Repression – free them all

Global rights monitor CIVICUS puts India on ‘watchlist’ over civic freedoms

29/07/2026 Asha

India added to human rights watchlist as repression intensifies in Modi’s third term

29/07/2026

Civicus / by CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist

– A range of legal measures are being used to jail activists, protesters, journalists and critics of the government
– Authorities are expanding censorship and surveillance powers
– NGOs face tighter funding restrictions and unprecedented government control over their operations
India has been added to the latest CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist due to a rapid deterioration in civic freedoms during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third term. The decline has been marked by the escalating persecution of activists, growing restrictions on independent media and civil society organisations, and the expanded misuse of anti-terror legislation and other legal measures against critics of the government.
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Global rights monitor CIVICUS puts India on ‘watchlist’ over civic freedoms

29/07/2026

Frontline / by Frontline News Desk

CIVICUS, which tracks freedoms across nearly 200 countries, says recent crackdowns on activists, journalists, and civil society groups point to a worsening climate for free expression and peaceful assembly.
India has been added to the latest CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist following what the organisation called a “rapid deterioration in civic freedoms” during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third term. According to CIVICUS, the decline has been marked by the escalating persecution of activists, growing restrictions on independent media and civil society organisations, and the expanded misuse of anti-terror legislation and other legal measures against critics of the government.
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CIVICUS adds India to global human rights watchlist amid rising curbs on civic freedoms

29/07/2026

Counterview / by Jag Jivan

Global civil society alliance CIVICUS has placed India on its latest CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist, citing what it describes as a rapid deterioration in civic freedoms during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third term in office.
The organisation says the move reflects an escalating crackdown on activists, journalists, civil society organisations and critics of the government through restrictive legislation, censorship measures and expanded state powers.
… In April 2026, the National Investigation Agency renewed investigations into activists connected to the long-running Bhima Koregaon case, despite several having already spent years in pre-trial detention before obtaining bail.
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India: Activists arrested, abducted and tortured, journalists targeted and laws tightened to increase control

11/06/2026

CIVICUS / by CIVICUS

Also read:
▪ Civic freedoms remain at risk with crackdown on protests, internet restrictions and denial of bail to activists (CIVICUS / Jan 2026)
▪ Ongoing detention of activists without bail, criminalisation of dissent and ban on books (CIVICUS / Sep S025)
▪ Read India report: INDIA – COUNTRY FACTSHEET 2025 (World Organization Against Torture / Jun 2025)

▪ India: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on the deterioration of civic space (CIVICUS /Jul 2024)

APCR condemns detention of protesters over posters of political prisoners / Mumbai Event Highlighting Constitutional Values

24/07/2026 Asha

APCR condemns detention of Goa NEET protesters over posters of political prisoners, alleges criminalisation of dissent

30/07/2026

Maktoobmedia / by Maktoob

According to APCR, the controversy began when activist Danish displayed a placard at a peaceful gathering following the Education Minister’s resignation over paper leaks, calling for the release of undertrial prisoners, including Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid and the Bhima Koregaon accused.
The Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) on Thursday condemned the detention and criminal proceedings against activist Sudeep Dalvi, Danish and other NEET protesters in Goa, alleging that the state was using criminal law to suppress peaceful dissent and violate constitutional freedoms.
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The Jantar Mantar Student Protest: Anger, Accountability, and Democratic Rights

29/07/2026

Countercurrents.org / by Dinkar Kapoor

… It must also be noted that the anger brewing against the Modi government stems partly from the systematic erosion of democratic and constitutional rights. The government has suppressed every voice of dissent through repression. Some of the nation’s finest minds—such as Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Umar Khalid, Prabir Purkayastha, Sudha Bharadwaj, and Satyam Verma—have been imprisoned. Organizing sit-ins, protests, fasts, movements, or marches has become not merely difficult but virtually impossible in the country. Individuals committed to social causes—who strengthen democracy—were branded as “Andolanjeevi” (professional protesters), “anti-nationals,” and even “cockroaches.” Institutions that bolster the democratic system and channel public outrage toward democratic resolutions have been dismantled.
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‘Free Umar Khalid’ placard draws police action at Goa protest

26/07/2026

The Indian Express / by Pavneet Singh Chadha

Goa police detain man for carrying a placard that said ‘Free Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Bhima Koregaon 16’. Came after BJP Yuva Morcha workers staged a protest demanding his arrest
Goa Police Saturday evening detained a man for allegedly carrying a “Free Umar Khalid” placard at a gathering organised to express solidarity with the protests at Jantar Mantar in Delhi and to mark the resignation of former Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
According to the police, the incident took place around 7 pm, when people gathered at the Azad Maidan in Panaji were raising slogans. Police said one of the protesters was carrying a placard that read, “Free Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Bhima Koregaon 16”.
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‘Refuse to Lift Your Lathis’: 1800 Citizens Write Open Letter to Security Forces At Jantar Mantar

25/07/2026

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

“Next time an order like this comes to you to savagely attack innocent peaceful protesters you must stop and think, and you must refuse to lift your lathi,” the letter read.
A group of concerned citizens, with over 1800 signatories, have written an open letter to the police and security forces deployed at Jantar Mantar, Delhi, following visuals of a violent crackdown on student protesters on July 20, 2026. Appealing directly to the personnel’s conscience, the letter asks them to resist orders to attack peaceful demonstrators. The letter has been circulated in 15 Indian languages, apart from English: Bengali, Garhwali, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Khasi, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Tamizh, Telugu and Urdu.
Read the full letter

“Hum Bharat Ke Log”: Tushar Gandhi Leads Mumbai Event Highlighting Constitutional Values & Democratic Rights

24/07/2026

Free Press Journal / by Poonam Apraj

Around 200 activists, students, writers and citizens gathered in Mumbai for ‘Hum Bharat Ke Log – Voice of Resistance’, a cultural programme highlighting constitutional values. Presided over by Tushar Gandhi, the event saw the launch of the ‘Lawyers of Students’ app for legal aid to protesting students. Speakers discussed democracy, justice, equality and peaceful civic participation.
… Those present included Dhananjay Shinde, Aamir Kazi, Guddi Tiwari, Sudhir Dhawale, Suvarna Salve, Subodh More, Tejas, Huma Namal, actor Sushant Singh, Akshay from Raigad and Advocate Todkar.
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CJP protest row: Mumbai Police book Shivaji Park organisers for unlawful assembly

20/07/2026

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

The organisers of the Shivaji Park protest are facing an FIR for ‘unlawful assembly’ as the Mumbai Police said, no permission was granted to carry out the demonstration.
… Earlier, the Mumbai Police had registered two FIRs in connection with the protests that were carried out in south Mumbai on Saturday in support of Sonam Wangchuk.The first FIR was registered at the Marine Drive police station against the NCP (Sharad Pawar) faction party workers for protesting near Mantralaya, and the second against left party organisations for protesting near the Press Club. The seven people booked include Sudhir Dhawale, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case who received bail last year.
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Also read:
▪ The exam crisis that became a battle for accountability (SabrangIndia / Jul 2026)
▪ CJP protest: From Shillong to Mumbai, solidarity demonstrations held across India (Scroll.in / Jul 2026)
▪ How Maharashtra’s folk traditions fuel Sudhir Dhawale’s tireless cultural resistance against caste (Scroll.in / Apr 2026)
▪ As Maharashtra Govt Brings Bill Against ‘Urban Naxalism’, Activists Fear Criminalisation of Dissent (The Wire / Jul 2025)
▪ How Kabir Kala Manch, the anti-caste cultural troupe, challenges the hierarchical social order (Scroll.in / Jul 2024)
▪ Kabir Kala Manch: A History of Revolutionary Singing and State Repression (ritimo / April 2022)
▪ Singing on the beats of resistance: Relaa collective and the cultural activists of Maharashtra (ritimo.org / Apr 2022)
▪ Maharashtra: Activists, Lawyers Added to ‘Union War Book’, Listed as ‘Enemies of the State’ (The Wire / Jul 2021)

Exam anger becomes a political reckoning / Why Should Protesters Seek Police Permission?

19/07/2026 Asha

Mumbai. Pic credits: Sayyed Sameer Abedi / Mid-Day

CJP protests | Exam anger becomes a political reckoning

24/07/2026

Deccan Herald / by Bharat Bhushan

Pan-India protests against the events of July 20 have marked a significant shift in Indian politics, moribund for 12 years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. What began as a narrow protest about examination leaks has become a generational statement about the lack of institutional accountability.
… A movement of such diversity resists easy categorisation. This is making it harder for the government to neutralise it by its usual strategy of labelling its critics as anti-national. Whereas it attempted to brand earlier protest movements as political extremists such as Punjab farmers as ‘Khalistani’; anti-CAA protestors as representing sectarian ‘Muslim unrest’; linking civil rights’ activists in the Bhima-Koregaon case to ‘Naxalite extremists’, and the infamous attempt to label JNU students as being sympathetic to Kashmiri militants.
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Why Should Protesters Seek Police Permission?

22/07/2026

The Wire / by Anand Teltumbde

The police response to the students’ march in Delhi raises a disturbing question. Had the police begun to resemble street goons, or had street goons been absorbed into the policing of democratic dissent?
On July 20, the long-running protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar took a dramatic turn. For nearly three weeks, an uneasy calm had prevailed around the indefinite fast of Sonam Wangchuk and three students demanding accountability for repeated examination leaks and the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The original permission to assemble had long since expired, yet, curiously, the police allowed the protest to continue, perhaps calculating that it would eventually lose momentum.
Instead, the opposite happened.
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The exam crisis that became a battle for accountability

21/07/2026

Sabrang India / by Sabrang India

From student grievances to Sonam Wangchuk’s hunger strike, the movement questioned accountability, democracy and the limits of State intervention
On July 20, 2026, the streets around Delhi’s Jantar Mantar became the centre of a rapidly escalating confrontation between a student-led movement demanding accountability over alleged failures in the education system and a State determined to prevent the protest from moving towards Parliament.
… In Mumbai, the state’s restrictive approach to public assembly has turned the city into a theater of confrontation.
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CJP protest row: Mumbai Police book Shivaji Park organisers for unlawful assembly

20/07/2026

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Mumbai Police Register Three FIRs Over Uddhav Thackeray-Led Protest Backing Sonam Wangchuk

20/07/2026

Lokmat Times / by Lokmat Times Desk

Mumbai Police have registered three FIRs in connection with the protest led by Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday in support of activist Sonam Wangchuk. According to the police, the first FIR concerns the alleged organisation of the protest without prior permission. The second relates to appeals made to the public to gather at the venue despite the lack of official approval. The third FIR was filed after students reportedly continued demonstrations at various locations in Dadar even after the main protest ended, causing major traffic congestion. Police said no arrests have been made in any of the three cases so far.
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Elgar Parishad accused booked for protesting in support of Sonam Wangchuk

19/07/2026

Hindustan Times / by HT Correspondent

Azad Maidan police said the protestors were booked for unlawful assembly and allowed to leave after being served notices to present themselves if required
MUMBAI: Activist and writer Sudhir Dhawale and a few others were booked by the police for protesting outside Azad Maidan on Saturday, in connection with the alleged forcible removal of activist Sonam Wangchuk from Jantar Mantar in Delhi. Dhawale is one of the accused in the Elgar Parishad case and was released on bail from the Taloja Central Jail in January 2025.
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CJP protest in Mumbai: How Azad Maidan became the city’s site of agitations, with restrictions

19/07/2026

The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak

Azad Maidan as a site of protest can be traced back to a 1997 court case. Since then, several rules have been laid down on the manner of protests allowed, including weekend restrictions, a ban on hunger strikes, and the slogans that can be raised.
Mumbai-based activists and citizens have been gathering at the Azad Maidan since last week in solidarity with the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest being held at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, over the NEET-UG 2026 entrance examination paper leak.
On Saturday (July 18), the Mumbai Police filed two FIRs against some of the protestors, citing the Public Meetings, Agitations and Processions Rules, 2025, which prohibit protests at the maidan on weekends.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Who Answers to Us?: The Jantar Mantar Protests and India’s Missing Idea of Accountability (The Wire | by Anand Teltumbde | Jul 2026)
▪ The exam crisis that became a battle for accountability (SabrangIndia / Jul 2026)
▪ CJP protest: From Shillong to Mumbai, solidarity demonstrations held across India (Scroll.in / Jul 2026)
▪ How Maharashtra’s folk traditions fuel Sudhir Dhawale’s tireless cultural resistance against caste (Scroll.in / Apr 2026)
▪ Elgar Parishad case accused at event that attacked Maharashtra Public Security Bill, cops to seek bail review (TOI / May 2026)
▪ Sudhir Dhawale: “This is a bigger prison” (The Caravan | by Sudhir Dhawale | Apr 2025)
▪ Interview | Sudhir Dhawale’s Work Will Go on (The Wire / Feb 2025)
▪ Sudhir Dhawale interview: ‘The law remains blind to injustice even with the blindfold gone’ (Scroll.in / Feb 2025)

Activists arrested, abducted and tortured, journalists targeted and laws tightened to increase control

11/06/2026 Asha

CIVICUS / by CIVICUS

India’s civic space is still rated as ‘repressed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor. The authorities persist in targeting activists, journalists, students and civil society through the misuse of draconian laws, arbitrary detention, censorship and the criminalisation of dissent. Over the past year, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), counterterrorism provisions and public order regulations have been consistently deployed to silence government critics, restrict civil society, and deter peaceful protests.
… The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has renewed its pursuit of human rights defenders in the long-running Bhima Koregaon case, several of whom have already spent years in pre-trial detention before being released on bail. On 29th April 2026, NIA officials visited the Mumbai Press Club, seeking documents and questioning office-bearers about a gathering held on its premises on 19th January 2026 that was attended by accused in the case.
Read more

Also read:
▪ NIA Moves to Cancel Bails of Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Elgar Parishad Case (The Wire / Jun 2026)
▪ Mumbai Press Club Suspensions Over Elgar Parishad Accused Visit Spark Row; NIA Inquiry Raises Stakes (The Wire / May 2026)
▪ Civic freedoms remain at risk with crackdown on protests, internet restrictions and denial of bail to activists (CIVICUS / Jan 2026)
▪ Ongoing detention of activists without bail, criminalisation of dissent and ban on books (CIVICUS / Sep S025)
▪ Read India report: INDIA – COUNTRY FACTSHEET 2025 (World Organization Against Torture / Jun 2025)

▪ India: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on the deterioration of civic space (CIVICUS /Jul 2024)
▪ CIVIC FREEDOMS IN INDIA ‘REPRESSED’: GLOBAL MONITOR CIVICUS (The Wire / March 2023)
Read full report „People Power Under Attack 2022“ (CIVICUS)

Indira Jaising sounds alarm on democracy & dissent / India’s Anti-Terror Law and the Punishment of the Unconvicted

19/05/2026 Asha

Two judgments, no single standard: Why terror law UAPA’s bail threshold isn’t a straight line

21/05/2026

The Print / by Sahaj Sankaran

SC’s contradiction over bail in terror cases has revived questions over whether the stringent Watali test or the liberty-focused Najeeb ruling should guide UAPA jurisprudence.
When a two-judge Supreme Court bench Monday criticised a co-ordinate bench’s decision denying bail in January to Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid, both accused under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in the Delhi riots case, the criticism raised a much broader issue: how should courts decide on bail under the anti-terror law?
… In the the 2022 Jyoti Jagtap vs NIA case, the court did not consider Najeeb at all, implicitly arguing that Najeeb had no applicability even though the defendant had been in prison for two years by that point. It took another three years for Jagtap, arrested for her alleged ties to the organisers of the 2017 Elgar Parishad event, to secure bail.
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Not defending civil society judiciary’s biggest failure Advocate Indira Jaising

19/05/2026

The Week / by pti

The judiciary’s inability to protect civil society from persecution is its “biggest failure”, writes senior advocate Indira Jaising in her new book “The Constitution Is My Home”, alleging that political opponents, activists and human rights defenders are being systematically targeted through criminal law.
… Referring to the prosecution of late Delhi University professor G N Saibaba under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), she criticised judicial observations that shifted the focus of criminal law from “overt acts to beliefs and ideas”.
She also criticised the use of the UAPA and the sedition provision under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code against activists and human rights defenders in cases linked to the 2020 Delhi riots and the Bhima Koregaon violence.
Read more

▪ Indira Jaising interview: Senior advocate sounds alarm on democracy & dissent in modern India

en | 19:16min | 2026
Interview by: Kanu Sarda
Camera: Sanjay Ahlawat
Editor: Syam Krishnan

In this exclusive interview with THE WEEK, Indira Jaising discusses her new memoir, The Constitution Is My Home, and shares her thoughts on the biggest constitutional and judicial challenges facing India today. From the Bhima Koregaon case and judicial accountability to women in the Supreme Court and the criminalisation of dissent, Jaising offers a candid and deeply personal reflection on law, democracy and power.
Watch video

India’s Anti-Terror Law and the Punishment of the Unconvicted

19/05/2026

Countercurrents.org / by Utkarsh Mishra

The statistics released by the government paint a troubling picture. From 2019 to 2023, India arrested 10,440 individuals using its strictest anti-terror law, but only 335 were convicted. This number didn’t come from a human rights organisation; it was shared by the Union Home Ministry itself during a session in Parliament in December 2025. The National Crime Records Bureau put together these figures, and it amounts to a mere 3.2% conviction rate.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Voices From Prison | A Legacy Of Detention: Weaponisation Of PDA, TADA, NSA And UAPA Laws Since Independence (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ Unlawful: Editorial on the Bhima Koregaon case and denial of liberty under UAPA (The Telegraph / Feb 2026)
▪ Inside the NIA’s ‘Perfect’ Conviction Record: How Coercive Detentions Are Driving Guilty Pleas (The Wire / Dec 2025)
▪ Justice On Hold: How India’s Trial Courts Are Creating a New Class of Political Prisoners—Those Accused Of ‘Terrorism’ (article 14 / Dec 2025)
▪ Legal experts call for a repeal of UAPA over misuse and rights violations (Frontline / May 2024)

▪ Report: UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR (PUCL / Sep 2022)
Download report

Wages of fury: Noida’s wake-up call

09/05/2026 Asha

Frontline / by Anand Teltumbde

The Noida worker protest is local in trigger but national in meaning. It asks an important question: why must every wage demand now be branded a conspiracy?
On April 13, 2026, the industrial township of Noida—a satellite city of Delhi with over 10,000 factories and service units—saw scenes long feared by the ruling establishment. Thousands of workers spilled onto the streets in a cascading uprising that had begun three days earlier and now spread across sector belts. Their demands were elemental: a living wage, an eight-hour workday, and the basic dignity of being treated as human beings rather than disposable inputs in a global supply chain.
Read more

Also read:
▪ How 5 Reliance Workers Fighting For A Better Deal Found Themselves In Jail On Terrorism Charges (Article 14 / July 2021)
▪ Bail After 3 Years for the Incarcerated Mumbai Electric Employees Union Workers (groundxero, June 2021)

Umar Khalid: A Prisoner of Conscience

02/05/2026 Asha

The Wire / by Clifton D’ Rozario

This is a speech by from a book discussion on ‘Umar Khalid and His World’ held on April 28, 2026 at BIC, Bengaluru.
…
Whether it is Bhima Koregaon, or the anti-CAA protests or Adivasi struggles, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act has become the toolkit to imprison dissenters. The UAPA stands as one of the most enduring remnants of colonial rule. Under the British laws of this nature existed for one purpose alone: to criminalise resistance and imprison those who dared to speak against the coloniser. It is a matter of profound shame that more than 75 years after Independence, in a Republic that claims fidelity to liberty, constitutional morality and democratic dissent, the State continues to preserve and weaponise the very architecture of repression once used by our oppressors.
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▪ UMAR KHALID AND HIS WORLD: an anthology

Editors: Anirban Bhattacharya, Banojyotsna Lahiri, Shuddhabrata Sengupta
Publisher: Three Essays Collective
Publication date: Feb 2026
Pages: 340

This is an anthology of writings on and by Umar Khalid, edited by his friends, highlighting his ideas and the events that have been defining moments in his journey since he was imprisoned. In the process it underscores the injustice where the trial itself is punishment, the widespread support and sympathy for Umar Khalid, and the perfidy of the State. In talking of his world rather than just him, it also brings to life the related dimensions of democracy and authoritarianism, and that he is one among many prisoners of conscience. The book has contributions from eminent intellectuals, among them scholars, mediapersons, lawyers and human rights activists, as well as other prisoners under UAPA, and is enriched with songs and poetry of the anti-CAA-NRC protests, and statements and tributes from friends and family members.

In India, trial happens by extended detention

26/04/2026 Asha

Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project

The Tribune / by Hammad Safraz

Those who question the government’s policies on rights and freedoms, find themselves in an endless chase for justice
The world’s largest democracy, or so the slogan goes, has perfected a quiet kind of cruelty against those who speak truth to power. For activists and journalists who question Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, the punishment is arbitrary detention without trial, stretched endlessly into a legal void where no charge is filed and no freedom is granted. …
The first big case, Ria Chakrabarty said, was actually that of anti-caste and tribal activists who rallied at Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra and were later attacked by Hindu nationalist mobs. … Both the Supreme Court and the UN have judged that many of the detainees were held with no evidence of terrorism. “But this case is important to understand,” she said, “because then the Indian Home Ministry started using the same playbook against Muslim activists who would lead protests subjected to Hindu nationalist violence, and later, primarily Sikh farmers protesting farm laws.”
Read more

Also read:
▪ IAPL demands release of advocate Surendra Gadling from Maharashtra jail (The Sisat Daily / March 2026)
▪ Incarceration As Politics: A Timeline Of Political Prisoners In Independent India (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ Justice On Hold: How India’s Trial Courts Are Creating a New Class of Political Prisoners—Those Accused Of ‘Terrorism’ (article 14 / Dec 2025)
▪ Bail for Bhima Koregaon accused highlights extraordinary delay in trial (Scroll.in / Jan 2025)
▪ How Long is Too Long? – On the Maximum Period that an Undertrial Prisoner can be Detained (Constitutional Law and Philosophy | by Hany Babu and Surendra Gadling | Oct 2024)

The End of Naxalism, the End of Accountability

22/04/2026 Asha

The Wire / by Nandini Sundar

As the government claims victory over the CPI (Maoist), a more consequential defeat is being obscured: the collapse of constitutional accountability and the normalisation of impunity.
…
Among the many ironies of this confused and legally directionless ‘end of Naxalism’, is the fate of those arrested on charges of being Maoist sympathisers. At one end, we have the human rights lawyer Surendra Gadling who has been in jail since 2018, along with the rest of the BK 16 who are out on bail but still suffer from a protracted trial despite ample proof that police ‘evidence’ was fabricated. At the other end, the youth leaders of the Moolvasi Bachao Manch in Bastar, like Raghu Midiyami, Suneeta Pottam and others, have been jailed for over two years under UAPA, along with some other 40 activists at different times. Even simple rights like an operation to fix Raghu Midiyami’s broken finger are being resisted by the NIA. The MBM waged an entirely constitutional struggle, invoking the 5th Schedule of the Constitution and PESA to defend their lands. Evidently a peaceful movement of locals, in the face of an intensified mining push, is now a greater threat to the national security state than even the Maoists.
Hundreds of other innocent Adivasis continue to languish in jail, going through the tortuous legal system. Stan Swamy was targeted because his PIL in the Jharkhand High Court, based on interviews with 102 undertrials, showed that 97% of those arrested on charges of being Maoist actually had no relation to them.
Read more

Also read:
▪ 7 yrs in jail, charges framed against Surendra Gadling in Surajgarh arson case. What Bombay HC told SC (The Print / Apr 2026)
▪ Voices From Prison | Half-Freedom For Adivasis Jailed On Maoist Allegations (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ Voices From Prison | From Forest To Prison, When Security Laws Criminalise Adivasi Resistance (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ Will anti-Naxal drive pave way for mining giants? (The New Indian Express / May 2025)
▪ Top intellectual targeted for role as anti-displacement activist, opponent of ‘corporate loot’ (Sep 2024)
▪ Who Is Suneeta Pottam, the Tribal Rights Activist Picked up for Unknown Cases Earlier This Month? (The Wire / Jun 2024)
▪ Encountering Resistance – State Policy for Development in Gadchiroli (PUDR / June 2018)
▪ Condemn the State Sponsored Massacre Scripted as ‘Encounter’ in Gadchiroli and Bijapur in Central India (wssnet.wordpress.com / May 2018)
▪ A study of Undertrials in Jharkhand (Sanhati / by Bagaicha Research Team / Feb 2016)

Artists, Educators, Publishers Speak Out Against ‘Rising Attempts’ to Stifle Their Voices

12/03/2026 Asha

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

“These attacks have taken place in various forms, but each follows a pattern of impunity enabled by a rising culture of intolerance and suppression.”
A collective of artists, authors, publishers and educators have issued a statement condemning “rising attempts” to curtail free speech and creative voices in India. Referring to incidents including Anand Teltumbde’s panel being cancelled at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival and water being thrown at historian S. Irfan Habib, the signatories say that “these disruptions set a dangerous precedent if left unaddressed in the current political climate”.
Read more / the full statement

Also read:
▪ Mumbai Press Club Bars Elgar Parishad Defendants’ Entry, Issues Show-Cause Notice to Member (The Wire / March 2026)
▪ ‘Controversy best avoided’: Kala Ghoda festival director after Anand Teltumbde book event cancelled (Scroll.in / Feb 2026)
▪ Stan Swamy Lecture Cancelled – A Case Study in India’s Shrinking Space for Dissent (The Print / Aug 2025)