Injustice Unlimited

The verdicts in the Swami Aseemanand and G N Saibaba cases expose the roguery of the Indian state. The former was let off despite clear and close links with saffron terror and mass murder, while the latter was sentenced to life imprisonment for being sympathetic to a people’s resistance to state oppression. While such fascistisation is visible across the globe, in India, it finds resonance with the hegemonic, ruling-class ideology of Brahminism, which the current regime seeks to uphold.

Two court judgments in early March 2017, less than 24 hours apart, sent shivers across the country. The first one was by the sessions court in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra on 7 March that sentenced a wheelchair-bound Delhi University professor, G N Saibaba and four others to life imprisonment under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967 and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for aiding and abetting Naxalite activities. A sixth convict was handed 10 years of rigorous imprisonment.

The second judgment came the next day from a National Investigation Agency (NIA) special court in Jaipur. The court acquitted a self-proclaimed monk and former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist, Swami Aseemanand, and six other accused in the triple blasts of 2007, namely, Samjhauta Express blasts (68 dead and dozens injured), Hyderabad Mecca Masjid blasts (16 dead and hundreds injured), and Ajmer Dargah blasts (three dead and 17 injured). Three persons were convicted in the sensational Ajmer Dargah blast case.