Persecuted – Page 28 – free them all

NIA Arrests three Kabir Kala Manch Activists, Calls it ‘Maoist Front’ / What is Kabir Kala Manch?

09/09/2020 Maya

Poets Branded Naxals by Both Cong & BJP: What is Kabir Kala Manch?

The Quint / by Asmita Nandy

What is Kabir Kala Manch and why are they repeatedly targeted by governments?
Kabir Kala Manch, a group of artists singing songs of Bahujans and Karl Marx, have been branded “naxals” by both Congress and BJP.
On Tuesday, 8 September, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the Elgar Parishad case arrested three members of the group saying that they were in touch with senior leaders of CPI(Maoist), a banned organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act “so as to spread the ideology of Maoism/Naxalism and encourage unlawful activities”.
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NIA Calls Kabir Kala Manch ‘Maoist Front’, Takes Activists into Custody

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

08/09/2020

Mumbai: The National Investigations Agency has accused the cultural group Kabir Kala Mancha (KKM) of being a frontal organisation of the banned terrorist Communist Party of India (Maoist) …
KKM is a Pune-based cultural troupe that was formed by youth belonging to the Bahujan community from across Maharashtra. Several working-class musicians and poets had come together after the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat and formed their own cultural group to sing songs of resistance and state repression. They have also been vocal against caste atrocities across the country.
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Kabir Kala Manach cultural activist Jyoti Jagtap arrested / #StandWithBK15

08/09/2020

Kractivist / by Bhima Koregaon Shauryadin Prerana Abhiyan

Pune ATS has today arrested Jyoti Jagtap (Member of Bhima Koregaon Shauryadin Prerana Abhiyan and Kabir Kala Manch). She will be transfered to NIA for custody. Yesterday, on 7 September, Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor were arrested late evening and today Jyoti Jagtap has been arrested.
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NIA Arrests Two Kabir Kala Manch Activists

07/09/2020

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

Mumbai: After questioning them over several days, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested cultural activists Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor in the Elgar Parishad case. With their arrest, 14 persons – all academics, lawyers and activists – have been arrested in the 2018 Elgar Parishad case in total.
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When contesting repressive laws makes you a dangerous citizen: a profile of Rona Wilson

07/09/2020 Maya

The Polis Project / by The Polis Project and maraa

Rona Wilson, a forty-seven-year-old activist from Kollam district in Kerala, has made Delhi his second home since the late 1990s. Having come to the capital during his post-graduation, Wilson almost immediately took to activism.
Rona Wilson is a member of the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP), which has campaigned against the UAPA and other repressive laws.
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Bombay HC Directs State & University To Pay Rs 5 Lakhs Each To Shoma Sen [Read Order]

03/09/2020 Rani

Drawing by Mumbai Rises to Save Democracy

Live Law / by Nitish Kashyap

The Bombay High Court last Friday directed Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University and the State Government to pay Rs.5 lakh each to former Head Of Post Graduate Department Of English at Nagpur University Professor (retired) Shoma Sen towards payment of gratuity, which was withheld after Sen’s arrest in the Bhima Koregaon violence case in June 2018, a month before her retirement.
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The Making of Varavara Rao: Parts Four & Five

03/09/2020 Maya

Solidarity poster by PSO (Sep 2020)

Indian Cultural Forum / by N Venugopal Rao

I wouldn’t have been who I am without Varavara Rao, and it is true for the generation I come from and the one that followed … Here, I will attempt to paint the 80 years of his life in seven angles – a rainbow of seven colours that characterise him – a creative writer, teacher, editor, organiser, activist, and lastly, a victim of the state, yet a humane individual.
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Ludwig Lewisohn’s 1927 Book Has Lessons for Indian Minorities Today: A Review From Jail

29/08/2020 Rani

The Wire / by Sudha Bharadwaj

An exploration of Jewishness written long before the Holocaust shows how fraternity and solidarity are required to overcome majoritarianism and fascism.
A month ago, Sudha Bharadwaj wrote the following review by hand in Mumbai’s Byculla Jail. While her friends and family typed the text for possible publication, Bharadwaj was diagnosed with a heart disease. As she remains incarcerated in an overcrowded prison on the basis of contentious charges for her alleged involvement in the Elgar Parishad case, appeals for her bail are ongoing.
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Incarcerated, ‘erudite’ scholar Rona Wilson worked for release of political prisoners

29/08/2020 Maya

Counterview / by Atul, Sandeep Pandey

Rona Wilson is a prison rights activist who has been in jail since April 2018 and denied bail several times. The Pune Police raided his home in Delhi on April 17, 2018, and arrested him subsequently for his alleged role in the Bhima Koregaon violence in January that year. A few months later, the agencies also accused him of being part of a larger naxal plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a Rajeev Gandhi style and overthrow the current government.
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The Sudha Bharadwaj the Govt Doesn’t Want You To Know

28/08/2020 Maya

Pic by www.karinscheidegger.ch

Article 14 / by Chitrangada Choudhury

India’s National Investigative Agency describes her as the shadowy leader of the banned Maoist party, smuggling arms, planting booby traps and guiding strategy on armed operations. That contrasts sharply with her life of public service among some of India’s most exploited people.
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Why the State Fears My Friend, Sudha Bharadwaj

28/08/2020

The Wire / by Smita Gupta

They cannot fight her in court, so they are calling her a Maoist. They don’t have any real evidence against her, so they are converting the process itself into punishment.
Exactly two years ago, Sudha Bharadwaj was arrested in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case.
It is very painful for me to read about her declining health and the several serious ailments she has been suffering from during her imprisonment – heart disease, arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, depression. Even after two years, she has been denied bail and is being held without a trial.
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‘Maa chose to serve her people. Is that anti-national?’ Sudha Bharadwaj’s daughter

28/08/2020

Maaysha and Sudha Bharadwaj

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

Daughter pens heartfelt note as Sudha Bharadwaj completes two years in prison.
Noted human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj was arrested by the Pune police from her residence in Faridabad in August 2018 in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence case.
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The Making of Varavara Rao: Parts Two & Three

27/08/2020 Maya

Pic: Rao with K Balagopal, Gaddar, and Vangapandu / ICF

Indian Cultural Forum / by N Venugopal Rao

I wouldn’t have been who I am without Varavara Rao, and it is true for the generation I come from and the one that followed. Today’s Telangana wouldn’t have been what it is without him. I have written and spoken about him and his poetry in the past, but now he is on the deathbed, in a faraway hospital, being subjected to retributive torture by the powers that be. Now, with a never-before urgency, I want to speak and write about him, through an interminable torrent of words.
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Surendra Gadling – Arrested for defending Dalits and Adivasis

24/08/2020 Rani

The Polis Project / By The Polis Project and maraa

Surendra Gadling began his career almost two decades ago in Nagpur, fighting cases for those arrested under the draconian Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) 1985, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) 1967. He also worked as a special public prosecutor on dowry-related cases and was one of the leading lawyers in connection with the Khairlanji agitation—a protest movement launched after the gruesome caste-murders of a Dalit family in Maharashtra.
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What We Can Learn from Varavara Rao’s Prison Diary

22/08/2020 Rani

News Click / by Shoili Kanungo

When all relations are defined by oppression and subjugation, and human relationships vanish, the oppressor fears the future.
… Captive Imagination is Varavara Rao´s prison journal from the 1980´s. It is a manual of life infused with love, longing, and the power of dreams and imagination – which he says are the limbs that support every prisoner and cannot be taken away.
Read and see