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
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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.
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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.
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The Caravan / by Culture Workers Trust
The Culture Workers’ Support Trust (CWST) condemns the harassment of members of the creative community.
Statement Against State Repression of Culture Workers:
In Solidarity with Rahul Roy, Saba Dewan, Kabir Kala Manch, and Art Students facing harassment and false charges by the state, who are being targeted for exercising their democratic right to raise their voice against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, the National Register of Citizens, the National Population Register and state-sponsored brutality during the anti-CAA protests.
Read more / Full statement
Deccan Chronicle / by Bela Bhatia
More humane provisions are needed for prisoners, including political prisoners and those charged under special laws.
It is obvious that the threat of the coronavirus, a communicable disease, is worst in places of high population density. The prison is one such place. About half a million persons are incarcerated in more than 1,300 jails scattered all over India. More than two thirds are undertrials… It is only high-profile cases like those of Binayak Sen, Varavara Rao and others incarcerated in the Bhima Koregaon case that attract national or even international attention. While this attention is justified, most people do not realise that thousands of powerless, impoverished people face similar or worse injustice.
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News Click / by Varsha Torgalkar
Activists have been demanding the release of prisoners on health grounds. So far, six inmates have died of COVID-19 in prisons across state and 1,772 prisoners have tested positive out of total 11,267 tests conducted as per the Prison Department data.
Pune: On July 12, poet and activist Varavara Rao’s daughter addressed a press conference saying, “My father, Varavara Rao, an 81 years old poet, blabbered about his father’s funeral which was held 75 years ago. Whatever he talked was incoherent during the weekly call from prison to family. His co-prisoner, Vernon Gonsalves, told us that he is in no condition to walk and carry out his daily works,” The family had panicked after the call and held the press conference the next day.
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By Human Rights Watch
(New York) The Indian authorities are increasingly bringing politically motivated cases, including under severe sedition and terrorism laws, against critics of the government, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should immediately drop baseless charges against activists, academics, student leaders, and others, and unconditionally release those in custody.
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Counteverview / by Counterview Desk/ Campaign Against State Repression (CASR)
In a statement, CASR said, “Following the model of the Bhima Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad case, the Delhi Police appears to be determined to target those who have spoken out against the communal discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Registry of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) instead of those who incited the violence in North East Delhi leading to the death of over 50 persons, injuries to several hundred, loss of livelihood and displacement of thousands, particularly Muslim residents of the area.”
Read full statement
Economic Times / by T K Arun
… In the cases registered by the Delhi police, the focus is solely on those who protested against CAA. BJP leaders who held rallies, threatening to take the law into their own hands if the anti-CAA protests were not lifted, are off the police radar.
This playbook looks as if it has been copied from the police action in the wake of the Bhima-Koregaon violence, which saw a Dalit activist killed and several injured during an attack on Dalit celebration of the 200 th anniversary of the victory of Mahar troops of the British East India Company over the Peshwa’s army, ending Peshwa rule once and for all.
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Live Law / by Live Law News Network
A special court in Mumbai on Friday extended till September 19 the NIA remand of three members of Kabir Kala Manch arrested in connection with the Koregaon Bhima – Elgar Parishad case.
Sagar Tatyaram Gorkhe (32), Ramesh Murlidhar Gaichor (36) and Jyoti Raghoba Jagtap (33), who were arrested earlier this week, were produced before special NIA Judge D E Kothalikar on Friday after their first remand period of four days ended.
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11/09/2020
Free Press Journal / by Bhavna Uchil
In a video recorded just before they were arrested by the National Investigation Agency on Monday, Sagar Gorkhe can be heard saying that the agency had asked him and fellow Kabir Kala Manch member Ramesh Gaichor to give confessions that they are linked with Maoists and if they do so, they will be spared arrests. They said they refused it.
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Scroll.in / by Sruthisagar Yamunan
If the courts do not intervene to pull up the agency, its strategy of intimidation will continue unabated, vitiating the entire trial.
On September 7, the National Investigation Agency arrested two members of the Kabir Kala Manch cultural group, Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor, in connection with its inquiry into the violence at Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra on December 31, 2017. A day later, Jyoti Jagtap, another member of the group, had been arrested.
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