In a recently published open letter university professor and political prisoner G. N. Saibaba denounces the atrocities the Indian government commits against political prisoners such as him. Addressing his wife, he points out how the purposeful omission of any warm closing is more or less a death sentence for prisoners like him.
Saibaba fights for the interests of the oppressed and poor people for many years now. He was active against the forced displacement of many Adivasi and supported their just struggles. For many assumed the position of Chairman in the Revolutionary Democratic Front. Although the reaction desperately tried, not once evidence could be produced linking him to any illegal kind of work.
Never the less the reaction acted upon a search warrant against him on the 12th of September in 2013, raiding his and his wife's house under flimsy pretense. Back then, a squad of roughly sixty special forces invaded and demolished his house. The formal reason given in the search warrant was his supposed involvement in a theft in the city of Aheri, which is more than 1.300 kilometers away from his house. The question how Saibaba, 90% disabled and bound to a wheelchair, should have committed such a crime, only the old Indian state can answer.Nearly one year after this first search, he got wrenched in a car and abducted by security forces, in the open daylight on his way to the university, his place of work. The state initially attempted to obfuscate his abduction. Only through the pressure his family applied to the government, they had to confirm his detention.
Like many other political prisoners fighting for democratic rights before him, the Indian state wanted to silently bury him in a dark cell. His medicine and wheelchair were taken from him and he was denied visiting his doctors. Hence his medical condition deteriorated so much, that he had to be released on bail after 14 months because, after a great wave of sympathy and solidarity, the reaction feared massive protests if he were to die. In 2016 he got arrested again and released on bail again, after yet another wave of (also international) solidarity. On this year's 7th of march he was sentenced to life by the court of Gadchiroli in Maharashtra. The judge assumed it to be proved that Saibaba would be linked to the CPI (Maoist) and responsible for many actions carried out by the People Liberation Guerilla Army. One only has to remember however that he is disabled to a degree of 90% and that he has never in the regions were the actions took place, to see the falsehood in his sentence. In the case of G.N. Saibaba the old Indian state is continuously breaking his own laws and uses the most ambiguous clauses. Now, once again imprisoned, the reaction is again attempting to kill him. Only this time, they do not try to do it by means of denying his medicine but by denying him the most basic items to protect him from the cold of the upcoming winter, like a blanket, a jacket, a pullover, etc. - things every prisoner should have the right to have, but that the Indian state however denies, knowing very well about the consequences,
