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ABA calls for release of Bhima-Koregaon accused

ABA calls for release of Bhima-Koregaon accused

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

Activists age, health issues put them at high risk amid pandemic, says centre.
The American Bar Association’s (ABA)’s Center for Human Rights has called for the release of all human rights defenders arrested in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case in the interest of flattening the COVID-19 curve, upholding the fundamental rights of detainees and enhancing national security, as their detention was arbitrary.
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Also read: American Bar Association’s report (Oct 2019)
The Preliminary Fair Trial Report: Bhima Koregaon

Mumbai court extends NIA custody of activist Anand Teltumbde till April 25

Mumbai court extends NIA custody of activist Anand Teltumbde till April 25

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The agency told the court that it had yet to complete the investigation, and hence custody should be extended by seven days.
A special court in Mumbai on Saturday extended activist Anand Teltumbde’s custody with the National Investigation Agency till April 25 in the Elgar Parishad case, PTI reported.
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Why is India targeting writers during the coronavirus pandemic?

Why is India targeting writers during the coronavirus pandemic?


Pic published by kractivist.org

The Guardian / by Priyamvada Gopal and Salil Tripathi

Journalists, intellectuals and dissidents are being threatened by Modi’s government.
As a lethal virus scorches its way across continents, the leftwing Indian rights campaigner Gautam Navlakha has been reminding us of the words of Leonard Cohen, urging people to speak up for the right things: “There is a crack/a crack in everything, that’s how light gets in.” While many of us experience lockdown in varying degrees of constraint, Navlakha – who cited Cohen’s lyrics in a recent statement – faces actual incarceration as does another high-profile Indian, the eminent academic and Dalit intellectual Prof Anand Teltumbde.
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40 eminent poets write open letter demanding poet Varavara Rao’s release

40 eminent poets write open letter demanding poet Varavara Rao’s release

Asiaville / by Asiaville Desk

As the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic looms large and prisons are potentially becoming dangerous hotspots of contagion, 40 eminent poets from across India have penned an open letter to the Prime Minister of India seeking urgent release of celebrated octogenarian Telugu poet Varavara Rao.
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Protest and Solidarity Statements on the arrests of Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha

Protest and Solidarity Statements on the arrests of Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha

PROTEST AGAINST THE FACIST ONSLAUGHT ON DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

Countercurrents / Press Release by Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation

On 14th April,2020, Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha surrendered and were arrested by the NIA, pursuant to order of the Supreme Court rejecting interim protection. This order paved the way for the arrest of two more scholars under the draconian laws for their exercise of the right to free speech and dissent. We believe the arrest of these two intellectuals not only infringes their constitutionally protected rights but is a larger reflection of the fast ceding of the political, social and public space in the country.
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PROTEST THE ARRESTS: DEMAND RELEASE OF THE 11 ARRESTED IN THE BHIMA KOREGAON CASE

Press Release by Peoples Union of Democratic Rights (PUDR )

The attempt to browbeat rights activists, Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde to ‘surrender’ to the National Investigation Agency, amidst a nation-wide lockdown on account of Covid-19, marks a deep and scathing new low in the political history of contemporary India.
For over two years now, the Bhima Koregaon case, as it has come to be known, has been the mainstay for the State resorting to arrests of democratic rights activists, lawyers and journalists across the country – those who have been tirelessly raising issues of grave human rights violations in the dirty war being waged by the State in the forests at the heart of the country.
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STOP THE POLITICAL PERSECUTION OF TELTUMBDE AND NAVLAKHA! FREE THE BHIMA-KOREGAON-11 NOW!

By India Civil Watch

India Civil Watch – International (ICW-I) strongly condemns the incarceration of Dr. Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha, two of India’s foremost public intellectuals and courageous defenders of political freedoms, human rights and civil liberties. Dr. Teltumbde is also widely respected as a leading Dalit scholar, author of thirty books, who has lectured across the world on the annihilation of caste and the Dalit struggle, neoliberal capitalist plunder, and the rise of Hindutva politics.
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NAPM CONDEMNS CONTINUED OPPRESSION OF CIVIL LIBERTIES AND TARGETING OF DISSENT

Kractivism / by National Alliance of People’s Movements

Reaffirming our faith in the Constitution on Ambedkar Jayanti
Selfless services of doctors, health and sanitation workers and spontaneous relief efforts from ordinary citizens and civil society raises hope for India
April 14/15, 2020: As the country paid homage to Babasaheb Ambedkar on his 129th birth anniversary, Prof Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha, two of India’s finest public intellectuals and activists were taken in custody by the Indian State for their ideas and lifelong commitment to the democratic values and the ideals enshrined in the Constitution. What could be the greater irony for us as a Republic ?
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STATEMENT ON THE ARRESTS OF ANAND TELTUMBDE AND GAUTAM NAVLAKHA

By Political Science Association

As the nation was celebrating the birth anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar, his grandson-in-law Anand Teltumbde was being arrested by the National Investigation Agency along with fellow activist Gautam Navlakha, under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention)Act (UAPA).
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ACTIVISTS DETAINED FOR PEACEFUL DISSENT

By Human Rights Watch

Counterterrorism Law Politicized in Bhima Koregaon Case
New York: Indian authorities on April 14, 2020 detained two rights activists who have been critics of government policies, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should immediately drop all charges under a counterterrorism law against Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha for allegedly inciting caste-based violence along with other activists during a demonstration in Maharashtra state in 2017.
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WSS CONDEMNS THE ARRESTS OF ANAND TELTUMBDE AND GAUTAM NAVLAKHA AND DEMANDS THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS

By Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS)

Today, with undeniable irony, we have witnessed the surrender/arrests of Prof. Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Both Prof. Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha are known to us through their activism, writing and relentless pursuit of democratic principles. They have also remained steadfastly opposed to Brahmanical Hindutva fascism in all its manifestations.
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WOMEN DEMAND END OF TARGETING OF DISSENTS AND MINORITIES

By AIDWA, NFIW, AIPWA

We, the undersigned women’s organisations express strong concern and register our protest against the violations of civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution, by the Narendra Modi-led Union government and other state governments led by the BJP. Recent developments show that the government has been targeting intellectuals and activists as well as prominent journalists who have been questioning the government’s faulty policies. This is a serious attack on their democratic, civil and legal rights. FIRs, arrests, imprisonment without evidence have become the new norm.
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SOLIDARITY WITH GAUTAM NAVLAKHA, ANAND TELTUMBDE, AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS ARRESTED IN BHIMA KOREGAON CASE

By CPI-ML Liberation

The arrest of activists and scholars Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) over ridiculously trumped up charges in the Bhima Koregaon case on Ambedkar Jayanti, 2020, is a day of shame for India’s democracy. The fact that both of them, senior citizens above 60, will be incarcerated in cramped, overcrowded jails during a pandemic that poses a threat to the lives of the elderly, is especially shameful.
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CONDEMN ARREST OF TELTUMBDE & NAVLAKHA

By CPI-M

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) strongly condemns the arrests of Anand Teltumbe and Gautam Navlakha on completely trumped up charges in the Bhima Koregaon issue. It is a matter of concern that the hon’ble Supreme Court did not postpone their arrests in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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CLAMPDOWN ON DISSENT CONTINUES DURING THE VOVID-19 PANDEMIC

Press Release By Amnesty International India

Responding to reports that human rights defenders, Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha have surrendered before the National Investigative Agency (NIA).
Avinash Kumar, Executive Director of Amnesty International India, said:
“The clampdown on dissent in India continues. Even during a pandemic, the Government of India is targeting those critical of the government. When hard-won rights to expression and peaceful protest are weakened, everyone stands to lose.”
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CONDEMN THE STATE TERROR IMPOSED BY THE FASCIST REGIMES OF INDIA AND NEPAL

By Nepalese intellectuals, writers and journalists

A joint Statement by Nepalese intellectuals, writers and journalists, demanding immediate release of Varvara Rao, Prof. Saibaba, cultural activist Maila Lama and other social activists and  political prisoners.
Along with the Corona terror, we are facing state terror imposed by the fascist regimes.  Nepalese revolutionary cultural- activist Maila Lama is kept in jail along with other political prisoners and the KP Oli government is ridiculing the question of the survival of the political prisoners.
Read full statement

AI-India Video: Bhima Koregaon 9: Heroes Who Fight For Your Rights

en | 6:18 min | 2019
Watch video

Hindi Newspapers Look Away as Anand Teltumbde Is Arrested

Hindi Newspapers Look Away as Anand Teltumbde Is Arrested

The Wire / by Aman Abhishek

In the aftermath of the Teltumbde’s arrest, his prescient comment calling media ‘subservient’ appears remarkably accurate.
Anand Teltumbde is a world-renowned public intellectual known for his rigorous analysis of the caste system in India. Perhaps one could have imagined, or at least hoped, that his arrest on the day of Ambedkar Jayanti would have generated a detailed coverage in the mainstream Hindi media, especially since the charges against him are very clearly directed at his intellectual work – he is accused of inciting caste-based violence and of being an “urban Naxal”.
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With Teltumbde and Navlakha in Jail, How Free is ‘Freedom’ in India?

With Teltumbde and Navlakha in Jail, How Free is ‘Freedom’ in India?


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

The Quint / by Apoorvanand

Two more minds would be deactivated for the public today. By imprisoning Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha, the government—and by facilitating it the courts— would not be able to stop their minds functioning for they’ll continue to think and think hard while behind the bars. The people of India, however, would be deprived of the product of the intellectual labour. It is quite different a matter whether it matters to the people or not.
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NIA Court Sends Anand Teltumbde to 4-Day Custody; Gautam Navlakha To Be Taken Tomorrow

NIA Court Sends Anand Teltumbde to 4-Day Custody; Gautam Navlakha To Be Taken Tomorrow

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

Both activists, accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, had surrendered today.
Mumbai: With the protection from arrest provided to them by the Supreme Court in the Bhima Koregaon case for nearly two years having finally ended, civil rights activist and academic Anand Teltumbde and journalist-activist Gautam Navlakha surrendered before the National Investigation Agency on Tuesday, April 14.
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Over 300 IIT alumni, students, profs extend support to Anand Teltumbde

Over 300 IIT alumni, students, profs extend support to Anand Teltumbde

The New Indian Express / by Johanna Deeksha

Members of the pan-IIT community – faculty, scientists, researchers, students and alumni issued a joint statement condemning the actions of the state ‘in their individual capacities.’
In a order that surprised many, activists and scholar, Gautam Navalakha and Anand Teltumbde were directed by the Supreme Court to surrender to the Pune Police within three weeks in connection with the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case. This was on March 16. In about a week’s time, the two charged under the UAPA will have to surrender.
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DON’T PITY ANAND TELTUMBDE, PITY THE SYSTEM THAT INCARCERATES HIM

01/04/2020

The Wire / by Anirban Goswami and Anupam Banerjee

His incarceration shall remain an indelible black mark on the history of governance of this country.
When he surrenders on April 6, 2020, as per the Supreme Court’s directions, professor Anand Teltumbde will be the first alumnus of the hallowed IIM, Ahmedabad, the first IIT professor and the first CEO of a company to be charged under the dreaded Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which renders a person suspected by the police utterly defenceless.
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