Hany Babu has been arrested. Even though the news was not surprising, it shocked me. It is unsettling to think that we will not longer walk...
Hany Babu has been arrested. Even though the news was not surprising, it shocked me. It is unsettling to think that we will not longer walk past a class overflowing with students with Hany Babu inside, that we do not know how long it will take to bump into him again in the corridors of Delhi University’s Arts Faculty.
These had always been chance encounters. Hany Babu appeared, at least to me, a man of few words. Apart from knowing him as a colleague, a fellow teacher at the neighbouring Department of English, I was aware of his activities on the anti-caste front and as the person leading the Saibaba defence committee. The former Delhi University professor, GN Saibaba, is wheelchair-bound with over 90% physical disability. In 2017, he was given a life sentence for having links with Maoists.
Last year, when my father called me to tell me that the home of a Delhi University professor had been raided, I asked him whether the professor was Hany Babu. Why did his name came to my mind? My apprehension arose out of the fact he was audacious enough to spearhead the Sai Baba defence committee. It was a dangerous thing to do....
