In documentary on jailed activist Umar Khalid, glimpses of resilience and a long wait for justice
Lalit Vachani’s ‘Prisoner No. 626710 is Present’ revisits the circumstances leading to the activist’s arrest in 2022 and his prolonged incarceration.
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Prisoner No. 626710 is Present is a chronicle of activity as well as stasis. In Lalit Vachani’s documentary about Umar Khalid, there is the dynamism of political activism. There is also the forced waiting that follows an arrest with no trial in sight.
Vachani’s film explores the lead-up to Khalid’s arrest on September 13, 2020, on allegations that he was among the “masterminds” behind the riots that had taken place in New Delhi earlier that year. Still awaiting a trial and having been refused bail several times, Khalid has become one of the most potent symbols of the crackdown on civil rights in the Modi era.
The documentary lays out the circumstances leading to the former Jawaharlal Nehru University research scholar’s arrest alongside well the effects of his incarceration on his partner Banojyotsna Lahiri. When Lahiri first met Khalid at JNU, he soon became known as “the boy who relentlessly asked questions”, she tells Vachani.
The 59-minute film has footage of Khalid at protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens. The narrative places the arrest of the articulate, fiery Khalid in the context of the larger crackdown on the people’s movements that protested against the Bharatiya Janata Party-government’s citizenship policies as well as actions against...
