This story first appeared in Rediff

Kobad Ghandy, has been a sympathiser of the Communist movement for half a century including its radical wing, the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

Along with his late wife Anuradha Shanbag Ghandy, he dedicated many years to the cause living in Vidarbha.

Both Kobad and Anuradha ensured they lived by Communist ideals and gave away their possessions and wealth for the cause.

Kobad was arrested in 2009 and released in October 2019.

After his release, Kobad wrote Fractured Freedom — A Prison Memoir, which has been translated in various languages and which has received flak from radical Left circles.

“I’m persona non grata in these (radical Left) circles. I have been for 10 odd years in jail, cut off from any civilisational contact, let alone political touch. In fact, for 15-20 years I haven’t been in touch with any organisation. I just find it pointless,” Kobad Ghandy tells Rediff.com Senior Contributor Neeta Kolhatkar in the first of a multi-part interview.

How have the last three years been for you? Have you tasted real freedom? Where are you staying and have you adjusted to the new way of life?

The last jail term was in Surat and I knew nobody in Gujarat.

It was a general conspiracy case and like all others I got bail.

The people handling my case and those of the others were mostly human rights lawyers.

Actually my sister has been there for me.

In fact, she paid my bail and brought me back once I was released.

In Surat I knew I would be out soon, but my biggest worry was once I come out where would I go? I had sold out my properties and I don’t have any place.

I thought who would keep me. Not one of the my left associates offered me their place.

They all have big flats, extra flats, rooms and so on. But not one of them offered me place.

Till today, not one of them has asked me. Anyway, my sister offered and has been cooperative. Since then I’ve been living in her house even though she doesn’t agree with our ideology.

I also found it difficult to adjust to such an upper class atmosphere, but without her help i would have had no place to stay, this was around five to six months before Covid, a lockdown was declared.

It was first pure freedom immediately after release and then semi-freedom, locked in our houses.

What I found out in these three years, the Parsi community and especially the Parisiana magazine and other community members have been extremely supportive.

The editor of Parisiana, Jehangir Patel, is an extremely nice person.

I had to recently travel a lot to Jharkhand and other states to attend court dates which took a toll on my stomach.

I happened to casually mention this to him and he purchased online chlorine tablets for me before I went on my next trip.

Since I subscribe to Parisiana, he knows my address and he just sent them. (Laughs).

Such type of a nice feeling is there. Like I have mentioned in my book, Fractured Freedom — A Prison Memoir, I have raised questions on philosophical aspects of the communist movement regarding values, freedom and happiness.

I found I am getting support, which has been refreshing.

One didn’t realise that ordinary, old, Parsis want to meet me. I never expected that.

When did you think of writing Fractured Freedom — A Prison Memoir? You have mentioned in it that the Parsi community supported you along with your friends from Doon School. Was this unexpected?

From the Surat arrest I began to think of writing a memoir.

I didn’t have the intention earlier because nothing was sure — will I ever be released? will I get bail? where will I stay? Nothing was sure.

Then it seemed possible that I may get bail and from then on I began to conceptualise it.

Around January 2020 I was looking for a publisher because I know nothing about the publishing industry.

A few friends put me in touch with some publishers. Then the lockdown was declared.

It was a boon for me, as I could focus on my book and there were no distractions.

At that time Jehangir Patel told me his daughter Simin would help me because she knew about publishers.

I also needed legal help to draft an agreement and she knew of a lawyer friend and that is how I met Xerxes Ranina.

Now he has become a friend. In fact, this book came out around March 2021 and has given me a lot of confidence as it was promoted excellently by my publisher, Roli Books.

I’m told it is still a bestseller on Amazon. The way it has sold, people do seem interested in reading about the possibility of a better future.

I have kept the translation rights and I knew I could get it done inexpensively, so it has already been published in Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi, Hindi, Kannada and will soon be coming out in other languages as well.

I’ve been told the Bengali version of my book is selling well in Bengal, though there is strong opposition from many of the Maoist circles. Marathi has sold the maximum especially after the awards controversy and the publicity it got.

I believe the Maoist Party written a 100 page paper attacking my book. I am told it is sub-standard. They have written it in English, Hindi and Telugu.

They have nothing better to do or what, I don’t know.

I’m persona non grata in these circles. I have been for 10 odd years in jail, cut off from any civilisational contact, let alone political touch.

In fact, for 15-20 years I haven’t been in touch with any organisation. I just find it pointless.

Since you have been released, are the authorities keeping a watch on you?

I haven’t noticed anything as such.

On the other hand, I feel they don’t have the need to do keep an eye on me.

They know everything. I am doing everything legal — I go to the courts and attend to all my case dates.

If at all they want to watch is if I was doing any organisational work.

That they would want to know, but I am not interested in that.

I am interested more in research, study and analysing in what we have done and not done in the last many years.

I want to dwell on those concepts. My talent was writing, even when I was an activist.

Whether they (party people) are disturbed or not, I don’t care because what is more important is the future — the future of humanity and the future of our work.

I feel that dialectical materialism and Communism is the best and there is no better alternative to it. But the fact is, it has faced a setback because of the reasons outlined in my book and I have given an example of Anuradha (his wife who died in 2008) as the ideal Communist in my book.

She is a model kind of person and I had presented her as an example.

Then I posed the concepts of freedom, happiness and the question of values of simplicity, truthfulness, straightforwardness, etc as the model values seen in Anuradha.

I realised if these incorect values are present at these small levels, this must be worse at the higher levels throughout the Communist parties of the world resulting in the setbacks.

The Parsi community, a community not known to revolt, has supported you. Is it unexpected?
Like all communities, Parsis too are classists and despite you being a Communist, the Parsis have supported you.
Is it because you belong to an upper class Parsi family? Has that made a difference?

Yes, to some extent it could be, because class and caste is relevant in our entire society.

A person who comes from an elite background is given support when he/she sacrifices everything for the poor and oppressed. But a poor person who joins the cause has nothing to sacrifice. It is another aspect that most do not sacrifice and keep their wealth while also keeping their Communism.

I found this even among the police officers, they all respected me for this sacrifice which is rare these days.

Maybe because I have been living by the ideals. The IB (Intelligence Bureau) and authorities knew I had given away all my property and had nothing in my name.

From that point of view, I got support in all jail authorities except Tihar.

They expressed surprise and respected me from this point of view — in this day and age few individuals live by ideals for the poor.

Now I found this respect even among my Doon School alumni.

As far as the Parsi community in particular, well that is also divided.

Many years ago when we used to stay at Colaba, my neighbour, who is a Parsi, was telling me that while some people are against me, many are sympathetic.

I think Parisiana has made a huge difference in influencing the community.

In fact, I have personally sold 150 copies of my book, mostly within the Parsi community.

There is a section of the Parsi community who are anti-Muslim and pro-Narendra Modi — some of my relatives too are like that. But there is a large section of Parsis who are ethical.

My father was sympathetic towards us. The Parsis are sympathetic because of their ethical values, honesty.

Still these are prevalent amongst the general Parsi community. During my incarceration also I got a lot of support.

Jehangir, the editor of Parsiana, in fact came to Tihar jail, despite being nearly blind in one eye.

Since the time I am out of jail, he continues to be extremely supportive of me.

So the community is supportive, because write ups are being carried in Parisiana regularly.

Speaking of your school mates at Doon School — Kamal Nath, Naveen Patnaik, Sanjay Gandhi, Ishaat Hussain, Gautam Vohra. How have they reacted to your ideology, jail term and release? Have they distanced themselves or have been sympathetic to you?

(Laughs). Actually earlier I wasn’t in touch with these people.

First, college and then till 1972, I was in the UK. I wasn’t in touch with all of them.

After I returned, I was involved in my activism work.

The only person who was in touch with me and even came to visit was Gautam Vohra.

A maverick Leftist who has met Castro, Che Guevara and hwent on a march against the Vietnam War, he still has this spirit.

He was one person who during my entire stay in different jails was in constant touch with me, throughout.

Practically every week I would get a nice postcard from him.

Once he came all the way to Jharkhand to meet me in jail. He has been consistent in his views.

To some extent because of him others have come forward to support me.

He tried contacting Kamal Nath and a few others who didn’t respond; the others have.

He even gathered money for my eye operation when I was in Tihar.

He helped build the atmosphere and support for me.

Ishaat initially wasn’t in touch though he was my closest class friend.

As I have written in my book, he said he pursued CA because of my father and me.

Later he met me often in the UK and that was all. We lost touch since.

He apparently asked Gautam if I’d be willing to meet. Since then we meet every month. He is cooperative and sympathetic.

Gautam initiated a class WhatsApp group. Everyone is extremely well-read, progressive, even though some are pro-Modi, yet there is no negativity.

They are open to discussions and I found a lot of progressive discussions. Of course, there is a lot of humour too.

Navzer Taraporewala is always sending us jokes. He lives in Malaysia and is extremely well-read.

He has read Noam Chomsky and all. Where for a Parsi he has read all this, I wonder (laughs).

I must say they are very sympathetic and nice.

Classmates are positive, Parsis are sympathetic. The book is selling well and most are not Leftists and that is interesting.

Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com

Link to original story

This story first appeared in rediff.com

Part 1: ‘We have lost 10 months of our lives’

‘I have to treat patients and there they don’t like Indians. The patients don’t like me, they are not going to come to me, then what is the point of studying there?’

“My year has been wasted, from January till now. We have had no practicals and nothing is in my hands,” Afsha Khan, who now hopes to study at a medical university in the republic of Georgia, tells Rediff.com Senior Contributor Neeta Kolhatkar in the concluding part of a two-part interview.

What is the way out for you students?

We have got admissions in Georgia, but the problem is, we are like 20,000 students from Ukraine who have got admissions here.

So the wait for a Georgian visa is endless. I applied in late July, so I was expecting to be called this month.

There are 3,500 visa interviews, it is increasing.

Georgia is the only country that is accepting us without having our original transcripts.

They are giving us a grace period by taking us based on the electronic portal. It is also tough to get visas right now.

My original date of reporting at the University in Georgia was September 26, my original visa interview I was expecting in the first of October, but till now I haven’t received a call.

We were supposed to have orientation at the Georgia university, but they have been nice and said they understood our situation.

Meanwhile, I am not stressed about the initial course, because I have completed this semester and I would be repeating it. I won’t be missing anything new.

The only problem is my year has been wasted, from January till now. We have had no practicals and nothing is in my hands.

What about the other countries? Is it tough to get in or what are the impediments?

Armenia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are offering a lot, but I also have to see the quality of education.

The quality of education is important.

Also, they are not offering clinical exposure and that is important.

One also has to see the environment; some countries are not welcoming Indians.

I have to treat the patients and there they don’t like Indians.

So the patients don’t like me, they are not going to come to me, then what is the point of studying there? In Ukraine, the people were nice.

The clinical exposure we got was fantastic. They were like, ‘You come, see us’.

Everything was different over there. I don’t want to go to any country where my clinical exposure is zero.

In a few of these countries, they don’t even have a hospital with the university. They only have a tie-up.

In Ukraine, if we didn’t understand anything, our sir would take us to the hospital and explain it to us clinically, which helped tremendously.

We could put our knowledge to practice to understand.

Everything in medicine is about practicals because even if you mug up, you need to put it in practice and that helped.

This is the problem with countries like Armenia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

Another important point is the US and UK don’t recognise these universities, so it is pointless studying there.

I have been preparing for the US, UK medical exams. I would enroll only in a university recognised by the World Directory of Medical Schools.

So any university with WDMS accreditation is essential. I also have to keep options for specialisation.

What is the one thing you have learned in these eight months since you left Ukraine?

I’ve not learnt nothing academically because we lost an entire year.

Other than that, in life, I have learned to be patient.

I’m very patient, I was so stressed to escape from the war situation.

Once I came home to Mumbai, I told my parents I’m not going to do anything.

My university also told us, it is a war-torn country what am I expecting, they can’t do anything, even my consultants were saying they cannot do anything.

We have given exams and still it is of no use. Also, one thing, the Indian government had told us we could do our clinicals in India.

If we were able to do them and got our clinical marks, then any country would have taken us.

Imagine, we paid the semester fees, we invested, we studied and despite it we were not allowed to give clinicals.

The Ukrainian medical council also raised a red flag. If we had done clinicals in India, then how could their professors evaluate us and give us marks? They couldn’t recognise our marks and insisted we had to remain in Ukraine for the clinical exams.

We couldn’t remain there since the war broke out.

Later, the Indian government told us we could go to the hospitals to learn and knowledge and not get marks.

I enrolled along with others and the Maharashtra government has been dragging its feet.

They told us local students are enrolled in the hospitals, how can they accommodate us?

This was around May, so I left it. The course in India is for 4.5 years and one year is the internship.

In those 4.5 years, they cram everything since they have only limited years.

Ours is six years so we are taken through the same course slowly.

The professors here are going to teach as per my capacity and what I have learned.

They will have to adhere to their syllabus, so I left pursuing trying to do any clinicals here. It would have been beneficial if I were to do clinicals in Ukraine.

What do you see your future right now?

Right now I just want to go and complete my second year.

When I was in Ukraine, I was firm about my future and which exam I wanted to clear as per the schedule.

USCR, US clinical rotation I was preparing for; that is allowed once I got my license in my third year.

This option is available for European countries. However, now everything will change, once I go to Georgia, so I have to plan all over again.

What are your prospects of getting a student visa in Georgia?

I have to apply even though it is a transfer visa because I don’t have transcripts, otherwise, it would have been easy.

Yet they have been lenient with us as compared to European Union countries.

On one hand, they have shown supporting Ukraine, but where international students are concerned these countries have taken a stand of no transcript, no admission and visa.

It is a big process of getting out of the university, cancelling TR (termporary residency) in these current times as we are stuck in our homeland.

The people in Ukraine are fighting for survival. How can they do anything special for us students?

Guess EU countries are now feeling all transfer students will run to their universities so they are behaving tough, unlike Georgia.

Are you optimistic? Do you feel hopeful?

After June, when my exams got over, I was just doing research on which country I should go to.

Every evening my Abba would come home. I would ask him which new country I can go to.

Every university has unique eligible criteria. Each wants proficiency in the English language and wants us to appear for that exam. They don’t even know English in those countries like Romania, Poland and others countries.

They know we are in an MBBS course, it is not a fresh start and yet wants us to appear for an entrance exam.

There is no guarantee of a seat.

It is risky that I am applying for Georgia, because my future depends on those transcripts.

Now if I sit back and wait for my transcripts, then I would be doing nothing and if I go and don’t get my transcripts it will be a huge problem.

I feel frustrated because our government is doing nothing to help us.

I can’t expect the Ukraine government to do anything for us because they themselves need help at the moment.

I expect some intervention from the Indian government. Some help to get us admissions because our year is getting wasted.

They could have done something to save our year, but they have left us in the lurch.

We have been left to fend for ourselves.

How are your parents coping?

My mom is fine with anything I do. She has told me she trusts me completely. Because she has seen me doing everything on my own.

My father also believes in that, but he sees what I am doing, he asks questions to understand the prospects and most of all, the budget.

According to my dad’s affordability, I am choosing the options.

My batchmates, some are opting for Uzbekistan because it is also cheaper than Georgia.

My fees will be $6,000 annually while in Uzbekistan it is $3,000 per year.

Georgia has an ECTS system, has its own hospital, theory is different and clinicals are separate.

It is exactly like Ukraine. Only two, three of my friends are coming to Georgia.

So far we have had online interviews and I fared very well. They asked me about my mental health.

I fared well, but told them I cannot think straight because I am completely stressed about my year, my future.

They then asked about why I chose Georgia and I told them everything honestly.

Then the second interview was with anatomy professors. They asked me 13 out of 15 questions.

They knew my level as per the marks. The next step is my visa and after I go there will be an English proficiency exam.

Link to original story

This story first appeared in rediff.com

‘You can’t tell a student who is already in a medical course to give the entrance exam all over again.’

Afsha Khan, 20, was among the 20,000 students studying in the Ukraine before the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.

A student at the Zaporizhzye State Medical University, Afsha left Ukraine a few days before war broke out.

Afsha has now sought admission at a university in the republic of Georgia. But she must wait for tensions in Ukraine to subside before she can access her marksheets at the Zaporizhzye State Medical University.

The government had promised to help medical students from the Ukraine after they were evacuated from that war-torn country, but that has not happened.

“We wrote to the Medical Council of India saying give exams on our MBBS course because the syllabus is the same worldwide. The human body is the same, we study the same thing. If I’ve got 90 percent, then we are very much eligible. For them it is only NEET, else you are good for nothing,” Afsha tells Rediff.com Senior Contributor Neeta Kolhatkar.

Since you landed in India, what is the status regarding your academics?

I landed in India on February 23, and since then, for a month there were no lectures or anything, due to the war situation.

Then from March 30, we had online classes since we were in the middle of our semester.

So, till June we had these online classes. But these were only regarding important subjects and the Ukrainian language.

These were two hours per class, but if there were alarms (about an impending Russian missile strike), then our teachers would go and we had to wait till they returned.

The schedule went haywire because though our lectures were from 8 am to 10 am, if in between the lecturer would go, then for 40 minutes, nothing would happen.

That is the duration for one alarm. Then the remaining duration of the lecture is completed, by which time the second lecture is rescheduled.

So from 8 am to 7 pm, our entire day was dedicated to online lectures. This was my daily schedule.

Then in June we gave our online exams. I did well, but there were no practicals.

They gave average marks from orals for practicals and we had a MCQ (multiple choice questions kind of portal to answer the MCQs.

We never had exams like these before, but this is war time, so there are many things that did not exist previously.

We gave our exams and later asked do they have any backup plans for us, like giving us a transfer to another university. What should we do? In July they gave us our results and asked us to take a transfer to another university. This means we have to search for ourselves.

Were they committing to getting you the admissions? What was the deal?

They said we could continue with online education because now their country could not afford to run medical courses offline.

They were not willing to help me or other students with transfer to another university or country.

How have you coped through this unsure time? What choices do you have now, considering that affordability is also important? Do you lose a year?

We had an option for a Schengen zone since all Schengen countries said they would help us get admissions. But the Schengen zone is extremely expensive. Even Poland, Hungary and other such countries, the admission cost was going up to ₹90 lakhs, ₹1 crore for the rest of the course, which entails the remaining five years.

Out of the six year course, I have completed one-and-a-half years, but since this semester was online, none of the universities are recognising it and we have lost this entire year.

So I began to explore other countries — Georgia, and Russia, but I can’t go here.

I read more about Georgia universities and they too were open to taking us, Indian students.

I applied to three universities there and I got into all three.

I finalised one university, but now I am faced with a huge problem.

My university (the Zaporizhzye State Medical University in Ukraine) is not ready to give me my transcript.

I am a temporary resident in Ukraine, so they are asking me to come over there in person, discard this TR (temporary residency by returning the papers and only then will I get my marks transcript.

I requested they allow me to do it online, but they have insisted I go there.

Finally, the Medical Council of Ukraine agreed to let me give the power of attorney to someone else who can come on my behalf and collect the transcript.

I have now given a consultant the TR. I don’t know when he can go over, hand over my TR and collect my transcript.

Georgia meanwhile has given admission based on my marks on the electronic portal.

They are ready to give me admission based on these marks, but again, that is only for six months.

They are giving me confirmed admissions, but with a deadline of six months.

So what’s your consultant saying?

He is ready, but he can go only when the situation is calm.

300 students have given him the power of attorney so he will have to go.

The only problem is the deadline. If he can’t get it )the marks transcript) within the time frame set by the university in Georgia, I don’t know where I stand.

Has the Indian government intervened to help? What is the Medical Council of India’s response?

Initially, the government told us they will give us admission in India, but the Medical Council of India said if they gave admissions to Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs), then it would be unfair for those appearing for NEET and other exams.

We have cracked NEET, that is why we got admission at a medical university. We went to Ukraine only because we didn’t want to pay capitation fees.

Many students here pay and get a management seat. We have got more marks, but we couldn’t get a government seat and we don’t pay (a capitation fee) that’s why we left to study abroad.

Now they are asking us to appear for NEET again, go through the old stress and trauma.

NEET is of 720 marks. We are from the open category.

So we FMGs wrote to the MCI saying give exams on our MBBS course because the syllabus is the same worldwide.

The human body is the same, we study the same thing. If I’ve got 90 percent, then we are very much eligible.

For them it is only NEET, else you are good for nothing.

They kept dilly-dallying, saying 15 days more, and now we have lost 10 months of our lives.

Our course is of six years, then we do specialisation. When will we finish studying? When will we start earning? When will we become professional practitioners?

I called MCI, but they don’t answer their phones. After 100 e-mails they replied to one.

They told me, I have two options: Either take a transfer (to another university abroad) or stay back in India and give NEET again.

You can’t tell a student who is already in a medical course to give the entrance exam all over again. What is wrong with them?

I gave up on the government and decided to pursue my options on my own.

Even regarding the transcripts, when we requested the government to intervene, they asked us to write an e-mail and state that the university is not helping.

Our university wants to help, but they are not in a situation to do anything.

There is a war in that country and our government needs to understand this.

They (the Zaporizhzye State Medical University) are ready to issue the transcripts, and ready to help because we have cleared the exams and semesters, only thing is, we cannot go over to Ukraine. We won’t write an e-mail against our university.

Part 2: ‘Some countries don’t welcome Indians’

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In an interview with ThePrint’s Senior Consulting Editor Jyoti Malhotra in Kabul, Afghanistan, the spokesman of the ministry of foreign affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spoke on a variety of issues, including how the Taliban helped Indian diplomats leave last year and they are now welcome back to Afghanistan. Mr Balkhi also spoke about womens rights and girls education and why terror groups like Islamic State don’t like the Islamic Emirate Watch

Exclusive talk with Asad Umar | Nasim Zehra @8 | 15 August 2022 | 24 News HD

“TMC Believed in Those Who Betrayed Party”

“Opposition can say anything it wants but we knew nothing as to what Partha Chatterjee or Anubrata Mondal was doing. The party would have taken steps then”

“Remember J Jayalalitha? She always returned to power. Indians are so poor, they do not react to corruption allegations”

“This was a blot on us and we have to recover. We stay with the people, work with the people”

—

Two important leaders of the Trinamool Congress, Partha Chatterjee and Anubrata Mandal, were arrested over the past fortnight. Chatterjee was arrested by the ED in connection with the Bengal SSC recruitment case while Mandal was nabbed by the CBI in a cow smuggling case. Both were considered close to chief minister Mamata Banerjee but their arrest has led to the party losing face in front of the opposition.

News18 spoke to veteran TMC MP Saugata Roy, who said the party had put its faith in leaders who eventually betrayed it. He was apologetic, but said this will not have an effect on results of panchayat polls or 2024 general elections. He emphasised on the fact that a survey conducted by the TMC showed that the BJP will not get more than five seats in Bengal in 2024.

This story first appeared in Rediff

‘The only way to kill time in prison is to read and she can’t even do that properly any more.’
‘Her knees, too, are in terrible shape. I could see how she was trying to hide her pain every time she got up from the bench where she was seated.’

Three years, 11 months to the day.

That’s how long Professor Shoma Sen, the former head of the English literature department at Nagpur University — she was suspended after her arrest — has been in prison for her alleged involvement in the *Bhima Koregaon case.

On June 6, 2018, along with Sudhir Dhawale (activist, actor and publisher of the bi-monthly Marathi magazine Vidrohi), Mahesh Raut (the youngest accused in this case, he works with the Adivasi community in Gadchiroli), Surendra Gadling (human rights lawyer and Dalit rights activist) and Rona Wilson (activist, researcher and a member of the Committee for Release of Political Prisoners), Professor Sen — who is also a well-known women’s rights activist and has worked with the Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights, a human rights organisation — was also arrested.

Koel Sen, her daughter, tells Rediff.com Senior Contributor Neeta Kolhatkar how this “travesty of justice” has taken a huge toll on the family.

In this first of a multi-part interview, the film-maker and columnist shares the shock of seeing her “Ma” suddenly age.

You met your mother in prison recently. How is she?

I met her properly after almost two years. It was such an emotional feeling to be able to sit next to her like that and talk to her.

The last time we met physically was in February 2020, just before the first lockdown, when she was produced in court.

Since then, depending on the COVID restrictions at the time, the jails have been open or shut for visitors. We had maybe three or four mulaqats (mulaqats are visitations allowed by the court where family members can meet their relatives who are in prison) during this period where we were allowed to see each other and speak but could not touch each other.

When we met this time, I was very happy because we were meeting after so long. At the same time, I felt overwhelmed just looking at her. When you physically meet someone you know and love after a long gap, you can see how much they have changed.

Even without their saying anything, you realise they have been through a lot. My mother has aged a lot quicker than she would have and I could see that her glaucoma and arthritis have become more severe.

There was a magazine next to her; she was looking through it, but not reading it. I asked Ma if she was okay and if she could read. That’s when she told me she couldn’t read easily any more because her eyes are in really bad shape.

She’s had glaucoma for almost seven years now and it has clearly become worse.

One really feels bad. I was almost in tears but what can I do?

The only way to kill time in prison is to read and she can’t even do that properly any more. She does read by bringing the books close to her eyes but you can imagine how much of a strain that is. It is very difficult to see my mother like this.

Her knees, too, are in terrible shape. I could see how she was trying to hide her pain every time she got up from the bench where she was seated.

When you go to meet her, there are two police constables who sit next to her. They let you sit as well and allow the family to speak without interfering.

After ages, we got a chance to speak properly and we spoke for almost an hour.

Emotionally, she is fine. She’s pro-active (smiles) and talks about things she is doing inside the four walls she is limited to.

Women like Ma and Sudha Bharadwaj continue to help people even when they are in prison. They help them with their cases and other things; unko toh kaam karte hi rehena hai(they cannot stop themselves from working) even when they are in prison (smiles again).

I remember one mulaqat — Sudha was there as well — where they were talking about how a certain person got bail and how another person got surety. They were having what I call this ‘intra-jail’ conversation; it was very nice.

In a touching Facebook post, you wrote about how you stealthily gave her some food. It must be such a struggle to show your love to your dear ones who are in jail. Sudha mentioned how they didn’t let her hug her daughter.

Yes, hugging is tough.

I remember, when I initially gave her a big hug, they stopped us and said we can’t do that.

At one of the court appearances, one of our friends had brought kebabs and biryani and we wanted to give her some. There are times when the cops let the accused eat. but it depends on their mood. If they don’t, then you need to take permission from the judge.

We are compelled to resort to subterfuges. We opened our dabbas and, as we ate, we fed her a few small bites.

She had a bit of the shammi kebab and the Theobroma (a popular dessert outlet in Mumbai) brownie.

I could see the excitement on her face; her eyes lit up after the brownie went into her mouth (laughs).

It was nice… that moment.

Obviously, the constable figured out something was happening.

So, like when we used to when we did something wrong in school, we apologised and defused the situation.

As far as the police are concerned, do you see a bias?

They are constantly keeping an eye on you and you feel that. But they do understand these kinds of humane things (like sharing food and hugging). Like, we could sense the constable knew that Ma was eating.

She needs to eat and there is nothing wrong with that.

As per jail regulations, only packaged foods like chips and biscuits are allowed; ghar ka khana (home-cooked food) is not as it can contain suspicious items.

The cop pretended not to know and then, when she caught us, we apologised and everything was fine (laughs).

Previously, they were allowed to eat home-cooked food. It all depends on the whims and fancies of the police people on duty.

Now, when the men are brought from Taloja Jail (Navi Mumbai), they are allowed to eat. It is weird.

The prison rules — from Yerwada (Pune) where Ma was to Byculla (Mumbai) where she is now — are arbitrary. It all depends upon the jailers. Also, women’s jails have their own set of rules and the men’s jails have their own set of rules.

Honestly, it seems as if there is no one book they abide by.

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This story first appeared in Rediff

‘Just waiting outside the prison gate, thinking that your mother is inside those walls even though you know she is innocent, affects your psyche.’

But life turned upside down for the film-maker and columnist when her mother Professor Shoma Sen was arrested in March 2018 for her alleged involvement in the Bhima Koregaon case. Professor Sen was, as a consequence, suspended from her post as head of the English literature department at Nagpur University.

From prison visits, to dealing with extensive paperwork, to worrying about her mother’s deteriorating health, Koel has been dealing with multiple challenges.

“The first two years were extremely difficult; it took a long time to get accustomed to the fact that I had to go to jail to meet her.

“Many of the people who are in prison are undertrials. But this fact is ignored. You are considered the ‘family member of a criminal’ because you are waiting to see someone who is in prison. They look at you as if you are guilty,” Koel tells Rediff.com Senior Contributor Neeta Kolhatkar in a multi-part interview.

We heard of your mother’s condition for the first time from Sudha Bharadwaj (a lawyer, an activist and a trade union leader, Bharadwaj — who was arrested and charged in the Bhima Koregaon case — was released earlier this year on conditional bail; she and Professor Shoma Sen were incarcerated at the same time at Pune’s Yerawada Central Jail and Mumbai’s Byculla Jail). It is only through a co-inhabitant or their families that we learn of the conditions in jails. Does your mother talk to you about her health problems?

Yes, she tells me.

But, as a daughter, I know there are things she doesn’t talk about because she is concerned about the impact it will have on me. For instance, there were things that Sudha told me about Ma that Ma herself hadn’t shared — instances like when Ma felt giddy after her blood pressure went down.

I understand Ma’s predicament. She hides those kinds of things from me because she is a mother. She is always thinking about what she should tell me and what she shouldn’t.

That’s why, when I came to know about this incident, I asked Sudha to tell me how Ma really is and what her problems are so that I am better prepared.

Have the authorities taken any steps to give her medication or ensure a complete medical check-up?

To be honest, the authorities are not bothered; they don’t care about what’s happening to the prisoners.

It is up to Ma to try and see that she is taken to (Mumbai’s) J J Hospital for her treatment (Professor Sen is now a prisoner at Byculla Jail). She has to keep telling them that she has a specific ailment; she has to keep detailing her medical problems.

Also, they are always taken to an intern at a government hospital because prisoners, though they don’t say it, are considered second class citizens. The interns are young and don’t have much experience.

Aur qaidi ko check karna matlab pehle se hi doctor log dar jatey hain (Doctors are petrified because they have to check a prisoner).

Sudha too mentioned that doctors are scared to examine them because they are coming from a prison. Now imagine explaining your symptoms to the doctor under these circumstances.

I don’t think Ma is getting good treatment for her eyes.

She has glaucoma and, before she was arrested, she was under treatment from one of the best ophthalmologists; not everyone can treat this eye condition.

Also, for this ailment, the doctor needs to see her in person. I don’t even know which doctor in J J is responsible for her treatment.

At our end, we are continuing with the medication from our doctor. But he hasn’t been able to examine her since she was arrested so we don’t know how her condition is now. No tests have been conducted.

These kinds of things make you worry constantly about her health.

Sometimes, Ma mentions some good things too. Once, we were lucky to get a good doctor. Otherwise, this is the way they are treated.

In how many jails have you visited Professor Sen in the four years since she was arrested? What were these visits like?

She has been in two jails only; the first one was Yerawada in Pune and second is the Byculla Jail in Mumbai. So I have visited only women’s prisons.

The first two years were extremely difficult; it took a long time to get accustomed to the fact that I had to go to jail to meet her.

Just waiting outside the prison gate, thinking that your mother is inside those walls even though you know she is innocent, affects your psyche a lot.

The presence of the prison walls, the prison structures, the uniformed people, the way they look at you — all of it gives you a huge shock. You go through immense pain.

Even the way you, as a visitor, are treated is — to a certain extent — violent. Many of the people who are in prison are undertrials. But this fact is ignored. You are considered the ‘family member of a criminal’ because you are waiting to see someone who is in prison. They look at you as if you are guilty.

The fact that someone you know is inside makes you, in a strange way, feel guilty too.

You are grappling with all these mixed emotions and with the overwhelming hope that you might get to see and speak with your loved ones.

There have been times when children have not been allowed to meet their mothers who are in prison; the wailing child is left outside because a certain timing, or a certain requirement, has not been met.

When you see such things, you feel luckier than most because so many people are facing problems and challenges that are so much worse.

I have also had nice moments at Yerawada where I have had conversations with women.

What about Byculla Jail?

The visits to Yerawada were more frequent because Ma had just been shifted there. We made many visits to give her clothes and medicines. All of us, including Ma, had to get used to the fact that she was inside prison; it was a shock for her too.

The move to Byculla was very sudden. She was shifted immediately after the case was taken over by the NIA (National Investigation Agency). That shift happened between January-February 2020 and, soon after, the national lockdown was imposed because of the pandemic.

Since then, I have been able to visit her only four or five times.

There have been annoying circumstances at the Byculla Jail, especially about regulations. They keep bringing up something new every single time.

When Ma was shifted to Mumbai, I had to get a police verification to prove that I am her daughter despite the fact that I had met her at least 15-20 times at Yerawada. My records are there in their prison system. So why do they force me to do this new paperwork to prove I am her daughter all over again?

During the lockdown, there were limited days on which I could visit her. Yet, they made me run around for this new police verification.

As a result, I was allowed to meet her only once a month whereas I could have met her four times if I didn’t have to follow up on the paperwork which already existed in their records.

It just gets so frustrating; you end up feeling helpless.

How did all this affect you? How did you keep yourself together?

I used to get anxiety attacks and faced bouts of depression because of these situations. I had to be put on medication initially and, yes, it has taken a toll on my life and my work.

In the initial phase, till 2020, I was bad shape.

Slowly, one becomes stronger and resistant to the hoops they keep putting you through, like unnecessary paperwork and chasing for permissions.

On rare occasions, when the person on the other side is ignorant, the process has been smooth.

Usually, the police see the kind of case your family member is arrested for — if it is under the UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act) or MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act), then they make the rules more stringent.

Since ours is a UAPA case, compulsory police verification has to be done.It is a form of harassment.

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This story first appeared in Rediff

‘Nobody will be saved if you don’t stop this ideological and political-strategic bulldozer.’

On April 20, 2022, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation launched a demolition drive to allegedly remove encroachments in the C Block in Jahangirpuri in the national capital.

Most of the residents of the area — workers and small-time shopkeepers — are Bengali Muslims who settled down in the capital before the Emergency.

A group of petitioners, which included Brinda Karat, the Communist Party of India-Marxist leader, drew the Supreme Court’s attention to the demolitions.

Despite the highest court in the land staying the demolitions, the NDMC demolitions reportedly continued for a couple of hours more, a shocking disregard for the Supreme Court’s order.

“We have been seeing that they do not adhere to court orders, they also flout sections of the Constitution. So why shouldn’t they be also charged with contempt of court? They have breached the orders of the Supreme Court,” Brinda Karat tells Rediff.com Senior Contributor Neeta Kolhatkar.

On the day the demolitions were taking place, you were the only politician who confronted the bulldozers. None from the Opposition was present. What was going on in your mind at that time?

I wasn’t alone, my party members and comrades were there with me.

Since April 16th, the various incidents that have taken place — be it on Hanuman Jayanti, the Shobha Yatra — we have been there, taking fact-finding teams, to find out who are the people behind it.

I was not alone, all my comrades work with me. But the fact is that it was only us.

Yes, nobody from the Opposition was present. Isn’t it surprising that while calls are being issued for the Opposition to unite, none from the other political parties was present during the demolitions.

Yes, it was only us comrades (smiles). As for your question, you should ask them, it is for them to answer. I can only speak for my party and myself.

I do not wish to speak for others nor do I find it necessary.

You went by the law book and your actions were borne out of sensitivity to basic human rights, but it has been deemed ‘anti-national’ by some people.

My action was to uphold the Supreme Court orders which they flouted. I was opposing only that.

These people were flouting the Supreme Court’s orders. At that time I was coming with the Supreme Court stay, Jahangirpuri is far so by the time I reached, what do I see? That they had begun bulldozing.

Why was this being done? Why were the houses being demolished? This is contempt of court.

We have been seeing that they do not adhere to court orders, they also flout sections of the Constitution.

So why shouldn’t they be also charged with contempt of court? They have breached the orders of the Supreme Court.

Although I am not one to use ‘seditious’ and ‘anti-national’, which you have asked, if at all anyone is, it’s them who have disobeyed the Supreme Court’s rules.

Let me tell you, I know the people of C Block. I also know the entire layout of the C Block in Jahangirpuri.

The people settled there 40 years ago.

It is completely wrong the kind of malicious accusations being flung — that they are Rohingya, Bangladeshis. They are poor Indian citizens.

You cannot deprive them of citizenship just because they are poor. These are Bengali Muslims who settled 40 years ago.

They are poor labourers who first came and settled along the river Yamuna.

During the Emergency, when Sanjay Gandhi launched his (demolition) drive, they were made to settle in Jahangirpuri.

Have they been evicted prior to this? Why do you think this demolition drive was undertaken?

This demolition drive has been done deliberately and selectively.

Everybody who knows Jahangirpuri is aware workers and self-employed shopkeepers live and work there. In every block the people have outside the houses cycle shops, mobile repair shops, mithai shops, any small shop where they work. That is their livelihood.

This you will see everywhere in Jahangirpuri. The bulldozers came to demolish only in C Block. It is because of the demographics of C Block.

So first, they attack the poor, and second, they attack because the poor belong to the minority community.

This is selective demolition. Now in the Supreme Court, they (the NDMC) said some Hindu (owned) shops too have been broken.

Yes, but the selection was of the (C) block. So they need to answer why did they select this particular block. Once the bulldozer starts working, it doesn’t discriminate whether the shop is owned by a Hindu or Muslim, it destroys everything in its way.

This bulldozer is only a machine. But this bulldozer represents a very narrow minded ideology and a political strategy which belongs to the Hindutva and Sangh Parivar ideology.

Today they are attacking the minority. But this is not just the minority.

What happened in Uttar Pradesh in the case of a Dalit who was asked to lick the feet of an upper caste person? How did they have the guts to do such a thing?

Today, it is the minorities to create a so-called Hindu identity. But within that Hindu identity, caste is there, gender is there, they are equally oppressed by this ideology.

Nobody will be saved if you don’t stop this ideological and political-strategic bulldozer. Nobody in India will be saved.

The CPI-M has been consistently opposing this government’s actions. You face flak, but despite that you and your party stand up against the government’s actions. What drives you?

As a Communist I can say that is our creed, that is why we exist, to be there wherever there is injustice and whereever there is exploitation.

When we take the red flag in our hands, we do not think about what is going to happen to us.

What we do is clear to us — that every action is geared towards the unjust economic and social system.

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This story first appeared in Prothomalo

Education has been one of the hardest hit sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP), co-hosted by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), UNICEF, and the World Bank, has prepared a comprehensive report ‘Prioritizing Learning During COVID-19’. Nobel Laureate Prof Abhijit Banerjee, the Co-Chair and one of the panel members of (GEEAP), speaks to Ayesha Kabir of Prothom Alo about the report, the losses done to education during the pandemic and the way ahead.

Q: Education has been one of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic. The GEEAP report suggests one year of lost schooling for a Grade 3 child could mean three years’ worth of learning in the long run. But in Bangladesh, schools were shut for 18 months at a stretch and then another month later. This is perhaps the longest closure of schooling globally. How would that translate into losses for the children?

I think that actually, unfortunately, it was similar in West Bengal where schools were closed from March to November and then again one month. Very similar to Bangladesh actually. And the others parts of India too, have had very long closures. So I don’t think it is that exceptional to Bangladesh.

The reason why the report says what it says, is that we have some interesting evidence from, for example, the earthquake in Pakistan. The reason why that earthquake was important was that it created a relatively temporary break in schooling. If you look at the impact of that, you will see it was much more, much bigger than it should have been. The reason why that happened is that the school system does not seem to notice that this has happened. It acts as if you are in Class 3 and have not been in school for 18 months. You should be in Class 4 now and so they treat you as if you are in the end of Class 4 rather than somebody who has basically not had any education in that time. That means you don’t adjust the pedagogy to where the child is. This idea is also in the report, about teaching at the right level.

The idea is that kids are heterogeneous even within classrooms. But teaching is targeted at the grade level rather than targeted to the child. When you do that, the children who have dropped out of school for one year or 18 months, you are pretending they have not had a major break. Then what you do is you teach them material that they have no access to.

I am not sure of the data for Bangladesh, but the data in India and Pakistan are similar. Many of them are not at the grade level. The kids in Class 3 are actually in Class 1. Nonetheless, you assume they are. These kids were already struggling. Now you teach them a Class 5 text or an end of Class 4 text. That is entirely further way from where they are. So the child feels this is nothing to do with what I can do, it is entirely irrelevant to me. I am not going to learn anything from this. They will give up, the teachers will give up because they find it impossible to communicate this material with the children. As a result, the children will fall much further behind.

The key is to focus on where the kids are and be realistic about it. Start by testing them, make sure you know where they are and start the pedagogy with the assumption that they are not where they are assumed to be. This is especially so with the disadvantaged children. The ones with educated parents, and who have access to classes online, maybe they are still okay, but not for the children from the less privileged background. Some were already in Class 1 or 2 level, maybe Class 3. Now they have fallen behind if anything. But we are pretending they are a year and a half older. They are a year and a half older, but they did not get much of an education in this period. So that means you really need to figure out, is the child in Class 1 level, 2 level, 3 level or 4 level and start teaching they are based on that. That is not a radical idea but an idea that requires systemic participation.

The syllabus needs to be adjusted, you need to somehow send the message through to the teaching community that it is their responsibility for the child to be able to participate in the class and not teach the syllabus. In our experience that has not been done.

Q: Such measures would entail a whole lot of things – policy, teachers’ training, government action and so on. Does the GEEAP report have specific pointers or guidelines in this regard? How could all this be implemented?

It has the general idea of what I have been saying. About Bangladesh, I can say from our experience of working on these kinds of things in India for 20 years now, what really matters is how it is implemented. The teachers by themselves are not going to necessarily step out of the system. The message needs to come from top down. They need to be trained.

One thing is that it is not actually that hard to test kids. The NGO Pratham in India has these tests which they use and which do a pretty reliable job of diagnosing which kids are really not in grade level. It takes 5 or 10 minutes. In 10 minutes you can tell if a child can only read haltingly or can only recognise letters. And then you don’t assume he is in Class 5. You assume he is in Class 1.

The second thing what makes me optimistic (if the government is going to put its weight behind it) is that older children learn faster. It turns out that a fifth grade student who is not at that grade level, but is given instruction and help, will catch up faster than a second grader who has a gap. The fifth grader has the maturity to learn quite fast. It is matter of focusing on that and implementing it.

We did a study in UP India where we find that 50 days of focused teaching for a half a day does more than a year of catching up. So it is not impossible to do it. It just needs the commitment to do it. Right now, suspend the syllabus. We don’t care about learning geography or about China or whatever. We need to learn how to read, we need math, we need fluency and then we pick up from there, focusing attention on a specific set of instructions which are set down not ambiguously, but unambiguously to the teachers, saying that is your job now. I think that is achievable.

Q: Online classes were an alternative, but naturally in a country like Bangladesh only a privileged percentage could avail that during the pandemic, thus accentuating the already existing inequities in education. Can we take away any lessons from this pandemic period where we can address these inequities? The rich-poor divide in education only serves to widen the divide in society as a whole. Can education, if fixed, make a tangible difference?

All the evidence is that it can make a difference. People estimated that the impact of a year of an additional education is 7 or 10 per cent. That means your lifetime earnings every year is higher by 7 per cent or 10 per cent. This is an enormous number and means an additional year of actually delivered education. The problem is that in the education system, the teachers pretend to deliver, the students pretend to learn, but it doesn’t actually happen.

We learned many lessons from the pandemic. One thing is about some version of online education supplement of what is taught in school has the potential of being egalitarian. This is quite an old idea. There was radio teaching in Nicaragua in the late 70s in math. There was an impact evaluation of that by the World Bank that showed there were major gains in learning just from exposure to the radio. It doesn’t have to be hi-tech. It can be radio, it can be text messages.

Most people in Bangladesh have phones, not smartphones, but they can get text messages. Radio is easily available, very cheap technology. Using radio, using TV, using all the other things – text messages, whatever you can. It doesn’t have to be smartphones or laptops or tablets. The evidence of tablets is more mixed that you would imagine. There are evaluations — one laptop per child, they don’t find that much. I don’t think one should make assumptions. We should be open-minded about what technology means. It doesn’t have to mean laptops. It could be radio.

During the pandemic, some of the countries, Cote d’Ivoire and many countries in West Africa produced 250 different lessons on radio. They focused on radio. There is diversity of experiments and you should try to figure out what is feasible, what can reach the largest number of people. Those are useful supplements. When they come home from school, they can still learn from a radio. Those are useful they can be learned from radio or TV. This is much more likely to reach a lot of people because a lot of families have them.

I think maybe the one lesson I would take away from the pandemic is that there is actually scope for doing many things, not using just the conventional education system with school being the centre. School is important partly for socialisation. It’s very important for kids to be with other kids, education is important and all of those things. But for children falling behind, could there be radio classes, could there be TV classes and would this actually help them catch up? Could there be text messages with little puzzles in them coming to their parents or their elder brother or someone? All of these things might work. One of the things we insist in this report is that we need to be open-minded and to experiment and evaluate the experiments and not start with the premise that it has to be this technology or that way of doing things. It is neither — let’s do everything one way or only traditional schooling. Rather we should be experimental.

Q: The extended school closure has affected the girl child in Bangladesh. School closure, economic hardships and the prevailing uncertainties have increased child marriage rates manifold. Can you share your thoughts on education for the girl child, something of which Bangladesh had been so proud given the high enrollment rates?

I guess at this point I am mostly saying that reopening schools and making them attractive are the questions to be addressed. Take the children who have already got married and try to bring them back to the school. We should not give up on them. It would be criminal to give up on them. So priority has to be given to persuading the community to act and bring them back to school. If you are now 14 and you have not been in school since you were 12, and you feel like you have lost all connection to it, it’s going to take some effort to convince you that school is going to be rewarding for you. So part of what I was saying before, is making education at the level of the child. That also addresses this issue. You can be a 14-year-old, you stopped learning at 12 and now let’s say you got married and just have no connection to the education system for two years. At this point, what would it take to make education actually accessible to you? It is not that you can just switch back to where you were. Something else has to be done, whatever that this.

Q: So can you help us see some light at the end of the tunnel in this rather bleak situation?

I think there is light. I can’t give it to you, but if there is commitment, there is light. The commitment has to come from the policy makers.

Thank you. It was my pleasure.

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