Bar & Bench / by Neha Joshi
The first person to get bail in the Bhima Koregaon case, Sudha Bharadwaj talks about life in prison, the dire need for better legal aid for prisoners and more.
en | 24:33min | 2022
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04/02/2022
Rediff.com / by Neeta Kolhatkar
‘It’s little things like these – sharing medicines, consoling each other after a mulaqat (meeting) or a tearful phone conversation with your loved ones or when we would return, dejected, when our bails were rejected – that made our time in jail bearable.’
Creativity, says Sudha Bharadwaj, is a vital lifeline for those who find their freedom taken away for crimes they may, or may not, have committed.
Survival as a prisoner during the last three years has been difficult, both emotionally and physically, but her brilliant smile makes light of it.
There were times however, she tells Rediff.com Senior Contributor Neeta Kolhatkar, when she too felt devastated.
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04/02/2022
Rediff.com / by Neeta Kolhatkar
‘I can’t help it if people don’t love the minorities, the Dalits and Adivasis; they are as much of this country as any other Indian.’
‘If I love them, it does not mean I do not love my country.’
‘It is ironic and funny that they have laid such severe anti-national charges against me.’
Good memories. And bad.
Difficult moments. And memorable ones.
Trade union leader, activist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj has gathered them all in her challenging walk through Life.
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03/02/2022
Rediff.com / by Neeta Kolhatkar
‘You are with each other 24×7, so how can you ignore someone crying next to you?’
‘How can you not share a piece of chicken with someone who is sitting next to you and watching you eat it?’
‘Of course, you will share.’
‘And you become friends with the kind of people you never thought you’d even know.’
In a conversation with Rediff.com Senior Contributor Neeta Kolhatkar, Sudha Bharadwaj explains how she kept her spirits up.
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Also read:
● Part I: ‘I was imprisoned in the phansi yard’ (Rediff.com / Feb 2022)
en | 30:48 min | 2022
Scroll.in / by Smitha Nair
In this interview, the lawyer-activist, out on bail in the Bhima Koregaon case, documents her life’s work with Chhattisgarh’s most marginalised.
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28/01/2022
The Telegraph / by Mahtab Alam
Edition: Aug 2021
Publisher: Indian Social Institute, Bangalore
Language: English
Paperback: 149 pages
Stan Swamy was no silent spectator, his book makes it clear who he was.
Ever since the tragic death of the human rights activist, Father Stan Swamy, much has been written about him, including a few books. This is not surprising, given his contributions to human rights, especially the rights of indigenous people. However, what distinguishes this book is that it is a first-person account even though it is not an autobiography. Divided into 16 short chapters, including a Prologue and an Epilogue, it takes us on a journey where we are not just introduced to Stan’s personality and work but also get glimpses of the time period it covered.
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By Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)
Edition: Aug 2021
Publisher: Peoples Union for Democratic Rights, Delhi
Language: English
Paperback: 45 pages
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NewsClick / by Ajaz Ashraf
When I turned 21, I was free to choose whether I wanted to be Indian or American. I chose to be Indian, basically, because I was already involved in social issues by then. At no point I wished I was in the United States.
This is the second part of the interview with Sudha Bharadwaj, who was arrested on 28 October 2018 for her alleged role in fomenting the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence. In this interview, she speaks on her privileged class background, why she gave up her American citizenship, what made her shift to Chhattisgarh, where she worked among industrial workers to better their lives, about how she spent time in jail, and her anxiety of being separated from her daughter. Bharadwaj discusses how she hopes to adjust to a life of limited freedom.
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Also Read
● Part 1: Patriotism of Social Activists is Increasingly being Punished: Activist Sudha Bharadwaj (Newsclick / Jan 2022)
Newsclick / by Ajaz Ashraf
India is far from realising the promises of justice and equality made in the Constitution, says the well-known activist, citing her experiences in prison as an under-trial and as a lawyer representing workers.
After spending nearly three years in jail, Bharadwaj was released on bail last month. Her bail conditions proscribe her from speaking on the Bhima Koregaon case and leaving Mumbai, although she has now been allowed to live in Thane. NewsClick did not ask her any question on the case, and she politely refused to answer any question she thought was even remotely connected to it. In the first part of this interview, Bharadwaj speaks on the meaning that Republic Day, the Constitution, and the law have for jail inmates, based on her conversations with them.
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Also read
● Part 2: My Spirit has not Been Broken: Activist Sudha Bharadwaj (NewsClick / Jan 2022)
Mid Day / by Ajaz Ashraf
I Spoke to Sudha Bharadwaj for two hours over the phone. Out on bail after spending over three years in jail, where she had been packed off for her alleged role in the 2018 Koregaon Bhima violence, I presumed a mournful, weary voice would narrate her experiences during incarceration. Or a voice raging against those who scripted her arrest on October 28, 2018. But Bharadwaj can laugh as few can.
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en | 4:53min | 2021
By MidDay
Activist #SudhaBharadwaj accused in the #BhimaKoregaon case has been released from Byculla prison on Thursday. The court had directed that she be released on a bond of Rs 50,000 and two sureties. However, the court has set some other stringent conditions similar to those set for co-accused #VaravaraRao who was granted bail on medical grounds.
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Also read:
● HC disposes plea of eight accused seeking rectification in order denying them bail (Scroll.in / Dec 2021)
21/02/2022
The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak
Among the conditions set for Bharadwaj’s bail was that the 60-year-old would not make any statement on the proceedings of the case. Recently, she got permission to leave Mumbai limits for Thane. Excerpts from an interview:
Can you tell us about finding yourself in jail, first in the Yerwada Central Prison in Pune and then the Byculla Women’s Prison?
The first experience is quite frightening. It is an immediate loss of dignity, privacy and identity.
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21/02/2022
The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak
Bharadwaj said one reason was that the remuneration given to lawyers on the legal aid panel was not sufficient.
Calling the experience of being in jail an eyeopener, trade unionist and human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj has said she hopes to work to improve legal aid for prisoners.
In an interview to The Indian Express, Bharadwaj, who was released on December 9 on bail, said she was considering filing a PIL on the matter.
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● ‘I Am Ready To Put On My Black Coat’: Lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, Out On Bail After 3 Years In Jail (article 14 │ Jan 2022)
● Sudha Bharadwaj speaks – A Life in Law and Activism. (PUCL │ Jan 2021 │ 316 pages)
Article 14 / by Chitrangada Coudhury
After three years and three months in prison, Bhima-Koregaon accused and undertrial Sudha Bharadwaj was granted bail in December 2021 by the Bombay High Court on a technical ground. The human rights lawyer and law professor talked to us about her time in prison, the state of legal aid for forgotten undertrials, the need for courts to address congested prisons, particularly in the pandemic, and her plans to rebuild her life as a lawyer and a mother, as she grappled with bail conditions which prevent her from leaving Mumbai and Thane.
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BBC / by Soutik Biswas
After three years in prison, one of India’s best-known activists is trying to set up home in a new city and find work.
Bail conditions prohibit Sudha Bharadwaj from leaving Mumbai until the end of a trial in which she is accused of a role in a 2018 incident of caste-based violence and alleged links with Maoists. She is also not allowed to talk about the case.
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Also read:
● ‘The Point Is Not to Surrender’: The Sudha Bharadwaj I Know (The Quint / Dec 2021)