by the Indian state and its institutions. In the words of N Venugopal, nephew of another Bhima Koregaon co-accused Varavara Rao, and himself the subject of a police raid some weeks ago :“It's a case of travesty of justice, prolonged legal harassment, agonising incarceration, cruel and deliberate persecution.”

Prof Saibaba was persecuted for 10 years for becoming the voice of human rights defenders, who spoke against the onslaught of Salwa-Judum, Operation Green Hunt in the forests of central India. He had become a “foot-soldier” entrusted with unifying the voices of democratic dissent against the State-corporate nexus robbing indigenous populations of their birth-right to the mineral resources of their lands.

In these past 10 years, with Prof Saibaba behind bars, Operation Green Hunt has a new avatar, Operation Samadhan Prahar which is chillingly translatable as the Final Solution.  The inroads of the global military-industrial-mining-state complex within India are relentless, but not unchallenged. The  tremendous resistance to it, though, is barely reported. Few academic voices remain courageous enough to describe the plight of, and defend the rights of, the citizenry they study and teach about. Many self-censor out of the fear of being silenced. 

Academic freedom comes with increasing risks. We’ve seen academics being muzzled for speaking up for Palestine in the UK, and elsewhere in Europe, USA, Australia, though not without protest. The powerful are threatened by those who think critically, uphold the truth, and refuse to dance to their tunes.  Thus, Prof Saibaba, a beloved professor of English and a poet —became a danger who had to be locked away because he thought with courage and taught others to do the same.

GNS teaches not just thinking critically but also teaches hope.  He wrote these brave brave words from the Anda cell: 

When I refused to die

They captured me again

I still stubbornly refuse to die

The sad thing is that

They don't know how to make me die

Because I love so much

The sounds of growing grass.

This a virtual hug from all of us for Sai and Vasantha; for Prashant, Mahesh, Hem and Vijay, who have all come home and for Pandu’s family, for he could not.  And this is a pledge to honour the sacrifices imposed on them, by continuing the struggle and voice the protests they gave so much of their lives to.