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Category: Repression

Interview with Sudhir Dhawale: ‘No One Can Kill The Dream For Democracy’

Interview with Sudhir Dhawale: ‘No One Can Kill The Dream For Democracy’

First published: Jan 11, 2016

Sanhati / By Anjani Kumar

Already in 2011, Sudhir Dhawale was arrested under several sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and then spent nearly four years in jail. He was acquitted of all the charges filed against him in court. Over the four years that he spent in jail, he was denied nearly every basic human right. On the 23rd of May 2015, he spoke at the ‘Convention against Silencing Democracy & Criminalizing Dissent’ organized by the Committee for the Defence and Release of Dr. GN Saibaba in Delhi. Anjani Kumar spoke to him on the 24th of May on various issues.
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Labelling Dalits and Adivasis as Maoists is an old state strategy for crushing dissent and criticism

Labelling Dalits and Adivasis as Maoists is an old state strategy for crushing dissent and criticism

Scroll.in / By Anand Teltumbde

In ‘Republic of Caste’, published this year, Anand Teltumbde writes about how Maoist and Naxalite labels make Dalits and Adivasis even more vulnerable.
Despite its mode of expression, the much-maligned Naxalite movement is essentially an act of dissent, a public protest, a fact occasionally acknowledged by the government itself, although the actions of the latter never reflect this admission.
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AI: Arrests Of Activists Raise Disturbing Questions

AI: Arrests Of Activists Raise Disturbing Questions

Statement by Amnesty International India

Responding to the arrests of five activists from Maharashtra on suspicion of having links with banned Maoist groups, Aakar Patel, Executive Director, Amnesty International India, said:

    “These arrests are a matter of grave concern. Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut have a history of working to protect the rights of some of India’s most marginalized people. Their arrests raise disturbing questions about whether they are being targeted for their activism. Anyone arrested for legitimately exercising their right to freedom of expression must be released immediately and unconditionally.”

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Massacres Masked as Encounters: The New State Policy for Development in Gadchiroli

Massacres Masked as Encounters: The New State Policy for Development in Gadchiroli


pic: virasam.org

Sanhati / By CDRO, IAPL, WSS

In the morning of 22nd April 2018, an alleged encounter took place in Boriya-Kasnasur of Bhamragarh tehsil of Gadchiroli district, Maharashtra. A fact finding team comprising of 44 persons from across 12 states belonging to three major human rights networks and organisations – Co-ordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO), Indian Association People’s Lawyers (IAPL) and Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) visited the sites of the alleged encounters in the district of Gadchiroli. Their findings show that while the term encounter is being used for all of these instances, they are in fact fake.
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Condemn the State Sponsored Massacre Scripted as ‘Encounter’ in Gadchiroli and Bijapur in Central India

Condemn the State Sponsored Massacre Scripted as ‘Encounter’ in Gadchiroli and Bijapur in Central India


pic: virasam.org

Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) / By WSS

Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) condemn the recent spate of genocidal violence unleashed by the Indian State on the adivasis of Central India in the form of ‘encounter’ killings in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra and Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh. … Reports coming out of area reveal heartbreaking accounts of how villagers including children gathered for a marriage function were rounded up and killed without provocation by the security forces.
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The Nava Peshwai Terror against the Dalits and State Repression

The Nava Peshwai Terror against the Dalits and State Repression

Statement by Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS)

WSS condemns the wave of state repression following the peaceful commemoration of the Ambedkarite community on the 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon. The most recent wave of repression is a set of raids without a warrant conducted simultaneously at 6 am on 17 April, 2018, upon the homes of Kabir Kala Manch activists Rupali Jadhav, Jyoti Jagtap, Ramesh Gaichor, Sagar Gorkhe and Dhawala Dhengle in Pune; Republican Panther activists Sudhir Dhavale and Harshali Potdar in Mumbai; and Nagpur-based lawyer Surendra Gadling and Delhi-based CRPP activist Rona Wilson.
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IAPL condemns harassment of Advocate Surendra Gadling and Dalit activists in the name of ‘Search operations’

IAPL condemns harassment of Advocate Surendra Gadling and Dalit activists in the name of ‘Search operations’

Press Release by Indian Association of People´s Lawyers (IAPL)

In a shocking development, the Pune (Maharashtra) police today, April 17, 2018 at around 6.00 a.m. conducted simultaneous searches at homes of prominent activists in Maharashtra namely Sudhir Dhavale (Dalit activist, Republican Panthers), Harshali Potdar (Woman activist, Republican Panthers), Ramesh Gaychor, Jyoti Jagtap, Sagar Gorkhe, Rupali Jadhav and Dhawala Dhengle (all Kabir Kala Manch activists) in relation to the violence that ensued on the day of bi-centenary celebrations of the battle of Bhima-Koregaon on January 31, 2018 and the subsequent bandh.
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Post Bhima Koregaon Violence, Police Target Dalits Across Maharashtra; Minor Boys Worst Hit

Post Bhima Koregaon Violence, Police Target Dalits Across Maharashtra; Minor Boys Worst Hit

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

‘Instead of arresting those involved in terrorising our community, the police has been busy arresting our children,’ said the uncle of a 14-year-old boy who was picked up.
Mumbai: Sarita Kamble stood in front of the tall, wooden door of the Dongri Observation Home for almost 10 minutes before entering. “He can’t see me crying. It will make him weak. Let us go in once I feel composed,” she hastily tells her husband, Sanket, as she struggles to hold back her tears.
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Jharkhand HC Admits Petition on Mass Incarceration of Adivasis & Dalits

Jharkhand HC Admits Petition on Mass Incarceration of Adivasis & Dalits

CJP / by Teesta Setlavad

Youth from oppressed sections of society languishing in jail due to inordinate delays.
After several preliminary hearings, the Jharkand HC has admitted the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the Persecuted Prisoners Solidarity Committee [PPSC] on under-trial prisoners in the jails of Jharkhand. Several thousands of them, mostly Adivasi and Dalit youth, who have been languishing in prison because their trials have been deliberately prolonged. If speedy trial had been held most of them would have been be acquitted by now, the petition alleges.
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