Reading Mein Kampf doesn't a fascist make
Harbouring a copy of Mein Kampf or My Experiments with Truth doesn't make its possessor a fascist or a Gandhian, respectively. Actions do. This principle was reiterated by the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court this week when it freed former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba and five others in a case accusing them of harbouring Maoist links.
The six were arrested in 2013-14 by Maharashtra Police, charged under UAPA, and convicted by a trial court in 2017 for their alleged membership of the banned CPI(Maoist) and its group, Revolutionary Democratic Front. The trial court's ruling in which their possession of Maoist literature was conflated with breaking the law needed to be overturned.
By failing to establish any evidentiary link between material containing 'undesirable' ideas and actual actions, the police behaved more like thought police than keepers of law and order. That the earlier verdict has finally been overturned is reassuring.
To ensure that constitutionally guaranteed rights are not tinkered with by overenthusiastic authorities, police forces across states need to be depoliticised. For starters, they need to be trained on the scope of the long arm of law — and where its reach is limited. Also needed is greater investment in trial courts, judges and lawyers to prevent wrongful incarceration on grounds as weak and unfortunate as in the Saibaba et al case.
