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Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste – Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality

Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste – Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality


Challenging Caste reads the violence at Bhima Koregaon as a clash between two worldviews — one striving to flatten the social hierarchy, the other justifying and perpetuating it. This book rips apart the Maoist conspiracy theory and the Urban Naxal narrative. It points out the ironies underlying the State’s charges against the sixteen, and the flimsiness of the evidence that is said to have been planted on their hacked computers. The conspiracy against the sixteen that inflicted untold miseries on their families is retold here in their voices.

Author: Ajaz Ashraf  
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 496

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NIA court refuses temporary bail to Mahesh Raut

NIA court refuses temporary bail to Mahesh Raut

PUDR campaign

Hindustan Times / by Revu Suresh

The special sessions judge AK Lahoti rejected the plea, observing that the allegations against Raut were serious in nature
A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Wednesday rejected the plea for temporary bail of tribal rights activist and researcher Mahesh Raut — arrested in 2018 for his alleged role in the Elgar Parishad case. The activist had sought temporary bail for two weeks to go to Gadchiroli after the death of his grandmother.
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Video by InSAF India / @IndInsaf (May 23, 2024)


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
Watch video


Also read:
‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)
Bhima Koregaon Case: Mahesh Raut, youngest accused, granted bail by the Bombay HC! (SabrangIndia / Sep 2023)
Gadchiroli’s 300 Gram Sabhas Pass Resolution in Support of Activist Mahesh Raut (The Wire / Oct 2018)

6 years of Bhima Koregaon witch-hunt / CASR: Formal permission of the protest has been denied

6 years of Bhima Koregaon witch-hunt / CASR: Formal permission of the protest has been denied

by InSAF India / @IndInsaf (June 7)
Yesterday the Campaign Against State Repression gathered at Jantar Mantar to demand the release of all #BhimaKoregaon prisoners
#MaheshRaut #SurendraGadling #SudhirDhawale #RonaWilson #HanyBabu #JyotiJagtap #RameshGaichor #SagarGorkhe
#Freethemall #HumanRightsViolations


by COLLECTIVE Delhi / @COLLECTIVEDelhi (June 6)
6 years of Bhima Koregaon witch-hunt…
We must not stop demanding freedom of all political prisoners arrested in the name of Bhima Koregaon – a symbol of radical Dalit struggle.



by InSAF India / @IndInsaf (June 6):


Also read:
CASR: Release activists incarcerated in Bhima Koregaon Case (Countercurrents.org / June 2023)

In What Language Does Truth Speak to A Tormented People. Statement by Sudhir, Rona, Surendra & Mahesh

In What Language Does Truth Speak to A Tormented People. Statement by Sudhir, Rona, Surendra & Mahesh

The Wire / by Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling and Mahesh Raut

Intimations on the sixth year of continuing incarceration of the BK-16.
We live in a moment where truth is treason. Under the fascist onslaught of Brahmanical Hindutva, truth has become consumed with fear – the fear of being watched, being surveilled, being criminalised, neutralised, or even eliminated. But the fear, at the end, is itself a whistleblower.
We, the BK 16, known after the eponymous Bhima Koregaon case, complete six years of incarceration on June 6, 2024 under the stringent anti-terror law, UAPA [Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act], where the onus is on the accused to prove their innocence; under heavy odds against the Modi dispensation that dubs speaking truth to power treason, anti-Hindu, an act of terror.
Read full statement


Also read:

‘We are all prisoners of conscience’, say those facing trial in Bhima Koregaon case on the occasion of fourth anniversary of their arrests (The Leaflet / June 2022)

Join Protest: June 6 Marks The Sixth Year Of Wrongful Incarceration In Bhima Koregaon Case

Join Protest: June 6 Marks The Sixth Year Of Wrongful Incarceration In Bhima Koregaon Case

by Campaign Against State Repression (May 27):
6 Years Of Wrongful Incarceration In Bhima Koregaon case
JOIN Demonstration at Jantar Mantar 6 June
Release All Political Prisoners !!
Repeal UAPA !!
Repeal NIA !!


Also read:
CASR: Release activists incarcerated in Bhima Koregaon Case (Countercurrents.org / June 2023)
Five years behind bars for five activists – Without bail, without charges being framed, without justice! (PUDR / June 2023)
CDRO: Five Years Since The First Arrests In Bhima-Koregaon Case (Countercurrents.org / June 2023)



‘We are all prisoners of conscience’, say those facing trial in Bhima Koregaon case on the occasion of fourth anniversary of their arrests (The Leaflet / June 2022)


IAPL: Unite against State Repression on Peoples Movements! (Indian Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) / July 2018)
IAPL press note about arrest of Advocate Gadling & other people’s activists (Sanhati / June 2018)
PUCL Statement condemning Arrests of Activists in Maharashtra (Kractivist.org / June 2018)

Arrested: June 6, 2018

 


by Campaign Against State Repression

Release All Political Prisoners !!

JOIN Demonstration at Jantar Mantar 6 June
Release All Political Prisoners !!
Repeal UAPA !!
Repeal NIA !!



Also read:
7/16 Bhima Koregaon Accused Get Bail, Courts Raise Prima Facie Doubts About Evidence (Live Law / May 2024)
SC grants bail to Gautam Navlakha: All about the Bhima Koregaon violence case, other accused (The Indian Express / May 2024)
Bhima Koregaon: The process continues to clot as punishment as another year passes by (The Leaflet / Jan 2024)

Who Does June 4 Belong to?

Who Does June 4 Belong to?

Illustration credits: Rohit Kumar / The Wire

The Wire / by Rohit Kumar

This is the collective win of millions. 
June 4 will go down as the day democracy came back from the dead in India, the day the almighty Bharatiya Janta Party failed to get even a simple majority in what former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa has called the “hottest and most hateful” Lok Sabha elections, ever. 
Most of all, it will be remembered as the day the power of Narendra Modi was broken.

It belongs to Father Stan Swamy who lived his life for the tribals of India and who was denied even a sipper during his last hellish days in Taloja Jail. 
The day belongs to Sudha Bhardwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Rona Wilson, G.N. Saibaba and everyone who was arrested in the farcical Elgar Parishad case.
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by Indira Jaising / @IJaising (June 4)
My concern as always , will the election results help the judiciary “ get up stand up, stand up for OUR rights” @TheLeaflet_in, as always our tag line Constitution First

Wake up judiciary , the PM and his law officers are not invincible , bail not jail is the law of the land @TheLeaflet_in as always Constitution First


Also read:
Contrary To SC’s Rules Of Assignment, At Least 8 Politically Sensitive Cases Moved To One Judge In 4 Months (article 14 / Dec 2023)

Podcasts: What does the death of a jailed priest say about India’s democracy? / ‘India’s Watergate’

Podcasts: What does the death of a jailed priest say about India’s democracy? / ‘India’s Watergate’

poster by @/bakeryprasad

What does the death of a jailed Jesuit priest say about India’s democracy under Modi?

02/06/2024

npr / by Lauren Frayer

MUMBAI, India — Two days before police finally came to arrest him, the Rev. Stan Swamy recorded a video of himself speaking directly into the camera.
“They want to put me out of the way,” the ailing 83-year-old Jesuit priest said.
His voice sounded frail. But what he was saying was explosive.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, was targeting him in retaliation for his advocacy on behalf of Indigenous people in Indian jails.
Read more / 33-Minute Listen


‘India’s Watergate’: A tale of political manipulation, disinformation and nationalism

29/05/2024

Npr / by Lauren Frayer

It started with a civil rights rally, and ended in riots. NPR investigates how 16 of India’s most famous human rights activists were jailed for an alleged terror plot. They say they were framed.
India is wrapping up elections this week. We’re going to take you back to the last Indian elections five years ago, to a scandal that some call India’s Watergate. It has not brought down Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. In fact, he is expected to win a third term. The scandal started with a civil rights campaign that led to hundreds of arrests, allegations of computer hacking and the death of an elderly priest behind bars. NPR’s Lauren Frayer has our story.
Read more / 8-Minute Listen

‘BK 16’: Victims of Digital Invasion of the State / The Bhima Koregaon saga of injustice

‘BK 16’: Victims of Digital Invasion of the State / The Bhima Koregaon saga of injustice

‘BK 16’: Victims of Digital Invasion of the State

31/05/2024

Countercurrents.org / by Mubashir VP

Hindutva fascism grew and rose to power by abusing the facilities of formal democracy, spreading hatred under the guise of freedom of speech.
The Bhima Koregaon case and the arrests and imprisonment of human rights activists under the UAPA Act, which critics point out as an example of human rights violations stretching back to the two terms of the Narendra Modi government, have drawn much attention internationally. Moreover, it became notorious as a sign of the government’s reactionary approach to democratic rights, intolerance of dissident voices, and an attempt to terrorise civic life.
Read more


The Bhima Koregaon saga of injustice

31/05/2024

Tribune India / by Julio Ribeiro

Charges yet to be framed against the accused, even though the first arrests were made in 2018
ALPA Shah, whose family hailed from Gujarat, was raised in Nairobi, where my deceased wife, Melba, was born and lived till the age of 10. The Mau Mau movement in Kenya forced many families of Indian origin to leave that country. The Menezes of Goa – to which my wife belonged – was among the few families that returned to India. They sailed back to Goa, while Alpa emigrated to England.
Read more



March 2024 | Scroll.in | by Alpa Shah
An excerpt from ‘The Incarcerations: Bhima Koregaon and the Search for Democracy in India’, by Alpa Shah.
Read excerpt


The Bhima Koregaon Case: A Grave Injustice and Human Rights Crisis

31/05/2024

Radian News / by Mohd Naushad Khan

The Bhima Koregaon case is a complex legal and political matter in India, stemming from the violence that occurred on January 1, 2018, during the bicentenary celebration of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra. This event holds significant historical importance, particularly for Dalits, who commemorate the British East India Company’s defeat of the Peshwa forces as a symbol of resistance against caste oppression.
Read more


Also read:
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)
Fabricating Evidence Against Life and Liberty: Tampering with Fr. Stan Swamy’s computer and its implications for Bhima Koregaon case (Mumbai Rises to Save Democracy / Dec 2022)
Police Linked to Hacking Campaign to Frame Indian Activists (Wired.com / June 2022)
Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line (The Wire / July 2021)
They were Accused of plotting to overthrow the Modi government – The evidence was planted, a new report says (Washington Post / Feb 2021)

Collapse of 2 ‘Urban Naxal’ cases shows panic & police overreach are worse than Maoist insurgency

Collapse of 2 ‘Urban Naxal’ cases shows panic & police overreach are worse than Maoist insurgency

The Print / by Praveen Swami

With cases against Navlakha & Purkayastha collapsing, it’s time to take stock of whether dirty war against Maoists is justified, or just perpetuates a brutal cycle of violence.
… What I want to look at though, is this whole business of Urban Naxals, a term that led both men and many others to jail. Exactly, what is an Urban Naxal? How serious is the Maoist threat in our cities? Is there even a threat? Or, is this one of those moral panics which lead countries into irrational policy responses from time to time, like the infamous Red Scare which paralysed the US in the 1950s?
Read more


Also read:
NewsClick Raids and Arrests: Demolishing the Myth of the ‘Urban Naxal’ Nomenclature (The Wire / Oct 2023)
‘Urban Naxal’ is a label to terrorise intellectuals: Prabhat Patnaik (The Telegraph / Feb 2023)
#UrbanNaxal is Sangh Parivar’s favourite word-weapon to throttle Dalit, minority resistance (The Leaflet / Oct 2018)
What makes an Urban Naxal? (MR online / Sep 2018)
From ‘tukde tukde gang’ to ‘urban Naxal’: How media trials enable the government to stifle dissent (Scroll.in / Sep 2018)

7/16 Bhima Koregaon Accused Get Bail, Courts Raise Prima Facie Doubts About Evidence

7/16 Bhima Koregaon Accused Get Bail, Courts Raise Prima Facie Doubts About Evidence

Poster by @/bakeryprasad

Live Law / by Manu Sebastian

The Bhima Koregaon case, in which several activists and academicians have been incarcerated under the draconian Unlawful Activities(Prevention) Act 1967 over alleged Maoist links, raises a big question mark on India’s civil liberties framework. The fact that the trial has not yet commenced for nearly six years makes one question the seriousness of the allegations concerning national security. Moreover, the doubts about the sustainability of the allegations are fortified by the repeated observations made by the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court in the judgments granting bail to some of the accused.
Read more


Video by InSAF India / @IndInsaf (May 23, 2024)


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
Watch video


Also read:
The process continues to clot as punishment as another year passes by (The Leaflet / Jan 2024)
Recovering the Basics: The Supreme Court’s Bail Order in Vernon Gonsalves’ Case (Constitutional Law and Philosophy / July 2023)
▪ UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR – Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009-2022 (PUCL / Sep 2022). Download report