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Category: Solidarity

National Day of Protest Against Draconian Laws

National Day of Protest Against Draconian Laws

Release Sudha Bharadwaj and other comrades

Raipur, August 28

Posters shared @ twitterstorm (August 27)

By National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)

#FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners
#ScrapUAPA
Part of the Campaign Against Draconian Laws
Jan Azadi 75

click to enlarge

National Day of Protest Against Draconian Laws on 28th August, 2021

Aug 2021

By National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)

Friends,
As you already know, NAPM is part of the ongoing joint national campaign against UAPA, sedition and all other draconian laws, which are threatening our right to democratic dissent.

The key demands of this campaign are:
1) Justice for Stan Swamy.
2) Repeal of UAPA, sedition and all other draconian Central and State laws.
3) Restore the Right to Bail.
4) Release all Political Prisoners.
5) Accountability for filing false cases and compensation to victims.
6) Stop illegal detentions and weaponizing the criminal justice system.
Read more

Also read: OPEN NATIONAL CALL: DEFEND RIGHT TO DISSENT, REPEAL SEDITION LAW, UAPA AND REPRESSIVE STATE LAWS (Call issued by several organizations across the country, July 2021)

India Must Stop Criminalising the Defence of Human Rights: UN Special Rapporteur

India Must Stop Criminalising the Defence of Human Rights: UN Special Rapporteur


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

Mary Lawlor speaks to The Wire about the situation of human rights defenders in the country, the use of repressive laws by the government and more.
On May 1, 2020, Mary Lawlor, a Dublin-based human rights expert with over four decades of experience engaging in human rights work, took up the mandate of Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders (HRDs) at the United Nations. Along with her work globally, Lawlor has been closely following the deteriorating human rights conditions in India and feels the country has repeatedly failed to protect the rights and interests of HRDs in the country.
Read more

Also read: Pegasus Reports Highlight Need for Better Regulation of Spyware: UN Rights Chief (The Wire, Aug 20)

Opposition to Hold Joint Protests across India against Modi Govt from September 20 to 30

Opposition to Hold Joint Protests across India against Modi Govt from September 20 to 30

The Wire / by pti

The Opposition’s demands include an SC-monitored probe into the Pegasus issue and a high-level probe into the Rafale fighter jets deal, a repeal of three farm laws and early polls in J&K.
The leaders of 19 Opposition parties announced on Friday that they will organise joint protests and demonstrations across the country from September 20 to 30, even as they urged people to save India for a better tomorrow.
Read more

Their full statement

…
10. Release all political prisoners, including those under draconian UAPA in Bhima Koregaon case and anti-CAA protests.

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Planted Evidence and the BK 16 – Citizens’ Statement Demands Immediate Release

Planted Evidence and the BK 16 – Citizens’ Statement Demands Immediate Release

Planted Evidence and the BK 16 – Citizens’ Statement Demands Immediate Release

18/08/2021

KAFILA / by concerned citizens

We, the undersigned, condemn the continued incarceration of the academics, cultural activists, human rights activists, lawyers, poets and trade unionists arrested in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case and unitedly demand their immediate release. After three years of media trial, harassment, raids and arrests of 16 persons, one of the arrested, Father Stan Swamy died on July 5th following wanton medical neglect in custody amounting to institutional murder.
Read full statement

The Steep Fall Of Dissent In India

18/08/2021

Feminism in India / by Mansi Bhalerao

The current socio-political discourse in India is such that it primarily focuses on instances of inter-religious and inter-caste violence and the activities of political and social organisations that are characterised as communal or casteist. Such a discourse is complacent and ignores the larger political and social structures that give birth to communalism and sectarian political and social organisations. However, the rising violence vis-à-vis institutional murders, unlawful arrests of activists and wide-spread communalism in India are calls to delve into the structural nature of casteism and communalism in India, in the light of dissent.
Read more

Former Civil Servants Say UAPA’s ‘Flaws and Loopholes’ Allow Abuse, Call For Replacement

Former Civil Servants Say UAPA’s ‘Flaws and Loopholes’ Allow Abuse, Call For Replacement

Former Civil Servants Say UAPA’s ‘Flaws and Loopholes’ Allow Abuse, Call For Replacement

17/08/2021

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

The Constitutional Conduct Group said that the “harsh amendments” that the anti-terror law has gone through in recent years has made it “draconian, repressive, and amenable to gross misuse”.
Over 100 former civil servants have endorsed an open letter by the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG) which calls for the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) to be amended, saying as it stands today, the law has “many flaws and loopholes making it amenable to large scale abuse and misuse by some politicians and overzealous policemen”.
Read more

Government must replace the UAPA, safeguarding personal liberties

16/08/2021

By Constitutional Conduct Group

Open Letter: Government of India must replace the UAPA with legislation that fights terrorism while safeguarding personal liberties

Dear Citizens of India,
We are a group of retired officers of the All India and Central Services who have worked with the Central and State Governments in the course of our careers. As members of the Constitutional Conduct Group, we believe in impartiality, neutrality and commitment to the Indian Constitution and in safeguarding its values.
We are writing this in the matter of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) that violates the Constitutional guarantees of citizens’ fundamental rights…
The most shocking of the arrests under the UAPA have been of persons accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case. Several well regarded activists who have fought throughout their lives for the rights of tribal people and other oppressed groups have been arrested as terrorists and, even today, languish in jail.
Read full statement

Tributes to Stan Swamy / Daily wage earners vow to follow Father Stan Swamy’s ideals

Tributes to Stan Swamy / Daily wage earners vow to follow Father Stan Swamy’s ideals


Bilaspur, Aug 14

Daily wage earners vow to follow Father Stan Swamy’s ideals

17/08/2021

The Telegraph / by Animesh Bisoee

The spontaneous decision was taken during a resolution meeting organised by Jharkhand Krantikari Mazdoor Union at Adivasi Basti in Kadma
Daily wage earners in one of the urban slums in the steel city took a resolve to follow the ideals of Father Stan Swamy on the country’s 75th Independence Day on Sunday.
The spontaneous decision was taken during a resolution meeting organised by Jharkhand Krantikari Mazdoor Union (JKMU) at Adivasi Basti in Green Park, Kadma.
Read more

TN Assembly condoles demise of Stan Swamy, Aadheenam

17/08/2021

The New Indian Express / by Express News Service

The members of the House observed silence as a mark of respect for the departed souls.
The State Assembly on Monday condoled the demise of human rights activist Stan Swamy, Periyarist V Anaimuthu, Madurai Aadheenam Arunagirinathar, Tamil scholar Ilankumaranar, Dr S Kameswaran and nine former MLAs including Tindivanam K Ramamurthi and E Madhusudanan.
Read more

An artistic tribute to tribal activist Father Stan Swamy

16/08/2021

The Times of India / By The Times of India

A collection of artists came together on Independence Day in a virtual performance to honour Father Stan Swamy, the 84-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist who passed away in a Mumbai hospital on July 5 after being jailed in the Elgar Parishad case.
‘Kelvi Koothu’ or Dirge for Democracy, a two-hour event, had a line-up which included gaana artist G Isaivani of the Casteless Collective who was included in the BBC’s top 100 women list of 2020 and others like Gana Muthu, Muniammal, Kachha (Dholak), Citizens’ Choir, Kattiyakaari, Kalaimamani Muthuchandran’s Tholpaavai troupe, Rithvik Raja and Praveen Sparsh.
Read more

Video: A dirge for Democracy (Justice Rocks)


tamil | 1h 58min | 2021

By Vettiver Collective

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Happy Independence Day is a greeting, a celebration, an opportunity to renew our commitment to safeguarding the Constitution of India and a reminder that democracy survives only if citizens actively thwart moves to curtail freedom. #Kelvi Koothu or Dirge for Democracy is that satirical, artistic reminder that a passive citizenry will herald the death of democracy. #FatherStan #IndependenceDay #August15 Catch the fantastic artist line up of Gana Muthu, Muniammal, G. Isaivani, Kachha (Dholak), Citizens’ Choir, Kattiyakaari, Muthuchandran’s Tholpaavai troupe, Rithvik Raja and Praveen Sparsh at #KelviKoothu.
Watch video

Happy Birthday Prof. Hany Babu (poster)

Happy Birthday Prof. Hany Babu (poster)

by Dalit Camera

+++ Happy Birthday Prof. Hany Babu
Arrested on July 28, 2020, Hany Babu is an anti-caste activist, spending his second birthday in jail for a crime he did not commit.
+++ He and his co-accused are fighting “planted evidence”, the brutal UAPA, Covid in prison conditions and the “institutional murder” of Fr. Stan Swamy.
Stand with Prof. Hany Babu.
Demand for the freedom of BK-15.

Also read: If you are in a university and oppose state policy, you can be targeted: Hany Babu, DU professor (The Caravan, Nov 2019)

Independence Day / Resign Modi: Banner dropped from London’s Westminster Bridge

Independence Day / Resign Modi: Banner dropped from London’s Westminster Bridge

“Resign Modi”: Independence Day banner dropped from London’s Westminster Bridge

15/08/2021

The Caravan / by Diaspora Members and Friends of India in the UK

On the occasion of Indian Independence Day, a group of diaspora Indian activists in the United Kingdom dropped a banner from London’s Westminster Bridge, demanding Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resignation…

Press release issued by the group:
… The Modi regime has imprisoned thousands of people whose only ‘crime’ has been to dissent, to advocate for the most marginalised and oppressed groups, or to take part in nonviolent protests, under draconian laws like the UAPA. Elderly and vulnerable academics and lawyers, students and young activists, including thousands of Adivasi youth, are locked up in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions in the middle of a pandemic.
Read full statement

Demand Justice India: International protest


en | 10:34min | 2021

By International Coalition for Justice in India

They stood by the marginalised. They protected lands, hills and forests from mining companies. They stood up to protect minorities. They did not trust the Indian government”s false promises. They are students, academics, lawyers, journalists and social activists, in thousands, are imprisoned in over-crowded prisons. An 84-year old Jesuit priest and human rights defender, Father Stan Swamy, has passed away while waiting for trail.
Watch video

August 15: Zurich – Lotika for release of BK-16 – Berlin – Dundee