India – CASR EXPRESS SOLIDARITY WITH COMRADE PRAMOD MISHRA
We hereby share a press statement issued by the Campaign Against State Repression (CASR).
Press Statement
Date: 29 January 2026
CASR EXPRESS SOLIDARITY WITH COMRADE PRAMOD MISHRA, WHO IS ON A FAST UNTO DEATH IN BEUR JAIL, BIHAR, FIGHTING FOR PRISONERS RIGHTS
The Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) expresses its unwavering solidarity with political prisoner Comrade Pramod Mishra, a 74-year-old revolutionary activist presently incarcerated in Beur Central Jail, Bihar, where he has been imprisoned for nearly three years.
Pramod Mishra, whom the state identifies as a Central Committee and Polit Bureau member of the CPI (Maoist), is currently on a hunger strike—declared as a fast unto death from 26 January—to protest the inhuman and degrading conditions prevailing inside Beur Jail. His demands are basic and legitimate: adequate food and breakfast, access to essential daily necessities, and regular telephone facilities to communicate with his family members and legal counsel.
At the age of 74, continued incarceration under such conditions amounts to slow custodial violence. The denial of adequate nutrition, basic amenities, and communication facilities reflects the punitive and retaliatory character of prison administration, particularly in cases involving political prisoners and those accused of dissent against the state.
Indian prisons are increasingly functioning as sites of class and political repression, where prisoners—especially those associated with revolutionary, Adivasi, workers’, and peasants’ movements—are subjected to systematic discrimination. While the state claims that jail conditions in some parts of the country have improved, the lived reality across prisons remains one of overcrowding, inadequate food, poor medical care, and denial of legal and family access. These issues are structural and nationwide, not isolated incidents.
The tragic deaths of Father Stan Swamy and Professor G. N. Saibaba stand as stark reminders of how criminal neglect, denial of medical care, and prolonged incarceration under inhuman conditions can become instruments of killing. Both were elderly, seriously ill, and repeatedly denied timely medical treatment and basic facilities, exposing the deadly consequences of the current prison regime. These deaths were not accidents but outcomes of an inhuman system that treats political prisoners as expendable.
The condition of Pramod Mishra is not an exception; it reflects a broader pattern of repression against political prisoners, undertrial detainees, and voices resisting exploitation and state violence. The continued neglect of elderly and ailing prisoners further exposes the anti-people orientation of the present prison system.
CASR DEMANDS:
1. Immediate provision of proper, nutritious food and essential necessities to all prisoners.
2. Guaranteed and regular telephone access for communication with family members and legal counsel.
3. An independent and transparent medical monitoring of Comrade Pramod Mishra, considering his age and ongoing hunger strike.
We call upon democratic forces, civil liberties organizations, and people’s movements to raise their voices against custodial repression and to intervene urgently to prevent any irreversible harm.
Repression cannot extinguish resistance.
The struggle for dignity and justice continues.
Campaign Against State Repression
Organising Team
(AIRSO, AISF, APCR, ASA, BASF, BSM, Bhim Army, bsCEM, CEM, COLLECTIVE, CRPP, CSM, CTF, DISSC, DSU, DTF, Forum Against Repression Telangana, Fraternity, IAPL, Innocence Network, Karnataka Janashakti, LAA, Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan, Mazdoor Patrika, NAPM, Nazariya Magazine, Nishant Natya Manch, Nowruz, NTUI, People’s Watch, Rihai Manch, Samajwadi Janparishad, Samajwadi Lok Manch, Bahujan Samajwadi Manch, United Peace Alliance, WSS, Y4S)
