McCarthyism in Modi’s India
JACOBIN / By Anand Teltumbde
Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party are carrying out an audacious campaign to arrest left activists and silence dissent in India. The country is on a path toward fascism.
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Bhima Koregaon Has Become a Pretext to Arrest Innocent Workers
The Wire / By Akhil Vasudevan
The Bhima Koregaon link is helping the police in three ways – it is delegitimising a people’s movement by accusing it of having Maoist links, covering up for the real perpetrators while targeting those who are fighting for the marginalised in the country.
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Letter of Mumbai Electric Employees Union to the Chief Minister regarding arrest of four of their members and on behalf of the other workers.
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Video: Advocate Susan Abraham on #BhimaKoregaonArrests, UAPA
en | 15 min | 2018
The Leaflet / By KRITIKA A
Advocate Susan Abraham was one among the rights activists whose house was raided on the morning of August 28. She talks to The Leaflet about the raids, their connection to the Bhima Koregaon chain of events and the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act which has been used to incarcerate the rights activists.
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No Respect for Witnesses, Not Enough Voices: Activists Allege Bias at Bhima Koregaon Commission
The Wire / Sukanya Shantha
Victims of the violence have alleged that the commission is treating them like criminals rather than witnesses.
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Pune Police is diverting the Bhima Koregaon investigation, protecting Bhide, Ekbote: Deputy mayor Siddharth Dhende
The Caravan / By Tusha Mittal
The Caravan publishes report of police-appointed committee, headed by Dhende, that finds Hindutva outfits “pre-planned” the Bhima Koregaon violence.
On 1 January this year, Dalits from across India gathered in Bhima Koregaon, a village 30 kilometers from Pune, to commemorate the bicentennial anniversary of a historic battle that took place in the village in 1818. The battle had culminated in the victory of a small British battalion, largely comprising soldiers from the oppressed Mahar caste, over an army of dominant-caste Peshwas. On the 200th anniversary, as lakhs marched towards the Koregaon Ranstambh, or Vijay Stambh—a memorial pillar erected by the British to commemorate the battle—mobs of people carrying saffron flags attacked the predominantly Dalit gathering.
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Anatomy of a clampdown and the history of a long oppression
The Leaflet / By Kritika A
The arrests of human rights activists and lawyers on August 28 and earlier on June 6, 2018 are all part of a wider theatre of Hindutva’s state-sponsored repression on those demanding democratic rights and freedoms for the most marginalised of Indian citizens. What began with Bhima-Koregaon had actually begun long back, with the atrocities against Dalits and Adivasis crossing the political threshold, such as those in Una and Saharanpur, as well as the ‘institutional murder’ of Rohith Vemula in January 2016.
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Case against me is nothing but an absolute fabrication
Sanhati / By Stan Swamy
Maharashtra police held a press conference in Mumbai on August 31, 2018. Additional Director-General (law and order) of Maharashtra police Mr. Parambir Singh told the media that in relation to the incident of Bhima-Koregaon, initially a FIR was lodged on January 8, 2018. According to him the name of Stan Swamy was added in the aforesaid FIR on August 23 along with the names of Arun Fereira, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalvez, Sudha Bhardwaj, Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde.
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The Truth about the Elgaar Parishad – What was it and who organised it?
CJP / by CJP-Team
On December 31, 2017 a fiercely passionate gathering of activists, former judges and political leaders proclaimed their commitment to fight the repressive economic, social and cultural policies of the Modi regime. This was the Elgar Parishad that preceded the gathering at Bhima Koregain on January 1, 2018 where Dalit families were attacked and assaulted by the ‘Sangh’ brigade.
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Bhima Koregaon case: A curiously prescient report puts focus on a Mumbai security think tank
Scroll.in / by Mridula Chari
One of the two secretaries general of Forum for Integrated National Security is Seshadri Chari, a senior member of the RSS and the BJP.
A report released by a security think-tank in March into caste violence in Bhima Koregaon near Pune on January 1 had foreshadowed the turn taken by the police investigation into the events. The report pinned the blame for the violence on a Maoist conspiracy – a conclusion that bears striking resemblance to the claims the Pune police has subsequently made in court.
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Vibrant scenes from Pune’s Elgaar Parishad, which led to the Bhima Koregaon case arrests
Scroll.in / by Shone Satheesh
In six tents packed to the brim, approximately 35,000 people watched plays, and listened to music and speeches with an anti-caste theme.
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