"We are just resigned to an endless wait"; When Umar Khalid Completes Three Years Inside Bars (www.facebook/Apeksha Priyadarshini)

JNU student activist Umar Khalid completes three years behind bars.

Mr Khalid was arrested on 14 September 2020.

The Delhi police charged him with UAPA for his alleged ‘provocative speeches’ during the visit of American President Donald Trump to India.

The uncertain wait continues as Umar Khalid, an activist and former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student, completing three years behind the bars. And this is how Mr Khalid”s friend and JNU student activist Apeksha Priyadarshini writes about her friend, recollecting his memories as well as the experiences she encountered while visiting Mr Khalid recently in the Tihar Jail.

“My Tenth Visit to Tihar”, she begins writing expressing her grief on thinking about the irony in Mr Khalid”s situation – “here is a man, who has spent almost three years in prison now in isolation, still thinking how best to make everyone feel seen in a few moments, while months go by that people on the outside don”t remember that he, and many others like him, are still paying with their freedom, for speaking up for all of us”.

Mr Khalid, a former research scholar in JNU, was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act – UAPA in which the Delhi police alleged him of “provocative speeches” during the visit of American President Donald Trump to India, the Mint reported. He was arrested on September 14 2020.

He was also charged for involving in 2020 Delhi riots, along with the United Against Hate member Khalid Saifi. But both of them were later discharged by the Delhi”s Karkardooma Court from the riot-case in February 2022. The two were subjected to continue the judicial custody since they are yet to get bail in an Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) case.

Khalid is also associated with United Against Hate, a campaign founded along with Nadeem Khan, Indian human rights activist, in July 2017 in response to the series of lynchings.

“This system, that is supposed to work towards “integrating them back into the society”, operates on the conviction that they will always return at the end of the day, because they will not risk their release”, wrote Ms Priyadarshini on Saturday.

“Systems like these, and furloughs where convicts are allowed to go out on parole for a fixed period of time across the year, are designed to keep a mental check on the prison population, and incentivise “good behaviour” on the inside”, she added blaming the governmental functions which resisit bail for Mr Khalid and keep him behind bars for a long time.

“Of course, none of these rights are applicable to undertrials. We are just resigned to an endless wait, not knowing when the actual trial begins…”, Ms Priyadarshini quoted Mr Khalid.

Mr Khalid also shared his views and opinions on UAPA and why the government frame such laws to push their selfish needs. UAPA and other charges to terrorism, more than mere technicalities, “creates a perception not just on the outside, but also on the inside, that the accused is already guilty of the charges against them”, she quoted her friend Khalid.

“No one really pays heed into the details of how this is just a step towards the beginning of the trial. Everyone is convinced that you are guilty and that”s how the headlines are framed. And as the headlines begin to appear, the way you are looked at by everyone also transforms”, Mr Khalid added to Ms Priyadarshini.

“As I left and walked out on the long winding road towards the exit, in the heat of this particularly sweltering afternoon, with a deep sadness in my heart, I still couldn”t help smiling about his silliness and his childlike laughter, as I memorized this time spent until we met again”, she wrote.

In many ways, this is the predicament of our times, isn”t it? In the abyss of aching hopelessness, we cannot help but hold on to fleeting, ephemeral moments of joy and togetherness, much like a stray piece of wood in the ocean, that we must stay afloat on, to survive”, she said in conclusion.

A group in JNU plans to a cultural evening on Tuesday, marking solidarity with Mr Khalid and his 3 years of imprisonment.