A signature campaign ‘Karnataka with Bilkis’ has seen thousands of people from almost all the districts of Karnataka personally sign on a petition that has been posted to the Chief Justice of India asking him to cancel the remission granted to 11 convicts imprisoned for life in the Bilkis Bano case and for them to be sent back to jail for life. The petition also demanded to grant Bilkis Bano and her family all the necessary security to protect them from further threats and harassment, restore to them their right to rebuild their lives, live in peace and find normalcy. Protection also needs to be provided to witnesses and supporters, the petition added.
This signature campaign in Karnataka that is part of ongoing protests was also done in solidarity with the padayatra in Gujarat by civil society activists led by Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pandey between September 26 and October 4 that sought to apologise to Bilkis Bano for the grievous act of injustice perpetrated on her. The padayatra was changed into a hunger strike as the Gujarat government has not permitted them to walk.
This campaign has been done on foot through almost all the districts of the state without the use of social media or campaigning portals. “The 40,000+ signatures endorsing this letter represents forty thousand individual conversations regarding the case – each a dialogue lasting between five to thirty minutes. These conversations were conducted on the streets, in slum communities, in malls and apartment complexes, in colleges, in front of temples, mosques and churches, in bus stands, metro stations and auto stands and the signatories were drawn from all walks of life. They included auto drivers, construction workers, beedi workers, flower sellers, domestic workers and pourakarmikas, tribals in forests, farmers in villages and city dwellers in different towns and cities, activists and advocates, sex workers, students, government functionaries, men, women, gender and sexual minorities, journalists and workers’ union members,” a press release stated.
These conversations on justice for Bilkis were tragically not easy given the prevailing atmosphere in the country that has been polarised on religious and caste lines, the campaign noted. “Even more tragically several from the Muslim community were afraid to even sign the petition fearing that they would be targeted. But what was encouraging was that despite resistance from some to sign the petition, thousands of ordinary citizens from all communities were able to clearly speak out against this form of violence against women even while condemning the politics of hate and polarisation within which the violence against Bilkis could be justified and the criminal action of the convicts be condoned,” it stated.
The Karnataka with Bilkis campaign said sending these eleven men back to jail as per law will communicate to the people of India that the Supreme Court will work to ensure the dignity, freedom and safety of all women especially those from vulnerable and targeted communities.