New Delhi: More than 200 educationists, filmmakers and authors, including Cornell West, Noam Chomsky, Amitav Ghosh, Salman Rushdie and Mira Nair, issued a joint statement on Wednesday demanding the Centre free former JNU student leader Umar Khalid and open itself to dissent.Among signatories are journalist P. Sainath, actor Ratna Pathak Shah, filmmaker Nakul Sawhney, author Arundhati Roy, and renowned scholars Judith Butler, Romila Thapar and Sheldon Pollock.“We call on the Government of India to free Umar Khalid and all those falsely implicated and unjustly incarcerated for protesting against the CAA-NRC that denies equal citizenship rights and to ensure that the Delhi Police investigates the Delhi riots with impartiality under the oath they took as public servants bound by the Constitution of India,” the statement read.Khalid has been arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in what has been a much-criticised attempt by the Delhi Police to implicate him in its theory that the riots were the result of conspiracy hatched by anti-CAA protesters.Also Read: Delhi Police Affidavit Shows Muslims Bore Brunt of Riots, Silent on Who Targeted Them and Why“What was Umar Khalid’s crime? That he used the passion of his commitment to his country, marshalled his education and his voice to join the movement for equal citizenship, against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA),” the statement says, voicing solidarity and outrage at his arrest.The statement comes on the same day when Khalid was sent to judicial custody for nearly a month.The statement said that Khalid “used the passion of his commitment to his country, marshalled his education and his voice to join the movement for equal citizenship, against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)” which introduced religion as a criterion for citizenship, and has no place in a secular nation.The statement also attempts to put Khalid’s arrest in perspective of what the signatories say has been a singularly partisan investigation.“Read the names: Ishrat Jahan, Gulfisha Fatima, Sharjeel Imam, Khalid Saifi, Safoora Zargar, Meeran Haider, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Athar Khan, Umar Khalid, Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita and 10 others. The two non-Muslims, Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, are fiery young feminists, who fought for the rights of women students in India’s male-dominated campuses; against a masculinist state that cannot abide their fearlessness. Safoora Zargar arrested when 3 months pregnant, heartlessly kept for 2 months in a crowded prison during the COVID 19 pandemic, is the only one who got bail on ‘humanitarian grounds’ and only because of enormous public outcry. Currently, 19 of the 21 people falsely accused under terror laws, are Muslim. If we allow their identity to become their crime, India shall stand shamed in the global community of secular nations.”“These people are not terrorists, and the police investigation into the Delhi riots is not an investigation. It is a pre-meditated witch-hunt,” the statement goes on to say, in words that have often been used to criticise the probe.Also read: After Delhi Police Gaffe on Trump Chronology, Riots Chargesheet Takes U-Turn on Conspiracy DateAs has been done by activists several times before, the signatories mention that BJP leader Kapil Mishra has not attracted “the merest police scrutiny,” even though he stood with the Deputy Commissioner of Police and in a speech that is considered to have triggered the violence, threatened that his supporters would ‘take matters into their own hands’ if the CAA protesters were not removed.“The youth of any nation are its future,” the statement says in the final paragraph, ending with the declaration that “seeking justice for them, is doing justice to our collective, democratic futures.”The full list of signatories is as follows:Noam Chomsky, Writer, Professor of Linguistics, USAAngela Davis, Professor, philosopher, activist, writer, USARajmohan Gandhi, Writer, (grandson of Mahatma Gandhi)GG Parikh, 94 year old freedom fighter jailed by British in 1942Cornel West, Philosopher, political analyst, USAPriyamvada Gopal, Professor, Cambridge University, UKSir Richard Jolly, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UKJames Galbraith, Professor, USA, son of J. K. Galbraith former US Ambassador to IndiaRaja Vemula, law student, (brother of Rohith Vemula)Medha Patkar, Social ActivistSandeep Pande, Social worker, Magsaysay AwardeeAruna Roy, Social Activist, IndiaAdmiral Ramdas, Former Chief of Indian NavyLalita Ramdas, Social WorkerSalman Rushdie, WriterP. Sainath, Writer, Economic and Political AnalystMira Nair, FilmmakerAmitav Ghosh, WriterMeena Kandaswamy, Poet and writerTariq Ali, WriterRamchandra Guha, Historian and ColumnistArundhati Roy, WriterSuraj Yengde, Writer, Fellow Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USARatna Pathak Shah, Actor and EducationistRaju Rajgopal, Co-founder – Hindus for Human RightsSunita Vishwanath, Co-founder – Hindus for Human RightsVijay Prashad, LeftWord BooksPartha Chatterjee, Professor, Columbia University, USAIrfan Habib, Professor, Aligarh Muslim UniversityJan Breman, Professor Emeritus, University of Amsterdam, The NetherlandsAchille Mbembe, Professor, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South AfricaDavid Hardiman, Professor, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Warwick, UKPrabhat Patnaik, Professor Emeritus, JNUSheldon Pollock, Professor, Columbia University, USA, Sanskrit ScholarAkeel Bilgrami, Professor, Columbia University, USAHomi Bhabha, Professor, Harvard University, USAMahmood Mamdani, Professor, Columbia University, USACarlo Ginzburg, Professor Emeritus, University of California- Los Angeles, USASumit Sarkar, Professor Emeritus, Delhi University, USASugata Bose, Professor, Tufts University, USAVeena Das, Professor, Johns Hopkins University, USAClaude Markovits, Center National de la Recherche Sceintifique, ParisGyanendra Pandey, Professor, Emory University, USABarbara Harriss-White, Professor Emerita, Oxford University, UKJudith Butler, Professor, University of California, Berkeley, USARomila Thapar, Professor Emeritus, JNUUtsa Patnaik, Professor, Center for Economic Studies and Planning, JNU.Tanika Sarkar, RetdProfessor, JNUThomas Blom Hansen, Professor, Stanford University, USADavid Ludden, Professor, University of Pennsylvania, USAJohn Stratton Hawley, Professor, Columbia University, USARobert Chambers, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UKJames Laine, Professor, Macalaster College, USANivedita Menon, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityGyan Prakash, Professor, Princeton University, USAAudrey Truschke, Professor, Rutgers University, USASumit Guha, Professor, University of Texas, Austin, USARavi Ahuja, University of Gottingen, GermanyArjun Appadurai, Professor, Media, Culture and Communication, NYU, USATimothy Mitchell, Professor, Columbia University, USAVinay Gidwani, Professor, University of Minnesota, USAManuela Boatcă, Professor, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, GermanyDilip Menon, Professor, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South AfricaPatrick Heller, Professor, Brown University, USAAjay Skaria, Professor, University of Minnesota, USAAngana Chatterjee, Centre for race and Gender, University of California, Berkeley., USAWendy Brown, Professor, University of California, Berkeley, USALawrence Cohen, Professor, University of California, Berkeley, USAPremesh Lalu, Professor, University of the Western Cape, South AfricaIndrani Chatterjee, Professor, University of Texas, Austin, USAAshutosh Varshney, Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs, Brown University, USASrirupa Roy, Professor, Centre for Modern Indian Studies, University of Gottingen, GermanyUsuf Chikte, Professor, Stellenbosch University, South AfricaAndrew Sartori, Professor, New York University, USARebecca Karl, New York University, USADipti Khera, Professor, New York University, USAJyotsna Kapur, Professor, University of Southern Illinois, USASatish Deshpande, Professor, Delhi School of Economics, IndiaSurajit Mazumdar, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityNandini Sundar, Professor, Delhi School of EconomicsNeera Chandok, Professor, retd., Department of Political Science, delhi UniversitySangeeta Dasgupta,Center for Historical Studies, JNULinda Hess, Senior Lecturer Emerita, Stanford University, USAJulia Lesage, Professor Emerita, University of Oregon, USAAnia Loomba, Professor, University of Pennsylvania, USAJean Michel Frodon, Film critic and Professor, Political Science Institute, Paris, FranceRasha Salti, Commissioning editor (Arte), Palestine/LebanonBarberine Feinberg, Artistic Director, Jean Rouch International Film Festival, FranceRoshila Nair, Black Feminist and Writer, South AfricaAdil Mohommad, International Monetary FundUsha Iyer, Professor, Stanford University, USAPriya Jaikumar, Professor, University of Southern California, USANeepa Majumdar, Professor, University of Pittsburgh, USAKuhu Tanvir, Professor, Michigan State University, USAAnna Bigelow, Professor, Stanford University, USAAditi Chandra, Professor, University of California, Merced, USAPriya Satia, Professor, Stanford University, USAMriganka Sur, Newton Professor of Neuroscience, MIT, USAAbha Sur, Professor, MIT, USAVijaya Nagarajan, Professor, University of San Francisco, USAChris Marrewa Karwoski, Fellow, Bowdoin College, USAJaya Misra, Professor, University of Massachusetts, USARobert Pollin, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USAManuela Boatcă, Professor, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, GermanyMark Fleishman, Professor, University of Cape Town, South AfricaAlex Müller, Professor, University of Göttingen, GermanyFiona Ross, Professor, University of Cape Town, South AfricaMoinak Biswas, Professor, Jadavpur UniversityBodhisattva Kar, Professor, University of Cape Town, South AfricaDeirdre Prins-Solani, Heitage Consultant and Peacebuilder, South AfricaPratik Chakrabarti, Professor , University of Manchester, UKPaola Bacchetta, Professor, Gender & Women’s Studies, University of California, Berkeley, USATania Haberland, Poet and Activist, South AfricaDiane Shea, Faculty, Dawson College, Montreal, CanadaAmir Hussain, Chair and Professor, Loyola Marymount UniversityMalika Ndlovu, poet and arts activist, South AfricaMarlize Swanepoel, Director, Sp(i)eel Creative Arts Therapies Collective, South AfricaChantal Snyman, playwright and Arts for Youth facilitator, South AfricaShailaja Rao, Old Dominion University, USAAmrit Wilson, South Asia Solidarity Group, UKKalpana Wilson, Lecturer, Birkbeck, University of London, UKSindhuja Sankaran, Professor,Jagiellonian University, PolandW.T. Van Eg Dom, Arden University, UKNitasha Kaul, Senior Lecturer, University of Westminster, UKAnanya Vajpeyi, Center for Study Developing Societies, New DelhiM. V. Ramana, Professor, University of British Columbia, CanadaPoulomi Saha, Professor, University of California, Berkeley, USAAarti Sethi, Professor, University of California, Berkeley, USAAbhishek Kaicker, Professor, University of California, Berkeley, USADibyesh Anand, Professor, University of Westminster, UKAshok Prasad, Professor,Colorado State University, USARamaa Vasudevan, Professor, Colorado State University, USAElissa Braunstein, Professor and Chair of Economics, Colorado State University, USAAlpa Shah, Professor, London School of Economics, UKAmrita Ibrahim, Professor, Georgetown University, USARitika Shrimali, Professor, Huron University College, London, UKMalini Sur, Professor, Western Sydney University, AustraliaPriya Chacko, Professor, University of Adelaide, AustraliaAmrita Pande, Professor, University of Cape Town, South AfricaRuchi Chaturvedi, Professor, University of Cape Town, South AfricaAsanda Benya, Senior Lecturer, University of Cape Town, South AfricaFaisal Garba, Professor, University of Cape Town, South AfricaTalia Meer, Professor, University of Cape Town, South AfricaAnandaroop Sen, Professor, University of Cape Town, South AfricaNatasha Vally, University of Cape Town, South AfricaSuren Pillay, Professor, University of the Western Cape, South AfricaSita Venkateswar, Professor, Massey University, New ZealandSumanth Gopinath, Professor, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, USAMalavika Kasturi, Professor, University of Toronto, CanadaSa’diyya Shaikh, Professor, University of Cape Town, South AfricaDebjani Bhattacharyya, Professor, Drexel University, USASrila Roy, Professor, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South AfricaBarbara Boswell, Professor, University of Cape Town, South AfricaMillie Thayer, Professor, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USAAditya Balasubramanian, Professor, National University, Canberra, AustraliaAndrew B. Liu, Professor, Villanova University, Pennsylvania, USAMeghna Chaudhuri, Professor, Boston College, USAMekhola Gomes, Professor, University of Toronto, CanadaMehul Elliott-Joshi,Bational Health Service, UKPhilippa Kabali-kagwa, Development Facilitator, Coach and Author, South AfricaAndrew Ollett, Professor, University of Chicago, USAArunabh Ghosh, Professor, Harvard University, USAAndrea Marion Pinkney, Professor, McGill University, CanadaSupriya Gandhi, Professor, Yale University, USAHamsa Stainton, Professor, McGill University, CanadaPatton Burchett, Professor, The College of William and Mary, USAAbeer Y. Hoque, Writer, PhotographerJaclyn Michael, Professor, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, USATeena Purohit, Professor, Boston University, USAGowri Vijayakumar, Professor, Brandeis University, USAShuddhabrata Sengupta, Writer, New DelhiKajri Jain, Professor University of Toronto, CanadaBiju Mathews, Professor, Rider University, New Jersey, USARaza Mir, Professor, William Patterson University, New Jersey, USASharad Chari, Professor, University of California, Berkeley, USAIshita Pande, Professor Queen’s University, CanadaBhavani Raman, Professor, University of Toronto, CanadaMichael Levien, Professor, Johns Hopkins University, USARachel Sturman, Professor, Bowdoin College, USAMatthew Shutzer, Professor, University of California, Berkeley, USANaveena Naqvi, Professor, University of British Columbia, CanadaJens Lerche, Reader at SOAS, University of London, UKKristin Plys, Professor, University of Toronto, CanadaAditya Ramesh, Professor, University of Manchester, UKKoni Benson, Professor, University of the Western Cape, South AfricaDavid Boyk, Professor, Northwestern University, USAJasmina Brankovic, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, South AfricaAviroop Sengupta, Columbia University, USAShaunna Rodrigues, Columbia University, USASohini Chattopadhyay, Columbia University, USAUponita Mukherjee, Columbia University, USASamyak Ghosh, Columbia University, USASayori Ghoshal, Columbia University, USAParnisha Sarkar, University of Toronto, CanadaWilliam Mazzarella, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago , USAAmitava Kumar, Dept. of English, Vassar College, USAJames Malinson, Indology and Yoga Studies, SOAS, University of London, UKJyoti Puri, Department of Sociology, Simmons University, USAM. R. Sharan, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Global DevelopmentD.H. Shanahan, PhD Candidate, Cambridge University, UKStuti Pachisia, PhD Candidate, Faculty of English, Cambridge University, UKApurva Bamezai, PhD Candidate, University of Pennsylvania, USABalaji Narasimhan, Concerned CitizenAli Kazimi, FilmmakerMark Achbar, FilmmakerLalit Vachani, Filmmaker, Researcher, University of Gottingen, GermanyAnand Patwardhan, FilmmakerNakul Sawhney, FilmmakerNote: In an earlier version of this article, Priyamvada Gopal was wrongly described – based on the PDF as received by The Wire from the organisers of this signature campaign – as grand-daughter of S. Radhakrishnan, former President of India.
