“This site of Jantar Mantar, where we are able to speak with freedom, is the best temple as well as mosque for us today. We can speak our hearts out here and remind ourselves that we stand with justice, with equality, with humanity and will face whatever hurdles come our way” — this is how historian and author Rajmohan Gandhi addressed the large gathering at the Jantar Mantar protest site on December 10. He was speaking at the protest meeting on “Students in Solidarity with Dissenters Behind Bars”, organised by around twenty student organisations mark International Human Rights Day.

Led by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union, the students came together to demand the release of various political prisoners—many of them students—who have been incarcerated for more than four years.

Academicians, activists and members of Parliament joined the meeting to extend their solidarity to the students’ demands. Syeda Hameed, educationist and women’s rights activist, quoted couplets by poets Rahat Indori and Faiz Ahmad Faiz, to register her rage at the injustice of the prolonged incarceration of prominent activists.

“The edict in this country is that nobody can speak, nobody can walk with their heads high. And these people, for whom we are standing today—their only fault was that they walked with their heads high and refused to remain silent. We will continue to stand with them till their release, even if it is at the cost of our own lives,” she stated emphatically.

The CPIML (L) Member of Parliament from Karakat constituency in Bihar, Raja Ram Singh, paid his tribute to the martyrs of Palestine besides expressing his support for the students’ demands. “No matter how tyrannical our rulers get—be it in the world or in our country—there will also always be gatherings like these. This is written in history and will also be true in our future,” he said.

“The incumbent regime does not want the Parliament to function. They want to strangle democracy. They claim that crores are spent on Parliament sessions, but the Opposition doesn’t let the House function. But, we have been observing that they refuse to have discussions on topics like Adani, Sambhal, Manipur or Umar Khalid. Yet, we will not relent,” Singh asserted.

Apart from Singh, Sasikanth Senthil, MP from Indian National Congress, representing the Tiruvallur Constituency from Tamil Nadu and V Sivadasan, MP from CPI(M), representing Kerala, also spoke at the public meeting. The gathering saw family members of the imprisoned activists speaking about the hardships that they are facing in prison. Saima, the daughter of Mohd. Salim Khan and Noor Jahan, the mother of Athar Khan, were present among the crowd of protestors, holding placards demanding the release of their loved ones.

Since 2020, several student activists—who had been a part of the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act—have been arrested by the Delhi Police under various sections, including the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and remained behind bars as undertrials. Their cases in various courts have seen inordinate delays in hearings and judgements on their bail petitions have been reserved for months. Even as more than four years have passed since, the trial in these cases is yet to begin.

Gulfisha Fatima, Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Meeran Haider, Khalid Saifi, Shifa Ur Rehman, Athar Khan, Shadab Ahmad and several others are among the jailed, who have been accused of allegedly being a part of “a larger conspiracy to orchestrate the violence in Northeast Delhi in 2020.” The communal violence led to the deaths of 53 people in the area, of which 38 were Muslims and 15 were Hindus.