A PRISONER IN MRS. GANDHl'S INDIA
Fernandes, George
George Fernandes, chairman of the Socialist party of India and leader of India's railroad workers' federation, faces trial in that country on the charge of "planned sabotage" and acting against...
...Stale food from some wayside restaurant was served to me...
...On June 14 I was moved to CBI offices where I was housed in a hall with intimidatory guards placed inside and outside the room...
...q 12...
...My letters to my parents, wife and child, motherinlaw and brothers were not sent to them nor were theirs delivered to me with the exception of some letters from my mother-in-law and from my wife (two only), and, in September, two from my brother...
...and was brought to a halt on one of the runways where vanloads of policemen had already arrived...
...At 5 p.m...
...A daily allowance of 6 rupees [65c] was given to me to manage my kitchen and all my dietary needs...
...The early westerly monsoon turned my yard into a swimming pool...
...I was marched off to a barrack with iron gratings all around and no protection whatever against heat or rain...
...I was hardly allowed to sleep...
...My bed consisted of a dirty blanket spread over the cement floor...
...Hot summer winds piercing through the open grill almost made my brain melt, allowing me no rest day or night...
...From June 10 to June 14 I was not allowed to have even a bath although the police officials kept on telling me that I would...
...The plane touched down at Delhi Airport at 10:15 a.m...
...The jail officials refused to provide a covering on grounds of security...
...A set of six books by Solzhenitsyn, which I had earlier carried with me, were withheld and my appeals to the State government to release them were not even acknowledged...
...They soon realized they were barking up the wrong tree...
...While the more sophisticated among the interrogators held out veiled threats of violence against my person, the uncultured among them had the nerve to threaten me with it then and there...
...EDS...
...I was taken to the Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police (CID), where till 6 a.m...
...on June 10, 1976, in Calcutta...
...Powerful electric bulbs burned in my barrack throughout the night while the entire yard was flood-lit, giving it the appearance of a flood-lit sports ground...
...the following day I had to sit on a hard wooden chair while police and intelligence officials took turns to keep me awake throughout the night...
...On June II, at 3 a.m., I was served an Order of Detention issued by the Delhi administration...
...My mother and brother were allowed to meet me only on August 31...
...on June 25 I was driven to Delhi's Tihar jail where, after being confined to the anteroom of the Office of the Jail Superintendent till 8:30 p.m., 1 was driven in a closed vehicle to the jail yard where I was kept in solitary confinement...
...I made the same statement before the Metropolitan Magistrate of Delhi before whom I was produced on June 1 I. That may have provpked the police to convert their interrogation sessions into demonstrations of their capacity to indulge in obscene language and to hurl abuse...
...At 7 a.m...
...While the police could never summon enough courage to have me handcuffed when I was being shifted from one place to another [outside], they kept heavy chains and handcuffs on me [in prison] in the vain hope of intimidating me...
...At 4:30 p.m...
...Guards and pistol-toting police officials maintained an intimidating watch over me all through 11 the period I was in police custody...
...I was driven in one of the cars to Delhi's ancient Red Fort where I was to stay locked up in a dark, illventilated dungeon until the 14th, except when I was taken out for interrogation by batches of the officers of the Central Intelligence Bureau (RAW) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI...
...On admission to the Hissar District Jail I was subjected to a humiliating search of my person and my belongings, with the jail staff trying to discover if I was not carrying something dangerous or clandestine, hidden in the private parts of my body...
...George Fernandes, chairman of the Socialist party of India and leader of India's railroad workers' federation, faces trial in that country on the charge of "planned sabotage" and acting against the interest of India...
...Although rules permit interviews once every fortnight with relations and friends, my mother-in-law's request for interviews was not considered until August 19 when she was allowed to visit me for an hour...
...I was at Dum Dum Airport and was flown to Delhi in an India Air Force transport plane, AN 12, which earlier had flown into Calcutta with my detention order...
...A 24-hour guard was mounted at the terrace of the adjoining office block...
...Immediately after my arrest I told the police that I would make no statement whatsoever in regard to my movements and activities during the period of June 25, 1975 to June 10, 1976...
...Here is the text of a letter from Fernandes received by one of his friends in London...
...My arrest took place at about 3:45 p.m...
...I was not allowed even to keep my handkerchief with which to wipe the sweat off in this hot oven of a lockup, nor an old newspaper with which to fan myself...
...My mother-in-law was allowed a second visit with me on September 16...
...Around noon on June 25 a police van drew alongside the gate of my yard and I was driven to Hissar, some 100 miles northwest of Delhi...
Vol. 24 • January 1977 • No. 1
