Background – Page 12 – free them all

‘Target dissenting individuals’: NIA conducts raids across Bengal in alleged Maoist link probe

12/10/2024 Asha

Counterview / by Our Representative

In the predawn hours of October 1, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) executed raids at 12 locations throughout West Bengal, targeting the residences of several activists in connection with alleged “Maoist links.” The agency confiscated mobile phones and laptops belonging to numerous individuals during these searches, which reportedly resulted in significant property damage.
Several activists received notices to report for further questioning at the NIA’s office in Ranchi.
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Also read:
▪ India: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on the deterioration of civic space (CIVICUS /Jul 2024)
▪ McCarthyism in INDIA?: The Return of The Urban Naxal Bogey! (The Crossbill /Jul 2024)
▪ Chronology Samajhiye: 5 Days, 4 Agencies Under Modi Govt Control Target Opposition, Journalists, Activists (The Wire | Soumashree Sarkar | Oct 6, 2023)

Echoes of Authoritarianism: Modi’s Assault on Democratic Values

04/10/2024 Asha

Modern Diplomacy / by Summra Hamid

In the landscape of contemporary Indian politics, a significant transformation is underway, one that merits urgent attention and reflection. The current prime minister of India, Narendra Modi’s leadership, once seen as a beacon of hope and reform, has increasingly started resembling authoritarianism, jeopardizing the foundational tenets of democracy. This opinion piece digs into the dangers posed by Modi’s regime and the implications for the Indian society as a whole.
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Also read:
▪ India: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on the deterioration of civic space (CIVICUS / Jul 2024)
▪ AI Report: India’s exploitation of terrorism financing assessments to target the civil society (Amnesty.org / Sep 2023)
▪ Narendra Modi’s Government Is Using False Charges of Terrorism to Repress Its Opponents (Jacobinmag / April 2022)
▪ Maharashtra: Activists, Lawyers Added to ‘Union War Book’, Listed as ‘Enemies of the State’ (The Wire / Jul 2021)

Communal elements trying to wipe out Koregaon Bhima’s history of sacrifice, says Sharad Pawar

01/10/2024 Asha

Booklet: “Salaakhon Mein Qaid Avaazein” (Access PDF)

Communal elements trying to wipe out Koregaon Bhima’s history of sacrifice, says Sharad Pawar

01/10/2024

The New Indian Express / by pti

Pawar also claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a threat to society and the thought in the latter’s mind was ‘detrimental to equality’.
NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar has said the history of Bhima Koregaon, located in Maharashtra’s Pune district, is of sacrifices made by people but some communal elements are trying to wipe it out.
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Pawar says PM’s leadership detrimental to equality

30/09/2024

Times of India / by Anurag Bende

NCP (SCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday called Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership detrimental to equality.
Pawar said, “People realised that Modi and his party do not believe in the Constitution. Hence, they did not give him a full mandate in the Lok Sabha election.” He was addressing his supporters at a public rally in Pune on Monday.
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Also read:
▪ ‘Communal riot script… but Dalits target’: Ajaz Ashraf on Bhima Koregaon ‘myth’ and media (Newslaundry / Sep 2024)
▪ One year of Bhima-Koregaon case: Part I | History of a 200-year-old battle and why it still matters (The Leaflet / Jan 2019)
▪ Let’s Remember the Lesson of Bhima Koregaon: Down with the New Peshwai (Sanhati │ by Sudhir Dhawale │ March 2018)
▪ The Myth of Bhima Koregaon Reinforces the Identities It Seeks to Transcend (The Wire | Anand Teltumbde | Jan 2018)
▪ Why peoples’ coalitions are uniting against Hindutva — the ‘new Peshwai’ (Dailyo.in │ by Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves │ Jan 2018)

Activists mark four years in jail under India’s UAPA without trial or bail

20/09/2024 Asha

Activists mark four years in jail under India’s UAPA without trial or bail

20/09/2024

Peoples Dispatch / by Peoples Dispatch

Umar Khalid and more than a dozen activoists have spent four years in prison under India’s controversial Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), with no trial or bail. The cases are widely seen as politically motivated efforts to suppress dissent
… The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has called for the scrapping of the UAPA, claiming it has been used by the Narendra Modi led-BJP government to silence the opposition and to put its critics behind bars in cases such as Bhima Koregaon and Delhi riots.
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Umar Khalid’s Father Lambasts Misuse of Laws to Silence Dissent

20/09/2024

Clarion / by Team Clarion

Calls for judicial accountability as Umar Khalid and others languish in jail without bail or proper trial
Anti-terror laws are being systematically used to silence the dissenting voices in the country, the father of incarcerated JNU student and activist, Umar Khalid, has said.
“Laws like UAPA, TADA, and POTA were meant to combat terrorism, but they have been weaponised against ordinary citizens and activists,” Khalid’s father, Dr Qasim Rasool Ilyas, said. He was addressing an event ‘Curtailed Freedoms: A Travesty of Justice’ hosted by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) and Concerned Citizens Delhi at the Constitution Club of India here earlier this week.
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Also read:
▪ Four Years of Injustice: Free Umar Khalid and All Political Prisoners (Hindus for Human Rights / Sep 2024)
▪ Inconsistencies in Bail Orders Mean Individual Liberty Is the Outcome of Judicial Lottery (The Wire / Oct 2022)

Video | Many Meanings of Bhima Koregaon: Ajaz Ashraf

16/09/2024 Asha

By Daanish Bin Nabi

en | 20:12min | 2024
Watch video:

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

Author: Ajaz Ashraf
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
Pages: 496
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.
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‘How Long Can the Moon Be Caged?’: An investigation of how the state can stifle dissent brutally

15/09/2024 Asha

Scroll.in / by Shevlin Sebastian

Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia also write about those who are battling to uphold individual and human rights.
…
Vijayan and Recchia talk at length about the notorious Bhima Koregaon case, where 16 activists, teachers, intellectuals, university professors, writers, and lawyers were arrested and charged with arms smuggling, for allegedly helping Maoists, and for hatching a plan to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi, apart from waging war against the state – Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut, Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Hany Babu, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor, Jyoti Jagtap, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, and Father Stan Swamy (who died tragically while imprisoned).
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How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? Voices of Indian Political Prisoners

Authors: Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia
Publishing Date: Aug 2023
Publisher: Pluto Press
Pages: 247
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Also read:
▪ Process as Punishment – Recent books that bear witness to the BK-16’s incarceration (The Caravan / Jul 2024)
▪ Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste. Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality

Author: Ajaz Ashraf
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
Pages: 496
Read more/order
▪ 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

Video: UnPanel – Future of Dissent | Dr. Anand Teltumbde @ #PrivacySupreme

10/09/2024 Asha

The Wire / by The Wire

In this UnPanel session, Dr. Anand Teltumbde joined us remotely for Future of Dissent to answer the question of what does it mean to dissent in digital India? We explore how core democratic virtues like protests, dissent, and rights advocacy have become prone to targeted surveillance and privacy intrusions by the State. Read more about Privacy Supreme 2024 here.

en | 23:21min | 2024
Watch video

Also read:
▪ How the State uses ‘national security’ to spellbind the process of justice (The Leaflet / Jul 2024)
▪ A New Bill Shows Maharashtra Wants to Become a Police State Before Combatting Left-Wing Extremism (The Wire 7 Jul 2024)
▪ AI Report: India’s exploitation of terrorism financing assessments to target the civil society (Amnesty.org / Sep 2023)
▪ Maharashtra: Activists, Lawyers Added to ‘Union War Book’, Listed as ‘Enemies of the State’ (The Wire / Jul 2021)

‘Communal riot script… but Dalits target’: Ajaz Ashraf on Bhima Koregaon ‘myth’ and media

10/09/2024 Asha

Newslaundry / by Aban Usmani

The author of ‘Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste’ spoke to Newslaundry about the Maoist links case, the violence, the role of the state, and Maharashtra’s contentious caste history.
From official history to popular culture, the Hindutva investment in remaking the past has been all too visible over the last decade. And this attempt to dominate history has opened new flashpoints, such as the one linked to the Battle of Bhima Koregaon.
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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
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.
Read more/order

Also watch/read:
▪ Video: Discussion on “Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste” (By Paranjoy Online / Aug 2024)
▪ Bhima Koregaon Challenging Caste: Brahminism’s Wrath Against Dreamers Of Equality by Ajaz Ashraf (Article 14 / Jul 2024)
▪ Process as Punishment – Recent books that bear witness to the BK-16’s incarceration (The Caravan / Jul 2024)

Learning Curve: Teachers Are Expected To Guide Us, But Are Themselves Under Fire

09/09/2024 Asha

Free Press Journal / by Vrijendra

The state of our teachers in higher education continues to become more and more perilous each passing year
As I write this, one more Teachers’ Day (September 5) has gone. Sadly, there is little to celebrate as the state of our teachers at all levels (let me confine it to teachers in higher education: in our colleges and universities and other institutions of higher education) continues to become more and more perilous each passing year.
… Finally, Dr Hany Babu, a DU professor and an anti-caste activist, completed four years in jail on July 28, 2024, without bail and no signs of an early trial. He was arrested under the UAPA in the Bhima-Koregaon Elgar Parishad case, along with other leading activists and academicians.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Hany Babu completes four years in prison without bail, trial (Maktoobmedia.com / Jul 2024)
▪ Three years ago on this day Hany Babu was arrested in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case (Maktoobmedia.com / Jul 2024)

The SC Is Making Bail Easier In Terrorism, Money Laundering Cases – Except When It Ignores Itself

05/09/2024 Asha

Days in jail calculated to upto 31 August 2024. Credits: article 14

Article 14 / by Areeb Uddin Ahmed

11 Supreme Court rulings over 10 months appear to be reshaping bail jurisprudence in India, especially with regard to India’s terrorism and money laundering laws, often used to incarcerate many without bail for years. Despite these landmark judgements, the Supreme Court has also avoided deciding bail on high-profile cases important to the government, in so doing ignoring its own rulings.
At least 11 Supreme Court rulings over 10 months granting bail appear to be gradually reshaping bail jurisprudence in India, especially with regard to India’s terrorism and money laundering laws.
The restrictive bail provisions of these laws have been frequently used to keep accused, mostly protestors, poets, Opposition politicians, dissidents, academics and artists, in jail with no sign of trial.
Read more

Also read:
▪ SC adjourns hearing on bail plea of Bhima Koregaon case accused Jyoti Jagtap (Hindustan Times / Jul 2024)
▪ Bombay HC rejects default bail of five accused in Bhima Koregaon case (Scroll.in / Jul 2024)
▪ ‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)
▪ Inconsistencies in Bail Orders Mean Individual Liberty Is the Outcome of Judicial Lottery (The Wire / Oct 2022)