en | 16 min | 2019
Newsclick / By Newsclick
On 18th of July the Rajya Sabha unanimously passed the NIA Bill. The bill proposes three major amendments to the NIA Bill of 2008, giving the agency enormous powers. Gautam Navlakha discusses with Newsclick the BJP’s national security push and the implications of the amendment.
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Daily Maverick / by Mark Heywood
The democratic space for human rights activism in India is rapidly being closed down by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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The Leaflet / by Abdul Wahid Shaikh
“When tyranny rises in a country, the rulers of that country are bound to be destroyed,
their generations are bound to be destroyed. Remember that”
On April 17, 2018, The Pune Police raided the homes of several intellectuals and activists in Nagpur, Mumbai and Delhi for their involvement in the Bhima Koregaon riots. At the Elgar Parishad protest organized against the arrests in Mumbai on May 3, 2018, advocate Abdul Wahid Shaikh made a spontaneous and moving speech.
Part 1 of the speech
en | 10 min | 2019
By Citizens for Justice and Peace / Teesta Setalvad
Teesta Setalvad expresses solidarity with Indira Jaising and Anand Grover and contextualizes the CBI raids in Mumbai and New Delhi within the larger context of a systematic drive against human rights defenders and activists.
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Prominent political, social leaders and human rights defenders condemned the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019 that seeks to tag individuals as ‘terrorist’. The bill was introduced amid strong protest from the opposition benches in the Lok Sabha as the Opposition MPs termed the bill as draconian as in the name of fighting terror fundamental rights of an individual cannot be ignored.
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The Hindu / by Special Correspondent
The Union government on Monday introduced the National Investigation Agency (Amendment), Bill 2019 and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019, in the Lok Sabha amid protests by the Opposition.
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By Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS)
Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) expresses shock and concern at the arrest warrant issued against Stan Swamy, Aloka Kujur, Rakesh Roshan, Vinod Kumar and Babita Kashyap on 17 June 2019, one year after the FIR was filed against 20 writers, intellectuals and activists in Jharkhand on 26 July 2018 based on Facebook posts. All five are vulnerable to imminent arrest as part of the Jharkhand government’s targeted campaign against those defending human rights of adivasis in the state.
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The Leaflet / By Nitya Chakraborty
While the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his second avatar is projecting himself as a new mascot of tolerance and reconciliation, his government agencies have been taking up one by one the institutions which represent dissenting voices in both media and the legal profession. In the three week period since Modi took the oath as the PM for the second time on May 30, two prominent independent voices of the country, NDTV Ltd among the television media and Lawyers Collective, have been targeted by the government agencies for actions which are old and which have already been dealt with by the concerned institutions.
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Sabrangindia / by Sabrangindia
People’s Union for Civil Liberties is shocked at the lodging of an FIR against the Lawyers Collective, its President and senior lawyer, Anand Grover and other office bearers by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). …
He is currently an acting member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy and is a member of the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights while Ms. Jaising was part of the team of lawyers for the accused in the ongoing Bhima Koregaon case as well as the case against Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, where she successfully fought the plea of the CBI to seek his custodial interrogation.
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Conterview / by By Fr Cedric Prakash sj.
The country will never forget that infamous night of June 25/26, 1975, when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had a state of emergency declared all over the country. During that dark chapter of the country’s history which lasted for a 21-month period till March 21, 1977, civil liberties were suspended, freedom of speech and expression was totally muzzled, political opponents of the Government and those who protested the emergency were imprisoned and human rights violations by those in power were the order of the day!
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