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Today, amidst the developmental cries, where\u2019s that required focus on the jails and on those languishing in jails? Can there be some degree of transparency to what\u2019s taking place inside those high walls?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Here\u2019s hoping and wishing that\u00a0 the under-trials get\u00a0 some\u00a0 sort of\u00a0 relief in this\u00a0 month of\u00a0 August\u00a0 – after all, this\u00a0 month is of\u00a0 great and\u00a0 immense historical and emotional and social significance for us Indians.<\/p>\n It\u00a0 gets significant to ask:\u00a0 What is\u00a0 happening\u00a0 in terms of\u00a0 relief to the\u00a0 growing number\u00a0 of the\u00a0 under-trials lodged\u00a0 in the country\u2019s jails and\u00a0 prisons? As citizen of the country we ought to know what is happening inside those high walls, to those who sit languishing. Why jails and prisons are not being developed and spruced up along the developmental cries? Where is the transparency in the treatment meted out to the jailed? Why shouldn\u2019t a non-governmental agency be allowed to carry out investigative probes? Why is it getting easy for the police and agencies to arrest an innocent and frame charges on him; with which he sits languishing as an under-trial for years to come? Why are details to the jailed under-trials not probed by an independent agency or a watchdog group?<\/p>\n Not to overlook a very vital fact to the imprisoned in our country \u2014 almost seventy-five percent of the imprisoned are under-trials and with that technically innocent. Yet, they sit imprisoned. Frustrated and disgusted with the system, many fade away, some even try to break free, only to be bound once again! We haven\u2019t even bothered to study the crucial \u2018why\u2019 inmates try to break free, try their utmost to run away from prison hellholes. Perhaps, they are unable to cope with the overdose of jailed life and cannot pick up the courage to talk about the trauma and stress they are undergoing. Talk to whom?<\/p>\n Today, amidst the developmental cries, where\u2019s that required focus on the jails and on those languishing in jails? If the rulers carried even faint traces of connect with the disadvantaged, the first thing they would have done was to reach out to the jailed inmates. To begin with, they ought to have expanded the very concept of open jails. Let the jailed men and women breathe fresh air. Even if they have committed crimes, it does not give the State the sanction to demolish them, slowly and steadily.<\/p>\n A large number of under-trials languish in jails even after they are granted bail because they are unable to raise the surety amount. In this context, we should consider the release of under-trials on personal bonds.<\/p>\n Can there be some degree (not third degree!) of transparency to what\u2019s taking place inside those high walls? Also, how I wish that several of the jailed political prisoners of the day write details to what\u2019s taking place in their jails\u2026detailed to their jailed life. Let\u2019s not overlook the fact that in those yesteryears best works were authored by the political who\u2019s who, when they sat jailed.<\/p>\n Let us not bypass the core fact to the jailed \u2013 they are a part and parcel of the society and system that is only furthering the crime graph and not lessening it. Aren\u2019t we, as a collective lot, to be blamed for this! Isn\u2019t our system and society, directly or indirectly, pushing many towards crime and violence?<\/p>\n Moving about freely, from here to there!<\/strong><\/p>\n And along the strain of what I have\u00a0 been writing all along, let me\u00a0 re-stress that we lived in a far less complicated times in those years\u00a0 long\u00a0 past\u00a0 by\u2026that\u2019s when human beings\u00a0 could\u00a0 move about freely from here to there. If\u00a0 Saadat\u00a0 Hasan Manto\u2019s clan had\u00a0 moved from\u00a0 Kashmir to the Punjab, several who\u2019s who had\u00a0 shifted to\u00a0 reside in the Kashmir Valley.<\/p>\n I just re-read Andrew Whitehead\u2019s book –\u00a0 \u2018The Lives of Freda – The Political, Spiritual and Personal Journeys of Freda Bedi\u2019 (Speaking Tiger),\u00a0 focusing on the life and times of the extraordinary English woman, Freda, who\u2019d married B.P.L Bedi, in Oxford in 1933 (Freda\u00a0 and B.P.L\u00a0 Bedi –\u00a0 parents of\u00a0 film star Kabir Bedi), \u00a0and one realized\u00a0 how the world\u00a0 was actually a cosy little setup!<\/p>\n To quote from Andrew Whitehead\u2019s book, \u201cThe life of Freda Bedi is a remarkable story of multiple border crossings, confounding accepted definitions of identity. Born in\u00a0a middle-class home in provincial England, she became a champion of Indian nationalism, even serving time in jail in Lahore as a satyagrahi. In Kashmir, in the 1940s, while her husband. B.P.L Bedi drafted the \u2018New Kashmir\u2019 manifesto, she kept in contact with underground Left-Wing nationalists, and pined a women\u2019s militia setup to defend Srinagar from the invading Pakistani tribesmen. In the 1950s, she encountered Buddhism during a visit to Burma.\u201d<\/p>\n Freda\u2019s\u00a0 journey to Burma brought along another turn in her life as she embarked on a spiritual journey. And around 1959 she persuaded Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to give her a role to help the Tibetan refugees and with that she setup a school for the young Lamas and also a nunnery\u2026 In fact, Freda is possibly the first woman ever to receive full ordination as a Tibetan Buddhist nun.<\/p>\n Andrew Whitehead has also brought to the fore the role played by Freda and her husband in the Kashmir region. Perhaps, the crux holds out in the two letters of Jawaharlal Nehru to Sheikh Abdullah which, together with this brief backgrounder, are tucked in this book \u2013 \u201cNehru also pressed Sheikh Abdullah to keep communists at a distance, with Bedi the main target of his displeasure. In May 1949, after a brief visit to Kashmir, Nehru wrote to \u2018Shaikh Saheb\u2019 with a gentle warning : quite a number of our embassies here are greatly worried at, what they say, the communist infiltration into Kashmir\u2026 most of them have heard about Bedi and they enquire about him. I understand that Bedi is editing the newspaper there and is drawings substantial salary plus free car etc. I have no personal grievance against Bedi, but in view of the trouble we are having with the Communist Party in India, naturally Bedi\u2019s name is constantly coming up before people here.\u201d<\/p>\n There was another letter from Nehru to Sheikh Abdullah (it followed the first one) and is along the same pattern: \u201cYou referred to the Bedis, I rather like them \u2026I know Freda left the Communist Party some years ago. What she done since, I do not know. But so far as I know, Bedi has continued in the Party, and the Party, especially today, does not tolerate lukewarm people or those who do not fall in line with their present policy\u2026 I do not want you to push out the Bedis and cause immediate distress to them. But I do think that no responsible work should be given to them and they be kept completely in the background. Yesterday I saw a little book on you written by the Bedis. This kind of thing immediately makes people think that the Bedis are playing a prominent role in Kashmir and are closely associated away from Kashmir, because they felt that leftist policies would be going on more and more adamantly if I stayed on there.\u201d<\/p>\n There are also more than hints that the Bedi couple were trying to project Sheikh Abdullah as a national leader. In fact, not very surprisingly the best phase of their lives in terms of social and financial well-being was the time this couple spent in the Kashmir region\u2026 This book holds out the who\u2019s who they met and interacted with.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today, amidst the developmental cries, where\u2019s that required focus on the jails and on those languishing in jails? Can there be some degree of transparency to what\u2019s taking place inside those high walls? Here\u2019s hoping and wishing that\u00a0 the under-trials get\u00a0 some\u00a0 sort of\u00a0 relief in this\u00a0 month of\u00a0 August\u00a0 – after all, this\u00a0 month […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,2205],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339033"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":339035,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339033\/revisions\/339035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/339034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}