People shouldn’t think I’ll tone down because I was beaten in jail, says TN activist Piyush Manush

On July 8, an environmental activist from Salem, Piyush Sethia, who goes by the name Piyush Manush, was arrested along with two other activists for protesting against the construction of a bridge over a railway crossing at Mulvadi gate in Salem, Tamil Nadu.

Manush is the convenor of the Salem Citizens Forum. His main objection was that the railway authorities had allegedly not acquired the land for construction, nor had it provided an alternate road for public use.

Manush was charged under several sections of the Indian Penal Code including those pertaining to assaulting or using criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging his duty, disobedience to order promulgated by a public servant, wrongful restraint, and criminal intimidation.

The local district court also rejected his first bail plea.

Manush spent almost two weeks at the Salem Central Prison where he said he was put under solitary confinement and tortured by prison authorities. Manush has alleged that jail authorities were acting on the orders of the Salem police.

However, a police officer in Salem, who spoke Scroll.in on condition of anonymity, said that the police had given no such orders to the Salem Prison authorities.

On July 22, the day after Manush was released on bail, Tamil Nadu Human Rights Commission issued a notice to the prison authorities to submit a report on the activist's treatment in prison within three weeks. The Deputy Inspector-General of Police (Prisons), Coimbatore Range, has also asked the Salem Central jail for a report on the charges made by Manush against jail authorities.

Manush spoke to Scroll.in about the two weeks he spent in prison.

While campaigning against the construction of the overbridge, did you expect the police to react the way it did?
No, we have actually done much bigger campaigns. This was just a small civic issue campaign.

When the Mulvadi gate project was announced, we activists said that public consultation should be designed [into the project], and that the land should be acquired prior to the construction. We also said that when construction starts, we needed an alternative road. We had printed a notice about this four years ago.

On July 7, I read a newspaper report saying that the bridge was going to be constructed, and that construction would start the next day.

There are two one-way roads near the site. [Because of the construction] one of them would be blocked, and the traffic would be diverted to the other, making it a two-way road. It was possible that this would lead to chaos. So I enquired from people whether the land had been acquired, took out the old notices we had printed before, and distributed them.

I spoke to the District Revenue Officer and he was very rude. He said, “Who are you to ask such questions”? I said, "I have restored so many lakes and I have fought so many battles. I was born in Salem, and as a citizen I can ask about the project and make suggestions."

When I went to meet the officer the next day, he was again rude and brushed the matter aside.

As I was going to meet other authorities, the news came that construction of the railway overbridge had started. All my efforts were futile. There was lot of frustration in me. I got into the construction pit in front of the police. Two seconds after I touched the JCB machine, I was hauled up. We were arrested and taken to the police station.

Normally, these are preventive arrests and they release you in the evening. But when they took our cell phones, I knew something was wrong. We were charged under Sections 353, 188, 341 [of the Indian Penal Code]. Section 506 (2) was added later.

I requested the judge and the police to release my friends. They had no experience in this kind of activism. But we were taken to prison and were severely assaulted there. Severely. [There were] 30 jail wardens with batons. The jail superintendent was sitting in the jailor’s room, waiting for us. There was no provocation. He gave a huge beating. After that we were taken out, slapped, put into solitary confinement for three days.

We were accused by the whole prison population – be it prisoners or prison staff – of burning the national flag. Then as the newspapers came in the next day, I started asking them, "Where is the national flag burning issue? If we had burnt it, there would have been a big issue."

How do you think the jail authorities got the impression that you were being punished for burning the national flag?
The jail authorities believe the information of the police. The jail superintendent was waiting to beat us up and leave the office. The people in the jail told me that [this was the] first time that someone was being punished the very first second they entered the jail.

Inside the jail, punishment is given to people who are arrogant, who don’t obey rules. Here, out of nowhere, we were remanded in the night and the punishment began from the very first second. So obviously the order came from above.

Some corporates have been trying to acquire land but we opposed this. Many people have been illegally felling trees, some have been forming illegal construction lobbies. There are many fights we’ve been taking up continuously.

No books, pen, paper – everything was denied to us. Even a towel or a handkerchief was denied in the name of preventing suicide.

I was placed in a high security cell. This was the first time anyone with a Section as low as 506(2) entered the high security block. On Thursday [six days after their arrest] my two friends got bail. But the judge said that since four cases were pending against me, she could not grant me bail. I was not even aware of two of these cases.

After visiting me, my wife and lawyer spread word about my condition to the media. Volunteers worked round the clock and unprecedented support flowed in. Local papers carried the story continuously. After that I was not troubled there. A week later I got bail.

I have absolutely no grievance against the 29 people who hit me. When I was being beaten, I remembered GN Saibaba [a Delhi University professor accused of being a part of the banned CPI (Maoist)] who was incarcerated in the Nagpur jail. I could feel his pain there.

But if some officials like the [jail] superintendent can control life and liberty of other citizens, they should be punished according to the law.

I have always had a lot of respect for the jail administration, and I’ve even said so in speeches. The state uses its violence through the police, courts and the jails. I would tell students that “Don’t worry about jails. Going to jails are a pleasure, except that you are removed from your family.”

I have told this in many speeches to students. That belief was shattered. I felt very guilty about the kind of speeches I made to students earlier. This time, the experience was harrowing, it was a nightmare.

You were arrested very swiftly while registering a protest and then denied bail the first time. How do you view this response?
The state knows only repression. This has happened regularly. It would be an exception if this had not happened.

How do you see your future as an activist after this?
I now have more responsibility added to me. I have the responsibility that my case does not set a bad precedent. After this incident, people should not think that Piyush has been toned down. I’ll be more active, more perfect in the execution of my plans. This should set an example that despite state excesses, we will rise back to the occasion.

What do you think other activists should take away from this incident?
The response of the people has been unprecedented and it has made the state bow down. We need not share the same platform, or the same ideology. But we need to collectively address state repression.

The interview has been edited for clarity.