Profiles – Page 3 – free them all

Bombay HC permits Mahesh Raut to take admission in 3 year law course

25/09/2024 Asha

Imprisonment Does Not Restrict Individual’s Right To Pursue Education: Bombay High Court

25/09/2024

Live Law / by Narsi Benwal

The Bombay High Court recently observed that imprisonment of an individual does not restrict his or her right to education.
A division bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Dr Neela Gokhale made the observation while ordering a Mumbai-based Law College, to admit Mahesh Raut, one of the accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case, as a student for the LLB course for the academic year 2024-2027.
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Imprisonment Does Not Restrict An Individual’s Right To Pursue Education: HC Allows Elgar Parishad Accused To Take Admission In Siddharth Law College

25/09/2024

Free Press Journal / by Urvi Mahajani

Bombay High Court allows plea by Elgar Parishad accused to take admission in 3 year law course in Siddharth College.
Imprisonment does not restrict an individual’s right to pursue further education, observed the Bombay High Court while allowing Mahesh Raut, an accused in the Elgar Parishad – Bhima Koregaon case, to take admission to the 3-year law course at Siddharth Law College. He was arrested by the NIA for his alleged links with the CPI Maoists.
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Bombay HC permits Elgaar Parishad accused Mahesh Raut to take admission for LLB course

24/04/2024

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

“Or in the alternative, we leave it to the college to take the signature of the Petitioner on the documents from the Taloja Central Prison (where he is presently lodged),” the bench noted and allowed the plea.
The Bombay High Court permitted activist Mahesh Raut, an accused in the Elgaar Parishad case, to take admission to the three-year LLB course at Siddharth Law College in Mumbai.
The bench said that imprisonment does not restrict prisoners’ right to pursue further education.
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Also read:
▪ Year after being granted bail, Mahesh Raut remains in jail as stay extended (The Indian Express / Sep 2024)
▪ Bhima Koregaon case: Two prisoners pass law entrance test (Hindustan Times / May 2024)
▪ Bhima Koregaon Case: Mahesh Raut, youngest accused, granted bail by the Bombay HC! (SabrangIndia / Sep 2023)

BK-16 Prison Diaries: Ramesh Gaichor on the Elgar prisoners’ defiance of the neo-Peshwai prison system

19/09/2024 Asha

To mark six years of the arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of political dissidents in the Bhima Koregaon case, The Polis Project is publishing a series of writings by the BK-16, and their families, friends and partners. By describing various aspects of the past six years, the series offers a glimpse into the BK-16’s lives inside prison, as well as the struggles of their loved ones outside. Each piece in the series is complemented by Arun Ferreira’s striking and evocative artwork.

Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project

BK-16 Prison Diaries: Ramesh Gaichor on the Elgar prisoners’ defiance of the neo-Peshwai prison system

19/09/2024

The Polis Project / by Ramesh Gaichor

Jinhe naaz hai Hind par unko lao
Jinhe naaz hai Hind par woh kahaan hain?
(Bring those who are proud of this land
Where are they who are proud of this land?)

These lines of Sahir Ludhianvi, written shortly after the country gained independence, still strike a deep chord. But today, in what way will the neo-Peshwai government of this country receive these words, and what will it do to poets and song-writers like Sahir?
Perhaps it will put them behind towering impenetrable walls, erected over segregated acres of land, under the watchful eye of 24-hour security guards, armed with firearms, lathis, and belts.
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Ajay Kumar targeted for role as anti-displacement activist, opponent of ‘corporate loot’

02/09/2024 Asha

Counterview.net / by Campaign against State Repression (CASR)

The Campaign against State Repression (CASR) unequivocally condemns the arrest of human rights activist and Advocate Ajay Kumar by National Investigation Agency early morning 3 am from Chandigarh.
…
Ajay was actively involved in the Forum Against the War on People to oppose the attack by state forces and corporate-sponsored militia, Salwa Judum, on the Adivasi peasants of central India under Operation Green Hunt. He was also founding member of Vistapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan (VVJVA), a conglomeration of more than 50 organisations from across the country seeking to challenge the forcible displacement of peasants particularly Adivasis, for the furtherance of corporate loot and land grab. VVJVA works against the forceful displacement of peasantry, particularly Adivasis for building big dams, industrial projects, mines, Special Economic Zones, highways, National Parks, Smart City projects etc. Ajay Kumar worked alongside the likes of Dr. B.D. Sharma (retired IAS officer), K.N. Pandit (trade union leader), Dr. B.P. Kesari, Father Stan Swamy, Sudha Bhardwaj, Dr. G.N. Saibaba and J. Madhuri in the formation of this forum in 2007.
Read full statement

Also read:
▪ TU activist Anirudh Rajan, lawyer Ajay Kumar in custody: Wounded reputation of world’s largest democracy? (Counterview / Sep 10, 2024)
▪ Student Activist’s Room Raided in Prayagraj by NIA Over Alleged Naxal Links (The Wire / Aug 2024)
▪ Senior activist Ajay Kumar’s arrest ‘imminent’ in same vein as Rona Wilson, Stan Swamy (Counterview / Jan 2024)

This new book on Indian political prisoners describes their agony and the state’s apathy

29/08/2024 Asha

The Week / by Anjuly Mathai

The prisoners’ courage seems to grow the more it is quenched
… “The publication of 27 profiles made us understand how urgent it was to articulate a more complex and nuanced understanding of the situation of political prisoners,” Recchia tells THE WEEK over Zoom.
She is right, because the book truly is an eye-opener. One might have known the rough outline of what happened to these political prisoners, from the 16 accused of abetting the violence that broke out in Bhima Koregaon in 2018 to those arrested in the anti-CAA protests of 2019. Yet, the true extent of their agony is intricately fleshed out in the book.
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Also read:
▪ Process as Punishment – Recent books that bear witness to the BK-16’s incarceration (The Caravan / Jul 2024)
▪ THE BK-16 PRISON DIARIES SERIES (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)

Freedom Of Fantasy | Chinki Sinha In Conversation With Anand Teltumbde

16/08/2024 Asha

Poster by Siddesh Gautam / #bakeryprasad

Outlook / by Outlook Web Desk

Anand Teltumbde’s room has a single bed, a large window and a bookshelf. This is where he lives and writes. The old building is inside the premises of the famous Rajgruha, a memorial and a museum dedicated to B. R. Ambedkar at Hindu colony of Dadar in Mumbai. Teltumbde, who was arrested in the Bhima-Koregaon violence that happened on January 1, 2018, was released jn November 2022. In an interview with Outlook, he talks about freedom of fantasy and class and caste in India.

en | 01:09:37 | 2024
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The Freedoms Our Martyrs Won Are Under Seige

15/08/2024

Outlook / by Anand Teltumbde

This Independence Day, we are in an age in which we need assurances from our leader that the Constitution will survive
Seventy-seven years ago, our martyrs won freedom from British colonial rule. Three years later, we gave ourselves a Constitution that guaranteed a plethora of freedoms, inspired not by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) but the indigenous ethos of our own freedom movement. Today, having traversed into the Amrit Kaal, these guarantees appear to have expired, needing a new guarantee from our supreme ruler that the Constitution itself will survive. If the likes of Bhagat Singh were to see the state of India’s freedom today, they would certainly ask themselves what was wrong with the British rule that they went to the gallows fighting them.
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Poetic License: Outside of Village Periphery – Artists in Kabir Kala Manch struggle to earn a living due to censorship

12/08/2024 Asha

Outlook / by Rupali Jadhav

Artists in Kabir Kala Manch are struggling to earn a living due to state-sponsored censorship
Kabir Kala Manch, a Pune-based protest performance art troupe, has been a target of the State since its inception in 2002. The group propagates the anti-caste and equality ideology of Phule-Shahu-Ambedkar and Marx through songs and street plays.
In 2019, police arrested three members, Ramesh Gaichor, Sagar Gorkhe and Jyoti Jagtap, in the Bhima Koregaon case for allegedly inciting communalism through songs at Elgar Parishad.
Read more / read poem

Also read:
▪ How Kabir Kala Manch, the anti-caste cultural troupe, challenges the hierarchical social order (Scroll.in / Jul 2024)
▪ Kabir Kala Manch: A History of Revolutionary Singing and State Repression (ritimo / April 2022)
▪ Video: Dafachya Talavar (Songs of Defiance) – A short documentary on Kabir Kala Manch | Hindi, Marthi (subtitles: English) | 24:01min | 2022

How Kabir Kala Manch, the anti-caste cultural troupe, challenges the hierarchical social order

30/07/2024 Asha

Scroll.in / by Ajaz Ashraf

An excerpt from ‘Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste’, by Ajaz Ashraf.
Maharashtrian academic Amarnath Chandaliya founded the Kabir Kala Manch in the wake of the 2002 pogrom against Muslims in Gujarat. The troupe’s avowed mission was to use songs and skits to inoculate the lower classes and castes against the virus of communalism concocted by the votaries of Hindutva, or militant Hindu nationalism. Given the communal-caste linkages, the Kabir Kala Manch subsequently deployed its artistic oeuvre to sensitise its audiences to the oppression and violence built into the Hindu hierarchical social order.
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▪ Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste. Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality

Author: Ajaz Ashraf
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 496
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▪ Book Excerpt | How Bhima Koregaon Became a Trope for Dalit Pride and Assertion (The Wire │ by Ajaz Ashraf │ June 2024)

Also read:
▪ How Dalits, Muslims, Adivasis encounter the State. ‘It has its boots on our necks’ (The Print / Jul 2024)
▪ Kabir Kala Manch: A History of Revolutionary Singing and State Repression (ritimo / April 2022)
▪ Video: Dafachya Talavar (Songs of Defiance) – A short documentary on Kabir Kala Manch | Hindi, Marthi (subtitles: English) | 24:01min | 2022

Hany Babu completes four years in prison without bail, trial

28/07/2024 Asha

by Progressive Students’ Association – JNU / @Psa_jnu (Jul 28):
Four Years of Wrongful Incarceration.
Release Prof. Hany Babu!
Repeal UAPA! Free BK15!
Free All Political Prisoners!
#freehanybabu #freebk16 #repealUAPA #FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners

by Deepak Kumar / @rencho79130 (Jul 28):
End 4 Years Wrongful Incarceration in Bhima Koregaon case.
Release Professor Hany Babu Immediately
#Bhimakoregaon #bk16 #SupremeCourtOfIndia

by The Polis Project / @project_polis (Jul 28):

Actor, poet, and writer Danish Husain ( @DanHusain ) reads a poignant poem “For Sachidanandan” written by Professor Dr. Hany Babu, one of the prisoners in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case.
Today, 28 July 2024, marks four years of his incarceration under the draconian UAPA
Watch video

Hany Babu completes four years in prison without bail, trial

28/07/2024

Maktoob / by Maktoob Staff

Delhi University professor and noted academic Dr. Hany Babu, who is one of the UAPA prisoners in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case, completed four years of incarceration on Sunday, 28 July, 2024.
On 28 July, 2020, the National Investigation Agency arrested Babu, an anti-caste activist and a staunch proponent of social justice.
Read more

Also read:
▪ BK-16 PRISON DIARIES: JENNY ROWENA ON THE FEAR OF PRISONS AND THE BRAHMINICAL SYSTEM BEHIND IT (THE POLIS PROJECT / JUNE 2024)
▪ Ex-DU prof Hany Babu withdraws bail plea in Supreme Court (Hindustan Times / May 2024)

How Dalits, Muslims, Adivasis encounter the State. ‘It has its boots on our necks’

27/07/2024 Asha

The Print / by Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia

In ‘How Long Can The Moon Be Caged’, Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia look at present-day India through the lived experiences of political prisoners.
A Dalit activist we spoke to said that most people don’t encounter the state the way Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims do. She told us: ‘The state has always had a boot on our necks.’ Forget living; imagine what it takes to survive this. The boot is always pressed against minorities’ necks, making it hard to breathe, demanding that they beg for dignity every day. She added: ‘[For us] it doesn’t matter who is in power; oppression is the only thing that hasn’t changed.’
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How Long Can the Moon Be Caged?
Voices of Indian Political Prisoners
Authors: Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia
Publishing Date: Aug 2023
Publisher: Pluto Press
Pages: 247
A powerful look at authoritarian India through the experiences of political prisoners
How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? includes visual testimonies and prison writings from those falsely accused of inciting the Bhima Koregaon violence, by student leaders opposing the new discriminatory citizenship law passed in 2020, and by activists from the Pinjra Tod’s movement. In bringing together these voices, the book celebrates the courage, humanity and moral integrity of those jailed for standing in solidarity with marginalised and oppressed communities.
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Out on bail in Elgaar case, activist Navlakha and partner struggle to rent home in Mumbai

16/07/2024 Asha

Bail ! Gautam with his partner Sabha Husain

The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak

Although the couple have a home in Delhi, 72-year-old Navlakha’s bail conditions prevent him from leaving Mumbai.
Ever since he was granted bail by the Supreme Court in the Elgaar Parishad case in May, Delhi-based journalist-activist Gautam Navlakha and his author-partner Sahba Husain have been struggling to rent a home in Mumbai.
Read more

Also read:
▪ ‘Every time I stepped out, the camera was on’: Love and resilience in captivity with Gautam Navlakha (Scroll.in / June 2024)
▪ Gautam Navlakha granted bail by Supreme Court; orders him to pay 20 lakhs for the expenses incurred during his house arrest (cjp / May 2024)