73,500 and counting: that’s the number of people across India who have signed up until now for the “jail bharo andolan” (fill-the-jails protest) for three days from 30 December to demand a strong Lokpal Bill and to express solidarity with Anna Hazare’s fast.
The innovative campaign, launched by India Against Corruption, the nodal agency that has been pitching for a Jan Lokpal Bill, has harnessed the power of the Internet by asking anyone who intends to participate to “register” on the jailchalo.com website.
It’s hard to say if everyone who registers will actually get down to it when the campaign begins on Friday, but the proud declarations on Twitter by many who have signed up appears to suggest that there is sufficient bottom-up exuberance to be part of what is undeniably one of the more momentous political campaigns in recent years.
It’s one thing to rage on social media platforms or even to turn up for candle-light vigils and protests, the popular expressions of political awakening among what is derisively dismissed as the middle class. Those are the easy, cop-out ways of aligning oneself to a political cause.
However, for so many people to offer to court arrest in support of a cause that, in their reckoning, is big enough to shape the destiny of the nation points to a commitment of a much higher order. Remember, also, that this is profile of protestors likely come from a socio-economic background where ‘going to jail’ taints them for life
However noble the cause, and however deep the passion, the decision to court arrest cannot be taken lightly. The reasons for that go beyond just the perceptions of “social stigma” that adheres itself when you get mixed up with law.
On her blog, media commentator Harini Calamur flags the real-world consequences that might accrue from going to jail. Since the right to protest peacefully is protected by the Constitution, going to jail implies wilful violation of some law, she argues.
“For all the youngsters, who in your idealism want to break the law and get to prison, a small reminder. IF you go to jail, you…may…end up with a criminal record. That record stays for ever and ever and ever. It will come into play when you apply for a job, your passport, want to go abroad to study or work. I am not sure if it will impact a bank loan – but I am not sure that the banks will give a loan to someone who had a record….No one will tell you this, because it suits them not to. For those proposing jail bharo – you are a head count. For the media, you are drama.”
Calamur’s case for reflection on the part of adrenaline-driven youngsters before they commit themselves to this campaign and “fill the jails” is hard to contest. Yet, not being trained in law, she perhaps overstated the risks from participation in a campaign such as this.
For a legal perspective on the circumstances of a campaign such as this and its implications for participants, one turns to Spread Law, a legal blog committed to spreading legal awareness in India.
On it, founder Sumit Nagpal lays out a case for why, so long as the jail bharo protest is peaceful, there is no reason for protestors to be afraid of the law – or the consequences. “Peaceful protest is a form of civil disobedience and cannot attract heavy criminal action,” notes Nagpal. And as Anna Hazare has repeatedly made clear, he wishes the movement to remain peaceful, irrespective of the provocations it may face.
Even the other risks that Calamur flagged – of consequences in the event of applying for a job or a visa or a passport – appear to be overstated. “In case of any job application or a visa application, you will only be asked if you have been convicted for any offence or not,” reasons Nagpal. “”And conviction is different from being arrested.”
In cases such as this, a person will merely be taken into custody for preventive purposes – and will likely be let off after an undertaking that he/she shall not breach public peace and tranquility. “So a person is not convicted (and) one doesn’t need to mention about this in any job application or any other such application,” counsels Nagpal.
None of this, of course, should be construed as legal advice or as free-wheeling counsel to embrace the protest movement, particularly since no individual participant will be in control of the overall dynamics of the protest. In any case, that is a decision for each individual to make. Yet, both sides of the argument are presented here for greater illumination on the subject since not everyone may be familiar with the law.
Even so, going by the enthusiasm that many of the people who have signed on for the jail bharo campaign have exhibited – as exemplified by this message – it appears that they see it as a chance for them to be a part of a milestone moment in India’s history.
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