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Month: December 2018

Even prison walls have not been able to stop Varavara Rao from writing

Even prison walls have not been able to stop Varavara Rao from writing

The Leaflet / By N Venugopal

Prison walls cannot stop imagination and expression, however much they try to curb freedom of expression. Varavara Rao, the renowned poet and public intellectual, is again behind bars, this time round as an under-trial prisoner in Pune’s Yerawada Central Prison in the infamous Bhima-Koregaon or Urban Naxal case. In his public life spanning about 60 years, the 78-year-old poet spent more than seven years in various prisons in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, beginning with his first arrest in 1973.
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Activists Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde get relief from arrest

Activists Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde get relief from arrest

Scroll.in / By Sroll Staff

The Bombay High Court on Friday extended relief from arrest, in the Bhima Koregaon case, to activists Gautam Navlakha till January 14 and Anand Teltumbde till December 17, The Hindu reported. The court, however, rejected Stan Swamy’s petition to quash the first information report against him.
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How Contractual Labourers Uprooted BJP’s Rule in Chhattisgarh

How Contractual Labourers Uprooted BJP’s Rule in Chhattisgarh

Newsclick / By Saurabh Sharma

The workers were especially angered following the arrest of activist Sudha Bharadwaj in a “false” case. Bharadwaj had been associated with the CMM for many years.
Contract workers of Chhattisgarh seem to have played a significant role in the defeat of the 15-year-old BJP-led state government in the recent elections.
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UAPA: A frontal attack on democratic rights

UAPA: A frontal attack on democratic rights


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

Sanhati India / By Persecuted Prisoners’ Solidarity Committee

We are going through one of the most repressive times in post-Independent India where the fundamental rights of expression and the right to form any organization or association that can question government policies or fight for rights of the people have been criminalized. The government, armed with acts like Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), is coming down heavily on all those standing up for the rights of economically and socially marginalized sections of people.
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‘Urban naxal is something of an oxymoron’

‘Urban naxal is something of an oxymoron’

Frontline / By Ziya Us Salam

Interview with Professor Romila Thapar.
The term “urban naxal” was once used during peasant protests against the state. Today, it is used almost as a slur on those who ask uncomfortable questions of the state. The same fate meets those authors and poets who refuse to sing hosannas to state power.
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SC Adjourns Hearing To January

SC Adjourns Hearing To January

Livelaw.in / By Mehal Jain

The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned to January the hearing on the SLP arising out of the October 24 judgment of the Bombay High Court by virtue of which a Pune court’s order granting additional 90 days’ time for further investigation and filing the charge sheet against lawyer Surendra Gadling and other activists accused in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence was set aside.
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Raise Your Voice: Postcard Campaign

Raise Your Voice: Postcard Campaign

(English translation of postcard campaign)

Do write protest letters to:

The Honourable President
Rashtrapati Bhavan
New Delhi 110004
e-mail: ksamresh.nbt@nic.in

The Honourable Chief Justice of India
The Supreme Court
Tilak Marg, New Delhi, 110001
e-mail: supremecourt@nic.in

Release Human Rights Activists!

Dismiss the false lawsuits around Bhima Koregaon.
Their release is our freedom.

Since January 2018, several workers, lawyers, writers, poets, and human rights activists have been arrested on the basis of false accusations in connection with the Bhima Koregaon incident. Moreover, those Hindutva forces who were actually responsible for the violence are being protected. Draconian laws such as the U.A.P.A are being used to repress voices of dissent and struggles for justice.

We won’t stay silent. Nor will we be repressed any longer.

1. Release the lawyers, writers, poets, and human rights activists who have been arrested on the basis of false accusations in connection with the Bhima Koregaon incident.
2. Arrest Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote, the real perpetrators of the violence of the Bhima Koregaon incident.
3. Repeal draconian laws such as the U.A.P.A. and the C.S.P.S.A.
4. Protect and preserve the right to dissent.

Release activists in Bhima-Koregaon case, say Ambedkarites

Release activists in Bhima-Koregaon case, say Ambedkarites

The Hindu / by Suyash Karangutkar

Ahead of the first anniversary of the Bhima-Koregaon riots, Ambedkarities from across the State gathered in Shivaji Park on Thursday and criticised the government for arrests of the activists and demanded that an end be put to dirty politics to divide the country.
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`Mumbai Rises to Save Democracy´ commemorates Mahaparinirvan Diwas

`Mumbai Rises to Save Democracy´ commemorates Mahaparinirvan Diwas

Mumbai Rises to Save Democracy

On 5th and 6th December 2018, Mumbai Rises to Save Democracy did campaigns at various spots inside Shivaji Park on the occasion of Mahaparinirvan Diwas (Memorial day). Our campaign was focused on the facts that despite attacks on Dalits in Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018, Hindutva leaders Manohar Bhide and Milind Ekbote roam scot-free. However, several human rights activists and workers from what was previously known as Reliance electric union, remain arrested for several months.
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