July 2020 – Page 6 – free them all

Neurologists will examine VV Rao / VV Rao tests positive for Covid-19 / Shocking Treatment at JJ Hospital

17/07/2020 Rani

NEUROLOGISTS CALLED TO EXAMINE 80-YR-OLD POET-ACTIVIST

News 18 / by PTI

Jailed writer and activist Varavara Rao, undergoing treatment at St George Hospital after testing positive for COVID-19, is also suffering from neurological problem and specialist doctors have been called to treat him, hospital officials said on Friday.
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VARAVARA RAO TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID-19

Hindustan Times / by HT Correspondent

Poet and activist Varavara Rao, who was lodged at Taloja Jail as an undertrial in connection with the Elgar Parishad case, tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday. Rao, 81, is asymptomatic but will be treated with symptomatic drugs. His family has alleged criminal negligence by state authorities.
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SHOCKING TREATMENT OF VARA VARA RAO AT JJ HOSPITAL

15/07/2020

By Human Rights Defenders´ Alert – India

Human Rights Defenders Alert urges NHRC to intervene immediately. VV’s family in Mumbai since yesterday has been horrified to find him in a pathetic & unattended condition at hospital.

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CASR: Release Varavara Rao immediately! Demand the release of all political prisoners!

16/07/2020 Rani

By Campaign Against State Repression

The Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) demands the immediate release of the revolutionary poet Varavara Rao who has tested positive for COVID-19. As per information received by family members, Varavara Rao’s health has rapidly deteriorated over the last couple of weeks. This is also evidenced by his weakening physical state, incoherent speech and inability to independently perform daily or bodily functions. After persistent efforts of family members in highlighting his health condition, the jail authorities, who had denied these concerns, were compelled to shift Varavara Rao to JJ Hospital in Mumbai on July 13th. However, his health further worsened as hospital authorities failed to care for him. They even forcibly sent away his family for raising concerns about him being abandoned on a dirty and unsanitary stretcher. Today, he has tested positive for COVID-19 and has been shifted to Saint George Hospital, Mumbai.
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Mumbai Rises: Life of Prisoners put at risk during pandemic! Release All Political Prisoners!

16/07/2020 Rani

By Mumbai Rises To Save Democracy

Life of Prisoners put at risk during pandemic !
VARAVARA RAO tests positive for Covid 19!
Demand Immediate Release of All Political Prisoners!
STOP IMPRISONING DURING PANDEMIC!

People’s Poet Varavara Rao has been shifted to the Saint George Hospital today after he tested positive for Coronavirus. The 80 year old poet has been jailed along with 10 others activists in a false case post the attacks at Bhima Koregaon in 2018. …

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More than 500 appeal CM Uddhav Thackeray to release BK accused

16/07/2020 Rani

Karctivist.org/ by Kractivist

Mumbai, July 16, 2020 – More than 500 individuals including activists academics, lawyers and Students endorsed petition to Chief Minister Maharashtra Uddhav Bal Thackeray demanding interim bail amidst Covid 19 Pandemic for the Bhima Koregaon 11.
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Workers Demand: Free Sudha Bharadwaj!

Chhattisgarh, July 14

Gautam Navlakha taken to JJ hospital for check-up / Varavara Rao remains admitted

16/07/2020 Rani

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Meanwhile, writer-poet Varavara Rao, another accused in the case, remains admitted at JJ hospital after he was shifted from Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai two days ago. Doctors said he is stable and responding to treatment.
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How The UAPA Is Perverting The Idea Of Justice

16/07/2020 Rani

Article 14 / by Abhinav Sekhri

Varavara Rao. Sudha Bharadwaj. Devangana Kalita. SafooraZargar. Scores of activists and students, all labelled criminals, all charged under a law whose legal processes ensure that proof of their innocence or guilt is rendered irrelevant.
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Revamped Shakti Bhatt prize honours activists Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha

16/07/2020 Rani

The Indian Express / by Lifestyle Desk

Starting this year, the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize now known as the Shakti Bhatt Prize, will honour an author’s body of work rather than their first book, as was hitherto practiced. This year’s honours go to Anand Teltumbde, scholar, activist and writer of Khairlanji: A Strange and Bitter Crop and Republic of Caste along with Gautam Navlakha, an activist, journalist and writer of Days and Nights in the Heartland of Rebellion.
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When the State Fears a Poet: Varsha speaks up for her uncle

15/07/2020 Rani

Boston Review / by Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla

On Saturday, I checked my phone and saw that we’d heard from my uncle, currently a political prisoner in India. “I’m alright,” he said. But he wasn’t alright. His voice was weak and feeble, and his words, disjointed, slipped into Hindi instead of his beloved Telugu. For over six decades, Varavara Rao, the revolutionary poet, captivated generations with his critical poetry and prose. That he was anything less than articulate, let alone incoherent, was a gut punch. The goal of Narendra Modi’s administration has been to silence those like my uncle. Had they succeeded?
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Free Varavara Rao – Release All Political Prisoners

15/07/2020 Rani

By Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation

… what Varavara Rao and other political prisoners need is more than basic humanitarian care. They need justice.
They have been imprisoned on the ridiculous charge of “conspiring to kill the Prime Minister.” The only evidence against them is their attempts to build an anti-fascist movement in India. Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, Anand Teltumbde, Shoma Sen, Sudha Bharadwaj, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudhir Dhawale and Rona Wilson are not “conspirators”. Each of them has worn their politics on their sleeves, speaking, writing, and working for the rights and assertion of the oppressed in India.
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Cards and letters for jailed India scholar Anand Teltumbde as he turns 70 / Zoom talk 7pm

15/07/2020 Rani

Dalit artist Siddhesh Gautam’s drawing of Prof Teltumbde in jail

BBC / by BBC

Prominent Indian scholar and human rights defender Anand Teltumbde has turned 70 in a Mumbai prison amid growing calls for his release, writes the BBC’s Geeta Pandey in Delhi.
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‘YOUR IDEAS HAVE SPREAD LIKE WILDFIRE’: A LETTER TO DR ANAND TELTUMBDE ON HIS BIRTHDAY

The Wire / by Suraj Yengde, Balmurli Natrajan, Meena Kandasamy, Sangeeta Kamat and Biju Mathew

The din of darkness sprawls, the night sky devours and us – those who love you yearn for the patient past to be with us and skip the present. There is a silence in the lover’s island while the canon of flames has died in a fascist land.
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Upcoming

@surajyengde & @meenakandasamy talk about Anand Teltumbde´s work, its significance, why is he being targeted?
July 15, 2020
7pm IST

Click to enlarge