Browsed by
Category: Background

Bhima Koregaon judicial panel requests state to put hearings on hold due to Covid

Bhima Koregaon judicial panel requests state to put hearings on hold due to Covid

Hindustan Times / by Nadeem Inamdar

The Bhima Koregaon judicial commission has written to the chief secretary, government of Maharashtra, requesting the state government to put the extension notification on hold at least till the end of the year due to the aggravating Covid-19 situation in the state.
Read more

Who cares for Bhima Koregaon Commission?

07/10/2020

Rediff.com / by Jyoti Punwani

The government announced on October 6 the final extension to the Commission, asking it to submit its report by December 31, 2020.
The government knows meeting this deadline is an impossible task.
On February this year, the Commission had told the government it would need at least six months to complete its work, as reported by Rediff.com.
After the March 24 lockdown was announced, no hearings have been held.
Read more

Oct 10 webinar: Descent From Democracy – Political Prisoners and the Stifling of Dissent

Oct 10 webinar: Descent From Democracy – Political Prisoners and the Stifling of Dissent

By All India Lawyers´ Association for Justice

The ever-increasing list of political prisoners put into jail for their acts of dissent is deeply alarming. Join us in this webinar on political prisoners and the undemocratic stifling of dissent with Advocate Bela Bhatia & Senior Advocate Colin Gonzalves
Oct 10, 2020
6 p.m. IST

Maharashtra grants `final´ extension to Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry till Dec 31

Maharashtra grants `final´ extension to Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry till Dec 31

The Indian Express / by Chandan Haygunde

The commission, which is probing the reasons behind the violence that broke out in Koregaon Bhima on January 1, 2018, has been asked to submit its report to the government by that date.
Commission members, however, have sought a bigger site to conduct the hearings, in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read more

Arundhati Roy: Two conspiracies and a cremation

Arundhati Roy: Two conspiracies and a cremation

Scroll.in / by Arundhati Roy

As Diwali approaches and Hindus prepare to celebrate the triumphant return of Lord Ram to his Kingdom (and the spanking new temple that is being built for him in Ayodhya), the rest of us must be content to celebrate this season of serial triumphs for Indian Democracy…
The real purpose of the absurd police-manufactured 2020 Delhi conspiracy, and equally absurd 2018 Bhima-Koregaon conspiracy (the absurdity is part of the threat and the humiliation) is to imprison and pin down activists, students, lawyers, writers, poets, professors, trade-unionists and noncompliant NGOs.
Read more

NHRC asks for home ministry’s reply over Amnesty India’s decision to halt operations

NHRC asks for home ministry’s reply over Amnesty India’s decision to halt operations


AI #FreeBK11 poster

NHRC asks for home ministry’s reply over Amnesty India’s decision to halt operations

30/09/2020

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The NHRC referred to Amnesty India’s statement and said the group’s allegations were ‘serious in nature’ and have been strongly answered by the home ministry.
The National Human Rights Commission on Wednesday issued summons to Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla and the Ministry of Home Affairs, in relation to Amnesty International India’s decision to stop operations in India as the government allegedly froze its bank accounts. The commission has sought the replies within six weeks.
Read more

Amnesty International says work in India halted after govt freezes bank accounts

29/09/2020

Hindustan Times / by Arpan Rai

Amnesty further claimed that it has been compelled to let go of staff in India and pause all ongoing campaign and research work …
The government had declined permission to receive foreign funds to Amnesty International India Foundation Trust that has been critical of security agencies in several cases including the arrest of activists such as Sudha Bharadwaj, Rona Wilson and Varavara Rao, who was accused of being a Maoist ideologue.
Read more

Amnesty International India Shuts Down, Blames Government’s ‘Reprisal’

29/08/2020

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

The decision, which will see close to 150 employees lose their jobs, came after the recent move by the Enforcement Directorate to freeze the organisation’s accounts.
Mumbai: After a successful eight-year run in India addressing several crucial human rights violations amid growing hostility and the government’s clampdown on civil liberties, Amnesty International (AI) India has decided to shut its operations in the country. The decision, which will see close to 150 employees lose their jobs, came after the recent move by the Enforcement Directorate to freeze the organisation’s accounts.
Read more

Case Against Hindutva Leaders Ignored, No Justice in Sight for Bhima Koregaon Violence Victims

Case Against Hindutva Leaders Ignored, No Justice in Sight for Bhima Koregaon Violence Victims

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

Even after the fall of the BJP government, the Sena-NCP-Congress coalition has also not shown any inclination to prosecute Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide.
Mumbai: On January 2, 2018, a day after a violent mob attack on Dalit community members visiting Bhima Koregaon, anti-caste activist Anita Sawale had filed a case accusing Samasta Hindu Aghadi president and Hindutva leader Milind Ekbote and Shiv Prathistan Hindustan leader Sambhaji Bhide as the “masterminds” of the attack.
Read more

Stop the Incarceration and Targeting of Dissenters and Activists in India

Stop the Incarceration and Targeting of Dissenters and Activists in India

Statement by Progressive International

Members of the PI Council ring the alarm on arbitrary arrests and the breakdown of justice in India.
The conduct of the Indian Government is unacceptable in the international framework for the protection of human rights and runs counter to the Indian Constitutional framework.
The members of Progressive International call upon the Indian government to immediately stop persecuting non-violent protestors wrongly accused and booked by the police. 
Read full statement

PUNISHED FOR SPEAKING UP – The ongoing use of restrictive laws to stifle dissent

PUNISHED FOR SPEAKING UP – The ongoing use of restrictive laws to stifle dissent

By CIVICUS

The Indian government is using a variety of restrictive laws – including national security and counter terrorism legislation – to arrest and imprison human rights defenders, peaceful protesters and critics, global civil society alliance CIVICUS said today in a new report.

The report covers:
– The judicial harassment of activists, targeting of journalists and crackdown on protesters;
– How rights violations have continued during President Modi’s second term and throughout the pandemic;
– Calls for the immediate release of arbitrarily detained activists, protesters and human rights defenders.
Read full report

Exception becomes the norm as special laws are misused

Exception becomes the norm as special laws are misused

Times of India Blogs / by Pankaj Butalia

Delhi Police’s framing and subsequent reframing of charges, using UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act), against the young women of Pinjra Tod a few months ago is an example of the gross misuse of special laws enacted by the state for circumstances which lie outside the purview of ordinary laws. By definition such laws are meant to be temporary and exceptions but end up being permanent and the norm.
Read more

Ominipotent state and impotent people: system weighed in favour of the ‘state’

20/09/2020

National Herald / by Aakar Patel

Indefinite ‘detention without trial’ is now the norm. The state is acquiring more power to crush the individual.
The criminal justice system everywhere is deliberately designed to protect the rights of the individual accused. And this is the correct way of seeing it although in our country it is the other way round.
Read more

The Only Institution Capable of Stopping the Death of Democracy Is Aiding it

The Only Institution Capable of Stopping the Death of Democracy Is Aiding it

The Wire / by A.P. Shah

The Supreme Court seems to have lost its way.
I speak here today of what I believe is one of the most troubling developments of our time: the decline of the Indian Supreme Court. As a former judge, at the very least I believe it is my duty to ring some warning bells…
This abuse of the UAPA and constant rejection of bail applications of accused as a means of silencing opposing voices can be seen most in the Bhima Koregaon cases, where mere thought has been elevated to a crime.
Read more