Mahavir Singh Narwal had said this in November last year, his voice cracking.
As a ferocious second wave of the coronavirus pandemic erupted in India earlier this year, the 71-year-old retired professor could not meet his only daughter Natasha, one of India’s numerous political prisoners.
Narwal died on Sunday – awaiting his daughter’s release from a jail in capital New Delhi – after he contracted COVID-19 and was hospitalised in the northern Haryana state.
As her father’s condition deteriorated in hospital, Natasha filed a bail plea seeking release to look after her ailing father. But it was too late.
318
Ramnik Mohan
In the morning, I had a telephonic conversation with some friends. Among the many things we talked about, the one that stood out in all was asking after the health of Mahavir Narwal, our common friend and acquaintance. I knew that he had been admitted to a hospital after being infected with Covid and was fighting it out on oxygen support. The update in the morning was that he was likely to be put on a ventilator. In the late evening came the news that Covid had taken him away from us.
Two things were universally known about him his joie de vivre and his never-say-die spirit. Like many others, his daughter Natasha had been incarcerated under various sections of the law, including the dreadful UAPA, for around a year now. Not once did he give up on her or on the struggle that ensued in the courts for justice. Never did he meet and greet all and sundry without a welcoming smile, even during this period of great stress and uncertainty, compounded by the surge of th
Indian political prisoners in poor health lose family COVID | Coronavirus pandemic News
Mahavir Singh Narwal said in November last year that his voice cracked.
When the second hard wave of the coronavirus pandemic began in India, the 71-year-old retired teacher was unable to meet her only daughter Natasha, one of India’s many political prisoners.
Narwal died on Sunday – waiting for his daughter to be released from prison in the New Delhi capital – after being hired by COVID-19 and hospitalized in the northern state of Haryana.
As her father’s condition at the hospital worsened, Natasha presented a guarantee to demand her freedom to care for her sick father. But it was too late.
outlookindia.com 2021-05-14T11:43:34+05:30
On May 9, Mahavir Narwal, father of Natasha Narwal, a student activist who led the Pinjra Tod movement, died of Covid. He could not meet, or talk to, his daughter before he died. She had been in Tihar Jail for over a year, charged under UAPA. If you had to pick any moment that exemplified the character of the Narendra Modi regime, this small story is perhaps as emblematic as any. It is a reminder, in miniature, that the Modi government, as it completes its seventh year in power, is presiding over unfathomable scenes of death and suffering. The pandemic’s second wave would probably have hit India hard under any circumstance. But there is no question that the Modi government’s indifference, incompetence and callousness has given the empire of death a greater rein than it otherwise might have had. But the story is also emblematic in other ways. A young student activist is in jail charged under anti-terror laws. It is
First published on Thu 13 May 2021 05.06 EDT
An ashen-faced Natasha Narwal emerged on bail from Delhiâs notorious Tihar jail on Monday evening. It was the freedom one of Indiaâs most prominent feminist activists had spent a year fighting for, but this was an exit steeped only in sadness; it had come 24 hours too late.
A day earlier, Narwalâs 71-year-old father, Dr Mahavir Narwal, had died of Covid-19, alone in a hospital intensive care unit in the city of Rohtak â another victim of the devastating second wave that has swept India in recent weeks. So far the country has registered more than 20m cases and a quarter of a million deaths, though most experts believe the true toll to be far higher.