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Category: Repression

WhatsApp Alleges NSO Group Involved in Spying on Indians

WhatsApp Alleges NSO Group Involved in Spying on Indians

The Quint / by The Quint

WhatsApp has alleged in new court filings in a California court that Israeli surveillance company The NSO Group had controlled United States servers to deploy its spyware, Pegasus, in mobile phones of 1,400 individuals across the world, including over 121 Indians, The Guardian reported. …
Several Dalit rights lawyers and activists, including Anand Teltumbde, Bhima-Koregaon case lawyer Nihal Singh Rathod, Bela Bhatia, Jagdalpur Legal Aid group member Shalini Gera were among those targeted.
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NIA expands scope of its probe

NIA expands scope of its probe


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

Hindustan Times / by Neeraj Chauhan

The probe by NIA also focuses on student leaders in various universities and non-government organizations that extended support to the activists.
… the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has started looking at whether the 11 activists arrested in the case were involved in raising funds (for anti-national activities), brainwashing educated youth in urban centres, made international visits to get support from different organizations abroad, launched misinformation campaigns against the government, and met with overground Maoist leaders, two officials familiar with development told HT.
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PUDR: Release Vulnerable Prisoners Now!

PUDR: Release Vulnerable Prisoners Now!

By Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)

PUDR expresses apprehensions over the health status of Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha …
Both Prof. Anand Teltumbde and Mr. Gautam Navlakha were interrogated by the NIA and have been sent to judicial custody. It has come to light that one of the officers of the NIA, Mumbai has tested positive for Covid-19 in this period. Anand Teltumbde was subsequently tested for suspected exposure and his report is negative for Covid-19.
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IN PARALLEL WITH THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC, WE NOW HAVE A PANDEMIC OF ARRESTS

26/04/2020

The Wire/ by Pamela Philipose

Lockdown – the word that best describes our present physical and mental state – has now acquired a vicious new meaning. As if in parallel to the COVID-19 pandemic, we now have a pandemic of arrests, with prison gates clanging shut on those marked by the state as anti-nationals.
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Vernon Gonsalves has to spend his birthday once more in a prison cell

Vernon Gonsalves has to spend his birthday once more in a prison cell

By Sagar Abraham-Gonsalves / Documented by Mumbai Rises To Save Democracy

22. April
It is my father’s birthday today. He turns 63. Due to the brutality of our government and the failure of our judiciary he will be spending his birthday in a prison cell. At the time of a serious global pandemic when he falls in the category of people most vulnerable he will be spending his birthday in an overcrowded prison with no adequate health facilities.
Today I thought of sharing a about how he has been spending his time in the the past year and a half in Yerwada prison, Pune.
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Stop the witch-hunt of activists and journalists in Delhi and Kashmir and elsewhere

Stop the witch-hunt of activists and journalists in Delhi and Kashmir and elsewhere

Groundxro.in / By Campaign Against State Repression

… it must be noted that the branding and targeting activists to demoralise and crush the movements they belong to is a tactic that the State is deploying with increasing frequency and intensity. Be it in the arrest of eleven academics, activists, lawyers, journalists and poets in the Elgaar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case or the incarceration of Akhil Gogoi, Chingiz Khan, Ishrat Jahan, Dr. Kafeel Khan, Khalid Saifi, Sharjeel Imam and now several more, it is evident that the State is becoming more and more intolerant of any dissent or opposition.
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How the UAPA Repackages Ideas As Crimes

How the UAPA Repackages Ideas As Crimes

Article 14 / by Abhinav Sekhri

The provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act—that are at the heart of the ongoing Bhima Koregaon cases—are criminally overbroad, excessively vague, and short of a legislative carte blanche to state-sponsored violations of fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution
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Anand Teltumbde’s pursuit of Ambedkar’s radical civility

Anand Teltumbde’s pursuit of Ambedkar’s radical civility

Forward Press / by V. Geeta

On 14 April 2020, the 129th anniversary of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, Prof Anand Teltumbde handed himself over to the custody of the National Investigation Agency as ordered by the Supreme Court in the Bhima Koregaon case. Drawing on Teltumbde’s writings, V. Geetha argues that it is the real, radical Ambedkar that he looks up to, not the toned-down version of Ambedkar that the civil order and the State is comfortable with.
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Why is India targeting writers during the coronavirus pandemic?

Why is India targeting writers during the coronavirus pandemic?


Pic published by kractivist.org

The Guardian / by Priyamvada Gopal and Salil Tripathi

Journalists, intellectuals and dissidents are being threatened by Modi’s government.
As a lethal virus scorches its way across continents, the leftwing Indian rights campaigner Gautam Navlakha has been reminding us of the words of Leonard Cohen, urging people to speak up for the right things: “There is a crack/a crack in everything, that’s how light gets in.” While many of us experience lockdown in varying degrees of constraint, Navlakha – who cited Cohen’s lyrics in a recent statement – faces actual incarceration as does another high-profile Indian, the eminent academic and Dalit intellectual Prof Anand Teltumbde.
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Protest and Solidarity Statements on the arrests of Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha

Protest and Solidarity Statements on the arrests of Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha

PROTEST AGAINST THE FACIST ONSLAUGHT ON DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

Countercurrents / Press Release by Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation

On 14th April,2020, Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha surrendered and were arrested by the NIA, pursuant to order of the Supreme Court rejecting interim protection. This order paved the way for the arrest of two more scholars under the draconian laws for their exercise of the right to free speech and dissent. We believe the arrest of these two intellectuals not only infringes their constitutionally protected rights but is a larger reflection of the fast ceding of the political, social and public space in the country.
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PROTEST THE ARRESTS: DEMAND RELEASE OF THE 11 ARRESTED IN THE BHIMA KOREGAON CASE

Press Release by Peoples Union of Democratic Rights (PUDR )

The attempt to browbeat rights activists, Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde to ‘surrender’ to the National Investigation Agency, amidst a nation-wide lockdown on account of Covid-19, marks a deep and scathing new low in the political history of contemporary India.
For over two years now, the Bhima Koregaon case, as it has come to be known, has been the mainstay for the State resorting to arrests of democratic rights activists, lawyers and journalists across the country – those who have been tirelessly raising issues of grave human rights violations in the dirty war being waged by the State in the forests at the heart of the country.
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STOP THE POLITICAL PERSECUTION OF TELTUMBDE AND NAVLAKHA! FREE THE BHIMA-KOREGAON-11 NOW!

By India Civil Watch

India Civil Watch – International (ICW-I) strongly condemns the incarceration of Dr. Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha, two of India’s foremost public intellectuals and courageous defenders of political freedoms, human rights and civil liberties. Dr. Teltumbde is also widely respected as a leading Dalit scholar, author of thirty books, who has lectured across the world on the annihilation of caste and the Dalit struggle, neoliberal capitalist plunder, and the rise of Hindutva politics.
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NAPM CONDEMNS CONTINUED OPPRESSION OF CIVIL LIBERTIES AND TARGETING OF DISSENT

Kractivism / by National Alliance of People’s Movements

Reaffirming our faith in the Constitution on Ambedkar Jayanti
Selfless services of doctors, health and sanitation workers and spontaneous relief efforts from ordinary citizens and civil society raises hope for India
April 14/15, 2020: As the country paid homage to Babasaheb Ambedkar on his 129th birth anniversary, Prof Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha, two of India’s finest public intellectuals and activists were taken in custody by the Indian State for their ideas and lifelong commitment to the democratic values and the ideals enshrined in the Constitution. What could be the greater irony for us as a Republic ?
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STATEMENT ON THE ARRESTS OF ANAND TELTUMBDE AND GAUTAM NAVLAKHA

By Political Science Association

As the nation was celebrating the birth anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar, his grandson-in-law Anand Teltumbde was being arrested by the National Investigation Agency along with fellow activist Gautam Navlakha, under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention)Act (UAPA).
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ACTIVISTS DETAINED FOR PEACEFUL DISSENT

By Human Rights Watch

Counterterrorism Law Politicized in Bhima Koregaon Case
New York: Indian authorities on April 14, 2020 detained two rights activists who have been critics of government policies, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should immediately drop all charges under a counterterrorism law against Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha for allegedly inciting caste-based violence along with other activists during a demonstration in Maharashtra state in 2017.
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WSS CONDEMNS THE ARRESTS OF ANAND TELTUMBDE AND GAUTAM NAVLAKHA AND DEMANDS THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS

By Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS)

Today, with undeniable irony, we have witnessed the surrender/arrests of Prof. Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Both Prof. Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha are known to us through their activism, writing and relentless pursuit of democratic principles. They have also remained steadfastly opposed to Brahmanical Hindutva fascism in all its manifestations.
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WOMEN DEMAND END OF TARGETING OF DISSENTS AND MINORITIES

By AIDWA, NFIW, AIPWA

We, the undersigned women’s organisations express strong concern and register our protest against the violations of civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution, by the Narendra Modi-led Union government and other state governments led by the BJP. Recent developments show that the government has been targeting intellectuals and activists as well as prominent journalists who have been questioning the government’s faulty policies. This is a serious attack on their democratic, civil and legal rights. FIRs, arrests, imprisonment without evidence have become the new norm.
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SOLIDARITY WITH GAUTAM NAVLAKHA, ANAND TELTUMBDE, AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS ARRESTED IN BHIMA KOREGAON CASE

By CPI-ML Liberation

The arrest of activists and scholars Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) over ridiculously trumped up charges in the Bhima Koregaon case on Ambedkar Jayanti, 2020, is a day of shame for India’s democracy. The fact that both of them, senior citizens above 60, will be incarcerated in cramped, overcrowded jails during a pandemic that poses a threat to the lives of the elderly, is especially shameful.
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CONDEMN ARREST OF TELTUMBDE & NAVLAKHA

By CPI-M

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) strongly condemns the arrests of Anand Teltumbe and Gautam Navlakha on completely trumped up charges in the Bhima Koregaon issue. It is a matter of concern that the hon’ble Supreme Court did not postpone their arrests in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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CLAMPDOWN ON DISSENT CONTINUES DURING THE VOVID-19 PANDEMIC

Press Release By Amnesty International India

Responding to reports that human rights defenders, Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha have surrendered before the National Investigative Agency (NIA).
Avinash Kumar, Executive Director of Amnesty International India, said:
“The clampdown on dissent in India continues. Even during a pandemic, the Government of India is targeting those critical of the government. When hard-won rights to expression and peaceful protest are weakened, everyone stands to lose.”
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CONDEMN THE STATE TERROR IMPOSED BY THE FASCIST REGIMES OF INDIA AND NEPAL

By Nepalese intellectuals, writers and journalists

A joint Statement by Nepalese intellectuals, writers and journalists, demanding immediate release of Varvara Rao, Prof. Saibaba, cultural activist Maila Lama and other social activists and  political prisoners.
Along with the Corona terror, we are facing state terror imposed by the fascist regimes.  Nepalese revolutionary cultural- activist Maila Lama is kept in jail along with other political prisoners and the KP Oli government is ridiculing the question of the survival of the political prisoners.
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AI-India Video: Bhima Koregaon 9: Heroes Who Fight For Your Rights

en | 6:18 min | 2019
Watch video

With Teltumbde and Navlakha in Jail, How Free is ‘Freedom’ in India?

With Teltumbde and Navlakha in Jail, How Free is ‘Freedom’ in India?


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

The Quint / by Apoorvanand

Two more minds would be deactivated for the public today. By imprisoning Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha, the government—and by facilitating it the courts— would not be able to stop their minds functioning for they’ll continue to think and think hard while behind the bars. The people of India, however, would be deprived of the product of the intellectual labour. It is quite different a matter whether it matters to the people or not.
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