The Quint / by Asmita Nandy
Even as Father Stan Swamy fights for bail, his friends remember him as the man who “loves and lives for the poor.”
A four-minute call every 10 days from Taloja jail and a chirpy “I am managing here” keep the hope alive for friends of 83-year-old human rights activist and Jesuit priest Stan Swamy, booked by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Bhima-Koregaon case.
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Counterview / by Fr Cedric Prakash SJ
April 4 was Holy Saturday 2021! Christians, in an age-old custom, waited devoutly, in patient silence but with deep hope: The tomb which contains the body of Jesus would be thrown wide open in a few hours, revealing the Resurrection of Jesus, his triumph over death and the promise to mankind of eternal life.
In some cell, in the Taloja jail (near Bombay), Jesuit Fr Stan Swamy nearing the 180th day of his incarceration, is still carrying his cross, still making that steep and difficult climb to Golgotha – but still in patience but with hope, awaiting his Easter!
On March 22, Sessions Judge Dinesh E. Kothalikar of the Special NIA Court, denied Fr Stan Swamy bail. In the detailed court order of 34-pages Justice Kothalikar said that based on the ‘material available on record’, Fr Stan seemed to be a member of a banned Maoist organisation:
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Also read: Bail denied to Fr. Stan Swamy SJ in India – A Statement from the Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat, Rome (March 22, 2021). Read full statement (PDF): SJES-Rome March31
Pakistan Today / by Shazia Cheema
The laws based on personal agenda to maintain and retain power have paved the way for civil unrest.
Law and order have always perceived as a relative situation although it meant to serve the purpose of maintaining order and peace, it has been observed that laws are not always enough to keep harmony in society. Law made by man for man has a coherent tendency to create craves between state and society.
The textbook example of that is Indian laws named UAPA, TADA, and POTA. These three laws created for the safety of society have been immensely used to subjugate the population of India and have been criticised by the civil society that named these laws as “Draconian Laws”.
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The Free Press Journal / by Narsi Benwal
The Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission (MSHRC) on Thursday summoned the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Pune to appear before it personally and explain why the “sword” of FIR continues to hang over right-wing extremist Manohar Bhide in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case.
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Also read: DALIT GROUP DEMANDS ACTION AGAINST BHIDE / CASTING A VEIL (Jan 2021)
CJP / by Zahid Maniyar
The Special NIA court rejected Father Stan Swamy’s bail plea on grounds that “he was not only the member of banned organisation CPI (Maoist) but was also carrying out activities to further the objective of the organisation which is nothing but to overthrow the democracy of the nation.”
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30/03/2021
The Wire / by The Wire Staff
“Stan Swamy is a symbol of the plight of thousands of undertrial prisoners who languish in jail for years under fabricated UAPA charges.”
A group of more than 2,500 people from India and abroad have issued a statement demanding the release of 84-year-old Stan Swamy, whose bail was rejected by a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on March 22.
Swamy, an Adivasi rights activist, is one of the 16 academics, lawyers and activists arrested in the Elgar Parishad case. He was arrested in October last year and suffers from acute Parkinson’s disease along with several other age-related ailments. Swamy had sought bail on the grounds that the prosecution has failed to establish his involvement with the ongoing investigation.
Read more / read the full text of the statement and the list of signatories.
28/03/2021
By various activists from Jharkhand
Please consider endorsing and circulating the attached statement against rejection of bail application of 84-year old Stan Swamy and appeal for his immediate bail. Endorsements (name, affiliation/organisation and place) should be sent before 8 am on Tuesday, 30 March 2021.
We, the undersigned, are shocked by the rejection of a bail application filed by Stan Swamy in the Bhima Koregaon case by the special NIA (National Investigation Agency) court on 22 March 2021. He was arrested on 8 October 2021 and continues to languish in jail. …
28/03/2021
Hindustan Times / by Neeraj Chauhan, New Delhi
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken over an Andhra Pradesh police probe against 64 persons including known Adivasi, Dalit and human rights activists in southern India such as VS Krishna, Chiluka Chandrasekhar and Duddu Prabhakar for their alleged links with Maoists, people familiar with the development said…
Kavita Srivastava from the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) said: “Human rights activists are being deliberately targeted and silenced in this country. Firstly, the FIR filed on the basis of fabricated allegations was uncalled for, and now the NIA taking over the case is really sinister. That’s not acceptable. We all know what NIA has done in Bhima-Koregaon case. PUCL demands that this FIR should be quashed.”
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The Leaflet / by Arun Srivastava
The government’s intolerance of criticism by foreign institutions’ of its failure to listen to the global concern of the sharp rise in the violation of human rights and its persistent unwillingness to take action against the violators leading to the erosion of the democratic values in the country, has motivated lawmakers of western countries to push a bill in their respective parliaments decrying the claim of the Modi government of India being a democratic country.
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“They are the sisters of Pritilata.
And the brothers of Bhagat Singh.
FREEDOM TO BK-16″
By Ashoka Students
20/03/2021
The Indian Express / by Express News Service
In a statement issued late Friday night, the elected student body said that the two professors’ controversial exit had eroded their trust in the university administration to protect students from “external pressures”.
… “Here, it is crucial to acknowledge the socio-economic capital required to make these demands and protest for these changes given the larger political context of the country. The state crackdown on academics and activists has only worsened during the pandemic. We stand in complete solidarity with all the academics and activists who have resisted the state’s brutality, organized in support of targeted groups and been subject to imprisonment and torture for it including, but not limited to the Bhima Koregaon 16, peaceful anti-CAA protestors and most recently Nodeep Kaur and Shiv Kumar,” the statement reads further.
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