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Month: January 2024

‘My state has done the greatest honour by putting me in jail’: Anand Teltumbde after receiving award

‘My state has done the greatest honour by putting me in jail’: Anand Teltumbde after receiving award

by Dr Meena Kandasamy / @meenakandasamy (Jan 31):
Feeling so proud of Dr Anand Teltumbde for receiving the Karnataka Government’s Basava Rashtriya Puraskar today

‘My state has done the greatest honour by putting me in jail’: Anand Teltumbde after receiving Karnataka’s Basava award

01/02/2024

The Indian Express / by Sanath Prasad

Teltumbde says the award is ‘an honour for all the faceless and countless activists struggling for making this world better for people to live’.
Civil rights activist and academic Anand Teltumbde was felicitated with the Basava Rashtriya Puraskara by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Bengaluru on Wednesday for his work on delivering social justice and equality through speeches and writings.
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Poster by Siddesh Gautam / #bakeryprasad

NIA court allows Anand Teltumbde to travel to Bengaluru to receive Basava Rashtriya Puraskar award

30/01/2024

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

Dr Anand Teltumbde has been allowed to travel to Bengaluru to receive the Basava Rashtriya Puraskar award for 2022–23. The award recognises individuals and organisations for their achievements in the areas of literature, social justice and harmony.
Today, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court of special judge Rajesh Kataria allowed Dalit scholar, academic and activist, Dr Anand Teltumbde to travel to Bengaluru to receive the Basava Rashtriya Puraskar award for 2022–23 from the Karnataka government.
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Elgar Parishad case accused allowed to visit Karnataka to receive award

30/01/2024

India Today / by Vidya

Professor Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the 2018 Elgar Parishad case, has been allowed to travel to Bengaluru to receive a felicitation by the state government.
A special court in Mumbai has allowed scholar-activist Professor Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the 2018 Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case of Maharashtra, to travel to Karnataka for two days to receive an award from the government in the neighbouring state.
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Civil rights activist Anand Teltumbde chosen for Basava Award; Na. D’Souza gets Pampa Prashasti

26/01/2024

The Hindu / by the Hindu Bureau

Scholar, civil rights activist, and Ambedkarite Anand Teltumbde from Maharashtra and Dr. N.G. Mahadevappa from Dharwad in Karnataka have been picked for the national-level Basava Award for the year 2022-23 and 2023-24, respectively.
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What is Kabir Kala Manch, the cultural group accused of being a Maoist front?

What is Kabir Kala Manch, the cultural group accused of being a Maoist front?

The Indian Express / by Chandan Haygunde

The KKM was formed by a Pune activist, Amarnath Chandaliya, after the Gujarat riots in 2002 for promoting unity.
An alleged operative of the banned CPI-Maoist, Santosh Vasant Shelar alias Vishwa alias Painter, who went missing from Pune in November 2010, returned home over a week ago in bad health.
… The KKM was among the outfits that organised Elgaar Parishad at Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31, 2017, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battle of Koregaon Bhima, fought between Peshwas and Britishers on January 1, 1818.
Read more

Also read/watch:
▪ Kabir Kala Manch: A History of Revolutionary Singing and State Repression (ritimo / April 2022)
▪ Video: Dafachya Talavar (Songs of Defiance) – A short documentary on Kabir Kala Manch | Hindi, Marthi (subtitles: English) | 24:01min | 2022
▪ The Security Playbook Used To Erode Democracy In Modi’s India & How The Tide Might Turn (article 14 / March 2022)
▪ Who are the three Kabir Kala Manch artistes arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case this week? (Scroll.in / Sep 2020)

UAPA should be scrapped as 97 percent accused are aquitted, says Prof. Haragopal

UAPA should be scrapped as 97 percent accused are aquitted, says Prof. Haragopal

The Hindu / by Rajulapudi Srinivas

Calling UAPA ‘undemocratic’, the human rights activist says the State is leaning towards implementing more oppressive and repressive laws
“A person suffers in jail for three to four years and then gets acquitted after the prosecution fails to prove his guilt. This is happening in many cases now. About 97 percent of the arrests were made without any evidence, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) cases,” said G. Haragopal, human rights activists and retired professor from the University of Hyderabad.
Read more

Also read:
▪ The Govt is out to silence Dissenters through Arrests: Justice Hosbet Suresh (Sabrangindia / Oct 2018)

NIA says it has already supplied copies of all electronic evidence to the accused

NIA says it has already supplied copies of all electronic evidence to the accused

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

Today, the National Investigation Agency informed the court that it has already supplied cloned copies of all electronic evidence it relies on in the Bhima Koregaon case with the accused.
It also sidestepped compliance with the previous Order of the court on providing a chart showing evidence shared and pending with the accused by stating that such a chart had already been furnished by the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL).
Read More

Also read:
▪ Why Courts Are Ignoring Concerns Of Planted Evidence In The Bhima-Koregaon Prosecution (article14 / Jan 2023)
▪ Incriminating document found in Fr. Stan Swamy’s computer ‘planted’; similar tampering found in other Bhima Koregaon accused: Reports American forensic firm (The Leaflet / Dec 2022)

Anand Teltumbde: Of a frank and fearless mind

Anand Teltumbde: Of a frank and fearless mind

Poster by #bakeryprasad

The Indian Express / by Suraj Yengde

Teltumbde helped us to foreground the meaning of atrocity. Among his notable scholarly contributions to social sciences are his monographs covering the state and the political economy.
Anand Teltumbde is a rare intellectual, someone gifted with a versatility that cuts across disciplines. He’s among the top-ranking intellectuals of contemporary India. Much like the late British historian Eric Hobsbawm, he is someone who can easily play with multiple topics and engage intelligently.
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Prison writing sheds harsh light on our states and societies

Prison writing sheds harsh light on our states and societies

Himalmag.com / Sharmila Purkayastha

‘For, In Your Tongue, I Cannot Fit’, an anthology of prison poems, testifies to the coercive nature of the state and society – yet its under-representation of regional poets speaks of wider exclusions.

My dangerous personality
That you do not understand:
The secret is poetry.

‘Poetry’ by Varavara Rao, 30 December 1987. Translated by N Venugopal

What is it about poetry that states and governments in power find difficult to accept? Varavara Rao, a well-known revolutionary poet and long-time detainee of the Indian government, writes in ‘Poetry’ about the enduring resilience and power of verse to voice people’s concerns in the face of surveillance and propaganda. He expands on the poet’s “dangerous personality”:

You go on about surveillance
Poetry gets ignited and continues to fire.
You go on about governance
Poetry talks about people even in sleep.

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Notes from prison | Talk with Sudha Bharadwaj

Notes from prison | Talk with Sudha Bharadwaj

Notes from prison

19/01/2024

The Telegraph / by Lakshmi Subramanian

‘Phansi Yard’ is more than just jottings of a sensitive prisoner. Like all jail diaries, it documents the everyday — the quality of food, limited access to clothing, the absence of privacy — with great attention and, alongside, records individual stories with real sensitivity, framing them within a larger social context
The prison diary has remained an enduring genre in all societies with its extraordinary capacity to document the self and interrogate power structures.
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Lawyer’s ballad of Yerawada Jail reflects on the lives of 76 prisoners

13/01/2024

Deccan Chronicle / by Anand K Sahay

This resident of Phansi Yard has a writer’s sensibility, and says in a matter-of-fact way
This is a remarkable document of life observed from the Phansi Yard or Death Row of the Yerawada Women’s Jail in Pune by an extraordinary individual who made a conscious choice to be a trade union worker and human rights lawyer in order to stand with marginalised people, rather than build a career as a mathematician after emerging with a shining degree from IIT, Delhi.
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From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada

Author: Sudha Bhardwaj
Publisher: Juggernaut
Pages: 216
Order

#keeptalking | Anuradha Sen Gupta talks to Sudha Bharadwaj

08/01/2024


en | 32:47min | 2024

By anuradhasays

Trade unionist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj is used to fighting rights battles. She started her career in Chhattisgarh in the late 1980s as a trade unionist and later studied law in order to fight legal cases directly. Even though she has been on the side of many losing battles, giving up or opting out has never been an option. Despite the setbacks and personal challenges, the biggest one being arrested in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, Sudha who is out on bail, retains her good cheer and optimism. In a wide ranging conversation with Anuradha SenGupta, Sudha talks of women who are incarcerated, the underbelly of capitalism, the rights of workers and her hope for the new year.
Watch video

Also watch/read:

■ Video – Book Release: Why is the state afraid of Sudha Bharadwaj?

By People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Jan 2021en + hindi | 2h 53min | 2021

Topic: Why is the state afraid of Sudha Bharadwaj?
A long interview conducted with Sudha over several days before she was arrested is now being published as an online book “Sudha Bharadwaj Speaks – A Life in Law and Activism”, and will be released at this webinar by the well-known writer, Nayantara Sahgal. Sudha’s daughter, Maaysha, her lawyer Yug Chaudhary, social activist Harsh Mandar, historian Uma Chakravarti amongst other coworkers & colleagues, will also share their experiences and memories of working with her.
Watch video @ PUCL Facebook (videos)

■ Sudha Bharadwaj speaks – A Life in Law and Activism


Publisher: Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)
Edition: January 2021
Language: English
Sudha Bharadwaj’s interview by: Darshana Mitra and Santanu Chakraborty
Paperback: 316 pages
Access a free PDF copy of the book here:
Sudha_Bharadwaj_speaks (2,1 MB)

Mahesh Raut’s bail gets entangled in tagging of similar matters

Mahesh Raut’s bail gets entangled in tagging of similar matters

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

First Section 43D(5) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, then stay on bail, and now ‘tagging of similar matters’ means accused Mahesh Raut cannot liaison with life and liberty.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court extended the stay on the Order of the Bombay High Court granting regular bail to forest rights activist Mahesh Raut by two more weeks.
Read more

Also read:
▪ ‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)
▪ Bhima Koregaon: Bombay High Court grants regular bail to Mahesh Raut (The Leaflet / Sep 2023)
▪ Bhima Koregaon Case: Mahesh Raut, youngest accused, granted bail by the Bombay HC! (SabrangIndia / Sep 2023)

Jyoti Jagtap’s bail plea adjourned again, to be heard with Shoma Sen’s

Jyoti Jagtap’s bail plea adjourned again, to be heard with Shoma Sen’s

Jyoti Jagtap’s bail plea adjourned again, to be heard with Shoma Sen’s

17/01/2024

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

A division Bench of the Supreme Court observed that it was in the interest of justice to hear “part-heard” matters arising out of the same first information report together.
Today, the Supreme Court adjourned hearing of the bail application of anti-caste activist and musical performer Jyoti Jagtap again.
The court reasoned that it was better to hear “part-heard” matters pertaining to the Bhima Koregaon–Elgar Parishad case together.
A division Bench comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Kumar directed Jagtap’s bail to be tagged along with the bail application of women’s rights activist and academic Shoma Sen.
Read more

Supreme Court Directs Tagging Of Jyoti Jagtap’s Bail Plea With Shoma Sen’s Appeal

17/01/2024

Live Law / by Awstika Das

The Supreme Court on Wednesday (January 17) directed the bail plea of activist and Bhima Koregaon-accused Jyoti Jagtap to be tagged with co-accused Shoma Kanti Sen’s appeal and heard together.
A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Kumar was hearing Jagtap’s petition challenging the Bombay High Court’s decision to reject her bail application.
Read more

Court pulls up NIA for not giving electronic evidence copies to Gautam Navlakha

Court pulls up NIA for not giving electronic evidence copies to Gautam Navlakha

NIA court lambasts prosecution for not providing cloned copies of evidence to Gautam Navlakha

17/01/2024

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala

During the previous hearing, journalist and human rights activist Gautam Navlakha had filed an application seeking cloned copies of electronic evidence claimed by the investigating authorities.
On Tuesday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) admitted to not having supplied cloned copies of all electronic evidence it relies on to journalist and human rights activist Gautam Navlakha.
Read more

Court pulls up NIA for not giving electronic evidence copies to Gautam Navlakha

17/01/2024

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The activist’s lawyer said that the central agency earlier filed an affidavit claiming that it had provided the clones to all the accused persons.
A special court on Tuesday pulled up the National Investigation Agency for failing to provide cloned copies of the electronic evidence it is relying on in the Bhima Koregaon case to human rights activist Gautam Navlakha, the Leaflet reported.
Read more

Also Read:
▪ NIA submits affidavit stating accused have been provided copies of all evidence (The Leaflet / Oct 2023)
▪ Why Courts Are Ignoring Concerns Of Planted Evidence In The Bhima-Koregaon Prosecution (article14 / Jan 2023)
▪ Incriminating document found in Fr. Stan Swamy’s computer ‘planted’; similar tampering found in other Bhima Koregaon accused: Reports American forensic firm (The Leaflet / Dec 2022)