Background – Page 52 – free them all

Section 144 to be invoked near Koregaon-Bhima war memorial ahead of January 1

25/12/2020 Rani

Section 144 to be invoked near Koregaon-Bhima war memorial ahead of January 1

25/12/2020

The New Indian Express / by pti

Section 144 will be in force from the midnight of December 30 to January 2, 2021, and people from outside have been prohibited from entering the villages around the war memorial.
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Pune Police deny permission for Elgar Parishad event, cite coronavirus, law and order situation

24/12/2020

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

Retired judge BG Kolse Patil said the organisers will move the High Court against the decision.
The police in Maharashtra’s Pune city on Wednesday refused to give permission to retired judge BG Kolse Patil to organise Elgar Parishad conclave on December 31, PTI reported.
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Organizer of 2017 Elgar Parishad denied permission for event

22/12/2020

Outlook India / by Outlook News Scroll

Pune police has denied permission for an event that retired judge B G Kolse-Patil, one of the organisers of the December 2017 Elgar Parishad, had planned to hold in the city, a senior official said on Wednesday.
Kolse-Patil had sought to organize a cultural event at Ganesh Kala Krida Manch on December 31.
“We have denied permission in view of the COVID-19 restrictions and law and order situation,” said city police commissioner Amitabh Gupta.
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Bhima Koregaon anniversary: Govt urges Covid caution, plans for another Elgaar Parishad

22/12/2020 Rani

Bhima Koregaon anniversary: As govt urges Covid caution, plans for another Elgaar Parishad

22/12/2020

The Indian Express / by Chandan Haygunde

Why is the Bhima Koregaon anniversary significant, what are the plans to observe it this year, and what happened during its 200th anniversary in 2018, which saw the arrests of activists and intellectuals?
As yet another anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon approaches, the Maharashtra government has urged for low-key celebrations, citing the coronavirus pandemic.
However, preparations for the anniversary are on in full swing, with Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad announcing he will visit Jaystambh – the battle war memorial – and the group Bhima Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerna Abhiyaan saying they will organise another Elgaar Parishad this year.
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Pune meet discusses plan to hold another Elgaar Parishad event

22/12/2020

The Indian Express / by Chandan Haygunde

“We are now organising Elgaar Parishad at the Ganesh Kala Krida Manch. We have already booked the premises and process is on for seeking permission from the police for holding the conference,” said Justice (retd) B G Kolse Patil, a former High Court judge who was a key person at the meeting.
Activists and retired officers held a state-level meeting under the banner of ‘Bhima Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerna Abhiyaan’ in Pune to plan another ‘Elgaar Parishad’ event on December 31, ahead of the anniversary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon on January 1.
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COVID-19 in Maharashtra: Home Department urges people for a low key programmes at Bhima Koregaon

22/12/2020

The Free Press Journal / by Sanjay Jog

The Home Department, on Tuesday, appealed to the Ambedkarite Dalits not to gather in large numbers at the Bhima Koregaon war memorial to pay their respect at the Vijay Sthamb (victory pillar) on January 1 in view of the coronavirus pandemic. The department wants people to observe the day at low key on the lines of Ganapati, Navratri and Eid, amongst others. The programme should be symbolic.
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Shifting burden of proof

20/12/2020 Rani

Orissa Post / by Aakar Patel

Uttar Pradesh´s law banning interfaith marriages also carries forward another innovative feature of India´s legal system in these present times. This is the shifting of burden of proof from the State to the accused. The `innocent until proven guilty´ maxim that under pins all law has been stood on its head and it is for the individual to prove their innocence to the State, which assumes that they are guilty…
Once the State has branded you a terrorist then UAPA requires you to prove your innocence even to secure bail.
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Academic freedom is under attack in Modi’s India

18/12/2020 Rani

Aljazeera / by Aman Abhishek

The ongoing unlawful imprisonment of Professor Anand Teltumbde and numerous other dissident scholars is a clear reflection of the bleak state of academic freedom in India.
Last year I had the opportunity to listen to the prominent Indian intellectual and author, Anand Teltumbde, speak at an academic conference in Delhi. At one point in his speech, he got teary-eyed and told the audience that he has lost all hope because India’s transformation into a “Hindu nation” under Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears complete.
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Varavara Rao in Prison: Maoists and Other Enemies of the Indian State

18/12/2020 Rani

VERSO / by Aditya Bahl

Aditya Bahl protests against the continued imprisonment of the Marxist poet, Varavara Rao, and examines how the current cycle of rightwing repression is part of a much longer political history, shaped by the changing relationship between the Indian state and capitalism.
In Captive Imagination, a collection of essays written in the prison during the late 1980s, Varavara Rao, the Telugu poet and a leading Maoist ideologue in India, narrates a rather uncanny state of affairs.
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For those dividing Indians to rule them, adivasis are clearly not farmers / Video: Protesting farmers

16/12/2020 Maya

Drawing by Arun Ferreira

The Wire / by Nandini Sundar

The Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) decided to mark December 10, International Human Rights Day, by remembering several prominent activists arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), especially those arrested in the name of Bhima Koregaon, and the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act…
Mahesh Raut, one of the youngest of those arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case, is a graduate of TISS and was a PM Rural Development Fellow in Gadchiroli.
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Video: Protesting Farmers Demand Release of Arrested Intellectuals and Activists

hindi | 11:30min | 2020

The Wire / by Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta

Why do farmers wish to broaden the scope of their protest?
Farmers protesting at the border on International Human Rights Day demanded the release of all activists who have been arrested. The Wire‘s Political Affairs Editor Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta spoke to the farmers to find out why they wished to broaden the scope of their protest.
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When saints are in prison: Custody as a form of torture

12/12/2020 Rani

The Quint / by Kaleeswaram Raj

Incarceration is not mere curtailment of freedom. It is a diminution of human dignity. And today, one is forced to think that individual dignity in India is in deep crisis.
It is amazing to watch the Supreme Court building that symbolises a wonderful architectural tradition. It is more so when one looks at the flock of birds that fly over the court’s tomb, epitomising universal liberty, a theme that the Constitution tried to imbibe. It contains provisions for certain fundamental rights even for non-citizens. Article 21 promises right to life and personal liberty to ‘any person’. The court has interpreted life to always mean dignified life.
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Organisers of Elgar Parishad say accused are denied basic human rights

11/12/2020 Rani

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

On Human Rights Day, retired judges say intellectuals have been implicated for speaking against the government.
It is close to three years that intellectuals, activists and lawyers were arrested in the Bhima Koregaon violence case. Retired judges, who organised the Elghar Parishad event, say, “All those accused in the case are not connected with it but they have been implicated because they have spoken against the government. They are denied basic human rights.”
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Taloja jail says new spectacles given to Navlakha; govt to probe / Making a spectacle

11/12/2020 Rani

Drawing by Arun Ferreira

Taloja jail says new spectacles given to Navlakha; govt to probe

11/12/2020

The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak

Navlakha (69), who was arrested by the NIA, had told his partner Sahba Husain that his spectacles were stolen in the jail.
Taloja Central Jail authorities said a new pair of spectacles has been made and handed over to activist Gautam Navlakha, lodged in the prison in connection to the Elgaar Parishad case, on Thursday.
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Making a spectacle

11/12/2020

The Indian Express / by Indian Express Editorial

Bombay HC is right to underline the need for dignity for undertrials. Speedy justice must also be made a priority.
The weeks that it took for a straw and a sipper to reach an 83-year-old tribal rights activist afflicted with Parkinson’s; the time it took for authorities in a Mumbai jail to turn away a pair of spectacles meant for a civil rights activist — both, among many other instances, are a measure of the gap between human dignity and the justice system.
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From Segregation to Labour, Manu’s Caste Law Governs the Indian Prison System

10/12/2020

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

In several states, prison manuals still dictate that labour within the prison should be assigned on the basis of caste.
On his first day at the Alwar district prison, Ajay Kumar* was gearing up for the worst. Torture, stale food, biting cold and harsh labour – Bollywood had already acquainted him with the grisly realities of jails. “Gunah batao (Tell me your crime),” a police constable, placed at the undertrial (UT) section, asked him as soon as he was escorted inside a tall iron gateway.
Ajay had barely mumbled something, when the constable snapped, “Kaun jaati (Which caste)?” Unsure, Ajay paused and then hesitantly said, “Rajak”.
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The Memory Keepers Of India’s Imprisoned Intellectuals

09/12/2020 Rani

Bloomberg Quint / by Priya Ramani

Varavara Rao is writing poems again. This news, from his nephew N Venugopal is shared with joy. After months of teetering precariously between life and death in Mumbai’s Taloja jail, delirious, bedridden, with an unchanged catheter, and no trained attendants, the Bombay High Court, on Nov. 18, ordered immediate medical attention for Rao, one of the country’s most prolific public intellectuals. The court also okayed family visits.
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