Asha – Page 34 – free them all

Book Review | Those who refuse to be caged

28/06/2024 Asha

The Telegraph / by Lalit Panda

In The Incarcerations, Alpa Shah provides a survey of these men and women that allows us to understand what truly connects them
For many who have followed the news regarding the Bhima Koregaon case, the saga of arrests, press conferences, cyber-forensic reports, bail hearings, statements of condemnation, and protests has gone on long enough and been spread out so thinly that fatigue and forgetfulness are real threats.
Naturally, the opposite has been the case for the 16 individuals arraigned by investigative agencies in the matter. For these persons, the case has illuminated the state of our democracy, the nature of threats against it, and the identity of its most strident defenders.
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The Incarcerations: Bhima Koregaon And The Search For Democracy In India

Author: Alpa Shah
Publishing Date: March 2024
Publisher: Harper Collins Publisher
Pages: 672
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How The Indian Prison System Denies Basic Freedoms, Rights And Dignity To Political Prisoners

25/06/2024 Asha

The Polis Project / by Bhavya Dore and Sukhada Tatke

In the summer of May 2022, relegated to his oblong-shaped high-security anda cell, GN Saibaba was frequently thirsty. The Delhi University professor, lodged in Nagpur Central Jail at the time, has post-polio paralysis in both legs. He had also lost the use of his left hand after a nerve injury he said he sustained during his arrest. As temperatures reached 45 degrees outside, Saibaba needed help every time he wanted a drink—his wheelchair did not reach the corner of the cell where the pot of water was kept.
… In September 2022, Anand Teltumbde, a human-rights activist and writer, approached the National Investigation Agency court with a plea for mosquito nets. “Taloja central jail is infested with mosquitoes and the mosquito repellent ointments and incense sticks are hardly of any use,” he wrote in his application
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Also read:
▪ INTRODUCING THE BK-16 PRISON DIARIES SERIES (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
▪ Relatives of BK16 Flag Prison Authorities’ ‘Criminal Negligence’ and Deteriorating Health of Undertrials (Newsclick / Sep 2022)
▪ Punished without trial: How India’s political prisoners are being denied basic rights in jail (Scroll.in / Aug 2022)
▪ Hunger Strike unto death against the harassment from Taloja Central Jail’s apathetic administration (By Sagar Gorkhe / May 2022)

Book Review | Ajaz Ashraf’s Account Is A ‘Museum Of Memories’ For The Dispossessed

25/06/2024 Asha

Kashmir Times / by Gowhar Geelani

“A powerful account that reminds us that all-powerful States possess the power to silence dissenters, normalise fear in society, and criminalise opinions of free-thinking individuals and dreamers of equality, and rely on institutional memory to settle scores with dissenters at the time of its choosing.“
While reading journalist-author Ajaz Ashraf’s latest book “Bhima Koregaon Challenging Caste”, I was instantaneously reminded of Lavrentiy Beria, the longest-serving secret police chief in Joseph Stalin’s reign of oppression in Russia and Eastern Europe.
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Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste. Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality

Author: Ajaz Ashraf
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 496
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Also read:
▪ Book Excerpt | How Bhima Koregaon Became a Trope for Dalit Pride and Assertion (The Wire │ by Ajaz Ashraf │ June 2024)

▪ The Incarcerations: Bhima Koregaon And The Search For Democracy In India

Author: Alpa Shah
Publishing Date: March 2024
Publisher: Harper Collins Publisher
Pages: 672
Read more / order

▪ “Salaakhon Mein Qaid Avaazein”

By Family Members and friends of BK16
Edition: June 2021
Language: Hindi
Pages: 69
Access a PDF copy of the book here (15MB)

BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: RUPALI JADHAV TRAVELS TEN HOURS FOR FLEETING EXCHANGES WITH JYOTI JAGTAP

24/06/2024 Asha

To mark six years of the arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of political dissidents in the Bhima Koregaon case, The Polis Project is publishing a series of writings by the BK-16, and their families, friends and partners. By describing various aspects of the past six years, the series offers a glimpse into the BK-16’s lives inside prison, as well as the struggles of their loved ones outside. Each piece in the series is complemented by Arun Ferreira’s striking and evocative artwork.

Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project

THE POLIS PROJECT / BY RUPALI JADHAV

This is the story of that day, when Jyoti was supposed to meet us, but did not show up. Two other members of Kabir Kala Manch, Ramesh and Sagar, had already been arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case, and the NIA had summoned Jyoti to Mumbai for questioning for the third time. The next day, on 8 September 2020, Jyoti was supposed to meet me and some of our sathis, or friends, at Sarasbaug in Pune. We waited for her for a long time. Her phone was unreachable. I became anxious because she is usually very punctual and disciplined, and I told the others that she never takes this long. Only after I started searching for her did I receive the call. “We are calling from Pune ATS. Jyoti Jagtap has been arrested. You can come here to collect her keys and belongings.”
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Also read:
▪ BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: JENNY ROWENA ON THE FEAR OF PRISONS AND THE BRAHMINICAL SYSTEM BEHIND IT (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
▪ BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: ANAND TELTUMBDE REFLECTS ON HIS ARREST AND INCARCERATION (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
▪ BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: STORIES OF LOVE, MURDER AND CHILD MARRIAGE FROM SHOMA SEN’S YEARS IN PRISONS (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
▪ BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: ARUN FERREIRA ON THE FARCE AND TRAGEDY OF THE PANDEMIC IN PRISON (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
▪ BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: VERNON GONSALVES ON THE STRUGGLE TO READ AND WRITE BEHIND BARS (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
▪ INTRODUCING THE BK-16 PRISON DIARIES SERIES (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)

The Opposition Must Demand the Release of all Political Prisoners

23/06/2024 Asha

The Opposition Must Demand the Release of all Political Prisoners

23/06/2024

The Wire / by Partho Sarothi Ray

It is the duty of a revitalised opposition to prevent the continuation of the darkness that has descended over India in the last 10 years.
The results of the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, although quite unexpected and surprising for many, has brought a fresh breath of life to the sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic Republic of India. Nay, it might have brought it back from the brink of the precipice into which it would have tumbled with another outright victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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Also read:
▪ To Think of Modi 3.0 as Less Dangerous Would Be a Misreading (The Wire | Anand Teltumbde | June 12, 2024)
▪ Who Does June 4 Belong to? (The Wire / June 5, 2024)

BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: JENNY ROWENA ON THE FEAR OF PRISONS AND THE BRAHMINICAL SYSTEM BEHIND IT

22/06/2024 Asha

The Polis Project / by Jenny Rowena

As a space that takes away our liberties, marked by deep deprivation and suffering, the prison often gets framed as the point at which the liveable modern life ends. The fear of prisons, then, becomes all-pervading, with language itself constantly pointing to it as a dead end. Thus, for the ordinary person, the police and the prison system evoke extreme anxiety, and they design their lives to evade any encounters with it. Yet, those who come face to face with this system observe not an end, but the continuing flow of life inside, behind massive, impenetrable walls, even as their family and friends navigate a completely new reality outside. For academics like Hany Babu, the twelfth person incarcerated in the Bhima Koregaon case, who was active in social justice projects in the university space, the prison also offers a glimpse into the stark structural inequalities of Indian society and the many resistances against them.
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Also read:
▪ BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: ANAND TELTUMBDE REFLECTS ON HIS ARREST AND INCARCERATION (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
▪ BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: STORIES OF LOVE, MURDER AND CHILD MARRIAGE FROM SHOMA SEN’S YEARS IN PRISONS (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
▪ BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: ARUN FERREIRA ON THE FARCE AND TRAGEDY OF THE PANDEMIC IN PRISON (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
▪ BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: VERNON GONSALVES ON THE STRUGGLE TO READ AND WRITE BEHIND BARS (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
▪ INTRODUCING THE BK-16 PRISON DIARIES SERIES (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)

Why Mahesh Raut needed an interim bail on top of a regular bail to attend his grandmother’s funeral

21/06/2024 Asha

Why Mahesh Raut needed an interim bail on top of a regular bail to attend his grandmother’s funeral

23/06/2024

The Leaflet / by The Leaflet

Are the legislature, through laws such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and the judiciary, through the evolving jurisprudence of stays on bail, in perfect synchrony to deny life and liberty to the citizenry?
On Friday, the Supreme Court granted interim bail of two weeks to Bhima Koregaon case accused Mahesh Raut to attend rituals in connection with the death of his grandmother.
A Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice S.V.N. Bhatti passed an Order to this effect even as the National Investigating Agency (NIA) strongly opposed the application.
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Relief for activist as Supreme Court allows for interim bail

21/06/2024

Sabrangindia / by Sabrangindia

NIA argued against bail, court considers exceptional circumstances.
The Supreme Court today granted interim bail to Mahesh Raut, a key accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, allowing him to attend the ceremonies related to the last rites of his grandmother. The bench, comprising Justices Vikram Nath and SVN Bhatti, heard the matter and ruled in favour of Raut’s request for a temporary release.
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Supreme Court Grants 2-Week Interim Bail To Bhima Koregaon Case Accused Mahesh Raut To Attend Grandmother’s Post Funeral Rituals

21/06/2024

Live Law / by Debby Jain

The Supreme Court today granted interim bail to Bhima Koregaon case accused Mahesh Raut for two weeks in order to attend ceremonies related to last rites of his grandmother.
The vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and SVN Bhatti granted him interim bail from June 26 to July 10.
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Supreme Court grants interim bail to Mahesh Raut to attend grandmother’s final rites

21/06/2024

Bar and Banch / by Debayan Roy

Raut, one of the accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, was arrested in June 2018 and has been in custody since.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted two weeks of interim bail to Mahesh Raut, who is an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, to allow him attend the ceremonies relating to the last rites of his grandmother [National Investigation Agency v. Mahesh Sitaram Raut and anr].
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Also watch/read:
▪ Book Excerpt | Intellectual Insurgency And Mahesh Raut (The Wire / June 2024)
▪ Video: Why has Adivasi land rights scholar-activist Mahesh Raut not been released yet from prison even though he was given bail in 2023?

en | 1:35 | 2024
by InSAF India / @IndInsaf (May 23, 2024). Watch video
▪ ‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)
▪ In Jail for 5 Years, Activist Mahesh Raut Gets Bail in Elgar Parishad Case (The Wire / Sep 2023)

Colonial Reality of India’s Criminal Laws Remains Despite the New Hindi Names

21/06/2024 Asha

Colonial Reality of India’s Criminal Laws Remains Despite the New Hindi Names

21/06/2024

The Wire / by Rajshree Chandra

The argument that we are in the process of decolonizing laws is a bogus one and it reveals our hypocrisies more than anything else.
… Arundhati Roy today is now going to be being tried under many provisions of IPC along with the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for a speech she gave in 2010, 14 long years ago.
Fourteen years ago, she was charged with sedition (S. 124 A) based on a complaint that her speech (in Delhi) advocated separation of Kashmir from India and therefore “jeopardised public peace and security”. Fourteen years later, charges have been upgraded, and she is now also charged under the anti-terror law UAPA for reasons that are legally confounding but politically quite apparent.
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SKM condemns prosecution sanction of Arundhati Roy, Showkat Hussain under UAPA

20/06/2024

Deccan Herald / pti

The Delhi LG, earlier last week, gave his sanction to prosecute Roy and Hussain for allegedly making provocative speeches at an event in 2010.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Thursday condemned Delhi LG V K Saxena’s approval to prosecute author Arundhati Roy and former Central University of Kashmir professor Sheikh Showkat Hussain under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
… “The slapping of UAPA reflects that the present government, although cut down to size in recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, nonetheless wishes to continue with its older line of clamping down on any dissent and branding it as ‘anti-national’,” the organisation added.
The SKM claimed the National Investigation Agency has sent to jail 16 leading intellectuals and activists with “false charges” in the Bhima-Koregaon case.
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Talons intact – Indian democracy is not free from fascism yet

22/06/2024

The Telegraph / by Asim Ali

The electoral setback for the BJP marks an important check on the accelerated process of “fascistization of the regime” as I had noted in my column for The Telegraph last month
The last fortnight has been marked by a widespread sentiment of relief at the failure of the Narendra Modi regime to come back with a full majority. The relief is understandable. The sentiment, which seems out of place, represents the exultation at the triumphant redemption of Indian democracy from the clutches of fascism.
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Also read/watch:
▪ India: Arrests, Raids Target Critics of Government (Amnesty International / Oct 2023)
▪ AI Report: India’s exploitation of terrorism financing assessments to target the civil society (Amnesty.org / Sep 2023)
▪ Arundhati Roy: #Me Too Urban Naxal (Scroll.in / Aug 2018)

▪ Video: PUCL and over hundred organisations present: Repeal UAPA – Persecution by Prosecution

Lawyers, the persecuted, their families and others will present how UAPA is being used to persecute activists and silence dissent. The 3 days will see State-wise sharing from AP, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, J&K, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Telangana & UP

► Repeal UAPA – Day Three (en + … | 2h 51min | Jan 2021)
► Repeal UAPA – Day Two (en +… | 2h 22min | Jan 2021)
► Repeal UAPA – Day One (en + … | 2h 17min | Jan 2021)

Book Excerpt | Intellectual Insurgency and Mahesh Raut

19/06/2024 Asha

The Wire / by Divya Dwivedi and Shaj Mohan

We are witnessing a pretend politics which lives on the time borrowed from a deferred revolution.
“I shall speak of ghost, of flame, and of ashes”

– Jacques Derrida, Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question

It is not easy to write about the scholar and activist Mahesh Raut without sorrow and rage. Raut was a fellow of Prime Minister’s Rural Development programme; it has been five years since he was arrested on June 6, 2018. He is the youngest prisoner in the Bhima Koregaon case, currently awaiting the mercy of the judiciary for bail in Taloja central jail. His health has been deteriorating in prison.
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Also read:
▪ SC to hear plea of activist seeking interim bail on June 21 (Legalworld.com / June 2024)
▪ ‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)
▪ In Jail for 5 Years, Activist Mahesh Raut Gets Bail in Elgar Parishad Case (The Wire / Sep 2023)
▪ Gadchiroli’s 300 Gram Sabhas Pass Resolution in Support of Activist Mahesh Raut (The Wire / Oct 2018)

BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: ANAND TELTUMBDE REFLECTS ON HIS ARREST AND INCARCERATION

19/06/2024 Asha

The Polis Project / by Anand Teltumbde

Though I have been active in the civil-rights movement for over four decades, contributing to defence of the states’ hapless victims, I never imagined that I myself would land up in jail one day as those we defended. Even after the Pune police arrested five activists in connection with the violence at Bhima-Koregaon on 1 January 2018; even after the cops read out a letter purportedly written by a Maoist functionary to me, as they recovered from the hard disk of one of the arrestees and obviously implicated me into the crime; even after they raided my house in the campus of Goa Institute of Management in our absence—I thought they might not arrest me.
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Also read:
▪ BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: STORIES OF LOVE, MURDER AND CHILD MARRIAGE FROM SHOMA SEN’S YEARS IN PRISONS (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
▪ BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: ARUN FERREIRA ON THE FARCE AND TRAGEDY OF THE PANDEMIC IN PRISON (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
▪ BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: VERNON GONSALVES ON THE STRUGGLE TO READ AND WRITE BEHIND BARS (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
▪ INTRODUCING THE BK-16 PRISON DIARIES SERIES (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)