What we need to understand urgently is that if Geelani is grievously wounded (no matter who aimed the barrel of a gun at him), it is our freedom that lies bleeding at the door.
Geelani was suspected of being part of a plot to attack the Indianlegislature for reasons that had nothing to do with his overt or covertpolitical activity: he was of Kashmiri origin and in contact with relativesstill living in the Valley, he was a Muslim in the regime of a BJP-led coalitiongovernment, and he taught Arabic at a college in Delhi. Once he had beenarrested under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), every effortwas made to frame him as a terrorist. He was tortured in police custody, treatedas fair game by hostile fellow-prisoners, pronounced guilty in a media trialthat was based on prejudice rather than truth, and given the death-penalty. His release at the last minute came as the result of a powerful case foughtrelentlessly by his legal team, under the leadership of, among others, NanditaHaksar, who has made it her mission to defend the human rights and civilliberties of those falsely accused of being enemies of the state. Shattered bycustodial abuse, but nevertheless eloquent in his call for justice and hisdefence of democracy, Geelani walked free only to have bullets pumped into hisstomach a few months later.
Agamben delves deep into the political and philosophical treatises of ancientRome to understand this strange figure because he finds, within the murderousspace of the Nazi concentration camp, the same utter abandonment / banishmentthat does not make sense in the inclusive framework of modern citizenship. Thedenizen of a camp is not only less than a citizen, but s/he has no recourse toman or God, to human help or divine intervention. The life of a camp-inmate hasno legal or scared value attached to it – it can be ended without any pretenceof due process, and equally without any justification as to the ritual purposesof such killing. In a camp a human being’s life is precisely and only hispotential to be killed. This is why Hitler could speak of the extermination ofJews "as lice". Thus every person in Auschwitz, according to Agamben, is ahomo sacer: neither a criminal, nor a sacrificial victim, and yet consigned todeath. The sovereign power of the Nazi state is predicated on the reduction ofthe Jew to bare life. Primo Levi, the Holocaust survivor, described his fellowsin the Nazi lager as though they were the living dead.
Why has Geelani become a deadman walking? He has not committed any crime. He has no discernible politicalambition vis-à-vis his home state and its problems with India – the furthesthe has gone taking any kind of public stand has been in speaking out againstatrocities in Kashmir, as a human rights activist. He was not chosen by anyPakistani jihadi group to be their martyr, nor was he designated by anyseparatist outfit to be their suicide bomber in the December 13 attack. He hasnever sought to identify himself as a Muslim in any politically meaningful waywhatsoever, leave aside by asserting his religious identity in a manner thatmight reasonably be construed as a challenge, an affront, an offence or a threatto a secular nation. He does not represent any terrorist organization, Indian orforeign, nor has he lent himself as a mouthpiece to any political party in thiscountry.
Today it is not possible or desirable tospeculate about who made an outright attempt on Geelani’s life during theshoot-out near Ms Haksar’s South Delhi residence. The point is not that thisor that individual or agency tried to assassinate him, but rather, that throughthe deplorable sequence of events that has befallen this man over the last threeyears,he effectively has been rendered less than a citizen, and deprived of hisfundamental rights, his legal protections, and his proper place in the bodypolitic. What we need to understand so urgently is that if Geelani is grievouslywounded (no matter who aimed the barrel of a gun at him), it is our freedom thatlies bleeding at the door. This time he has barely escaped with his life, butthe message is loud and clear: if we are not careful about the state of ourfreedom, then we will be reduced to bare life.
And that is only a gunshot awayfrom death.
Ananya Vajpeyi is with the Centre for Law and Governance, Jawaharlal NehruUniversity, New Delhi.