BK-16 Prison Diaries: Arun Ferreira on the farce and tragedy of the pandemic in prison
To mark six years of the arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of political dissidents in the Bhima Koregaon case, The Polis Project is publishing a series of writings by the BK-16, and their families, friends and partners. (Read the introduction to the series here.) By describing various aspects of the past six years, the series offers a glimpse into the BK-16’s lives inside prison, as well as the struggles of their loved ones outside. Each piece in the series is complemented by Arun Ferreira’s striking and evocative artwork.
The first wave of COVID-19 took us all by surprise, universally. We were caught unawares, and our response was clumsy and faltered, often searching for solutions that now appear ridiculous. It was no different in prison, but what made things even worse was the compounded consequences of the farcical implementation of sincere solutions, and the sincere implementation of farcical solutions. Prison authorities did not display any intention of adequately dealing with the pandemic, but were eager to present a façade of an efficient administrative response on official records with a miniscule number of COVID-19 cases. I, along with my co-accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, were transferred to the Taloja Central Prison on 29 February 2020. This was almost one month before the official declaration of COVID and its associated lockdowns. When we were sent to our respective barracks, we noticed that each barrack had around 35 inmates. A barrack…
Join us
Related Posts
Donald Trump’s Master Economic Plan I Opinion by Yanis Varoufakis
Yanis Varoufakis
भारतीय राज्य किस तरह बस्तर के बच्चों की हत्या कर रहा है
Shreya Khemani
