Browsed by
Category: Solidarity

Report: LRS Webinar on the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA)

Report: LRS Webinar on the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA)

By Lok Raj Sangathan

Over a hundred and fifty people from all over India, and a few Indians abroad too, participated in an online event organised by Lok Raj Sangathan on the pressing issue of the draconian UAPA.
It began with a presentation explaining the history of the UAPA and other similar laws like TADA and POTA. It showed how authoritarian laws were made more repressive over the years; explained the provisions in the UAPA at present which render it totally brutal and violative of basic human rights.
Read more

India National Justice Day celebrates Father Stan Swamy

India National Justice Day celebrates Father Stan Swamy

India National Justice Day celebrates Father Stan Swamy

29/07/2021

Vatican News / by Vatican News staff

Indian citizens, concerned about values enshrined in the country’s Constitution, observed July 28 as National Justice Day in honour of late the Jesuit rights activist.
Christians and citizens of India joined hands on Wednesday to observe National Justice Day as an expression of their solidarity with late Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy, a human rights activist who died in custody.
Read more

Justice for Stan Swamy: Candlelight march held

29/07/2021

The Hindu / by Staff Reporter

Participants urge Centre to free human rights’ defenders and undertrial prisoners
Bengaluru: Demanding justice for the late Fr. Stan Swamy and all unjustly accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, the faculty and students of various institutions and representatives of civil societies observed a silent candlelight march on Museum Road on Wednesday.
Read more

Stan Swamy’s death another moment of awakening in journey to affirm faith in Constitution: Karnataka Jesuit provincial

29/07/2021

The Indian Express / by Express Web Desk

“Amidst growing inequalities, violence, atrocities, discrimination, and exclusion in our country, ‘not to be a silent spectator is the message that Father Stan left for us,” Fr Dionysius Vaz SJ, provincial of Karnataka Jesuit Province said.
Nearly a month after the death of Father Stan Swamy, a tribal rights activist arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case, the demand for justice to the late Jesuit priest continued in Bengaluru as members of various civil societies and faculty and students of several institutions carried out a silent candlelight march.
Read more

Video: A letter poem to Professor Hany Babu

Video: A letter poem to Professor Hany Babu


en | 2.47min | 2021

Maktoob / by Shivangi Mariam Raj

Delhi University professor, scholar in linguistics, and noted anti-caste activist Hany Babu completes one year in prison under draconian UAPA in Elgar Parishad case.
Hany Babu’s student at Delhi University and an academic publishing professional Shivangi Mariam Raj wrote this poem “Dear Hany, This is just to say” in November last year, four months Hany’s arrest by NIA. (You can read the full poem here.)
Voice: Farzana Rowena, daughter of Hany Babu
Graphics: Shaheen Abdulla
Watch video

This is no ordinary spying. Our most intimate selves are now exposed

This is no ordinary spying. Our most intimate selves are now exposed

The Guardian / by Arundhati Roy

The Pegasus project shows we could all soon be ruled by states that know everything about us, while we know less and less about them.
Here in India, the summer of dying is quickly morphing into what looks very much like a summer of spying.
… Consider this: there are 16 activists, lawyers, trade unionists, professors and intellectuals, many of them Dalit, who have been jailed for years in what is known as the Bhima-Koregaon (BK) case.
Read more

Also read: Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line (The Wire, July 18, 2021)

The State Has Left My Mother To Die, Says Sudha Bharadwaj’s Daughter

The State Has Left My Mother To Die, Says Sudha Bharadwaj’s Daughter

Outlook / by Astha Savyasachi

As activist Sudha Bharadwaj’s health deteriorates inside prison, her friends and family speak to Outlook about her incarceration and work in Chhattisgarh.

‘Dedicated to those prisoners
in whose hearts the future shone like a pearl
But was burnt in the troubled nights of the prison
and diminished into a tiny flicker.’
(Translation of some lines from the poem ‘Intesaab’)

Smita Gupta took to Facebook and dedicated ‘Intesaab’, a famous poem penned by revolutionary poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, to her dear friend Sudha Bharadwaj.
Read more

Protest to seek justice for Stan Swamy / Remembering the revolutionary who challenged everything

Protest to seek justice for Stan Swamy / Remembering the revolutionary who challenged everything

Ranchi, July 23

Pan India agitations protesting ‘institutional murder’ of Fr Stan

24/07/2021

The Telegraph / by Animesh Bisoee

The protests are part of a series of public observances called by rights groups, trade unions, Christian organisations, Left parties and their student and youth wings
Human rights activists, civil society groups, mass organisations and trade union members staged agitations in Jharkhand, Delhi and other parts of the country on Friday in protest against the “institutional murder” of Father Stan Swamy.
Read more

Delhi, July 23

Kolkata, July 23

In Jharkhand, Stan Swamy’s Friends and Colleagues Vow to Keep His Fight Alive

22/07/2021

The Wire / by Santosh K. Kiro

A fortnight after tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy’s death, his friends and those he worked were are still in mourning – and also determined to take forward his work.
On July 18, Swamy’s name was engraved on a stone in Bagaicha, the centre he had developed in Ranchi two decades ago to fight for the tribal cause. Every other day, different tribal communities from across Jharkhand are arranging meetings to pay tribute to the activist.
Read more

OPEN NATIONAL CALL: DEFEND RIGHT TO DISSENT

July 2021

Issued by several organizations across the country

Join National Action to Defend Democracy:
Defend Right to Dissent,
Repeal Sedition Law,
UAPA and Repressive State Laws,
Restore Right to Bail

Dear Friends,
The Institutional murder of the 84-year-old Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy in judicial custody on 5th July 2021 has brought home to all of us the urgency of the need to take up the defence of democracy against repressive laws.
Read more

Remembering Stan Swamy, the revolutionary who challenged everything – including the Church

21/07/2021

Scroll.in / by Jyoti Bahen Urumpil, The India Forum

He was a fiery, ruthless messiah for the oppressed and exploited.
Stan Swamy’s mortal remains have been placed reverently with proper dedication. We all know that his spirit and commitment will live forever in the whole world. Swamy was gifted with a good intellect and a warm, tender heart that could almost burst out of anger for justice.
Read more

Webinar: Human Rights Defenders in India: Stories from the Trenches

Webinar: Human Rights Defenders in India: Stories from the Trenches

By International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF India)

Saturday, 31 July 2021
7 pm (IST)
Register here

We mourn the institutional murder of Father Stan Swamy that has fully exposed to the world the machinations of Indian state agencies and a compromised judiciary.

Dear friends,
As a growing number of human rights defenders are being incarcerated using charges of sedition, terrorism and anti-national activities, other in the movements and causes they have stood for and struggled with through constitutional means, now, in turn, are fighting for their release. It is clear the state is determined to silence these activists by any means necessary, framing them in false cases and denying them bail repeatedly.
– Why was Father Stan and his centre in Ranchi, Jharkhand (Bagaicha) such a threat to the state?
– How are corporations/commercial interests complicit with the state in trying to suppress the movements of such grassroots organizations and eliminate these activists?
– How does the Indian legal system enable those in power to rule by law instead of governing under a rule of law?
Through this webinar we hope to shine a light on how grassroots organizations and activists have stood up to the carceral state and its allied interests, and what support the international community can provide.
…

Read More Read More

Open National Call: Defend Right to Dissent, Repeal Sedition Law, UAPA and Repressive State Laws

Open National Call: Defend Right to Dissent, Repeal Sedition Law, UAPA and Repressive State Laws

Call issued by several organizations across the country

Join National Action to Defend Democracy:

Defend Right to Dissent,

Repeal Sedition Law,

UAPA and Repressive State Laws,

Restore Right to Bail

Dear Friends,

The Institutional murder of the 84-year-old Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy in judicial custody on 5th July 2021 has brought home to all of us the urgency of the need to take up the defence of democracy against repressive laws. Father Stan, who spent a lifetime working with Adivasis in Jharkhand in defence of their rights, was arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case even though he had no connection with it and the police did not require him for any investigation. Father Stan died waiting for a chance to clear his name. In denying Fr Stan bail, the NIA judge, D. E. Kothalikar argued that “the collective interest of the community” outweighed Fr. Stan’s right to personal liberty. His death should shake the conscience of the nation and the judiciary as it “brings to an end a stark tale of injustice – one that has left the highest institutions of India’s justice system diminished.” But even after Father Stan’s death, the same court denied bail to Anand Teltumbde, another member of the BK-16, as the advocates, artists, journalists and intellectuals who have been imprisoned under the Bhima Koregaon case are called. …

Read More Read More

After Pegasus and Arsenal Reports, Can Bhima Koregaon Case Still Stand?

After Pegasus and Arsenal Reports, Can Bhima Koregaon Case Still Stand?

The Quint / by Anand Venkatanarayanan

An expert decodes Arsenal report—on planting evidence in activists’ devices—& its significance after Pegasus leaks.
In the light of Pegasus leaks, suggesting that Indian government used a spyware to snoop on politicians, constitutional appointees, journalists, and activists, the Bhima Koregaon case deserves fresh and sharp attention.
The Bhima Koregaon case (BKC) is a unique case in many aspects, but one aspect stands out – the planting of evidence through the use of malware as detailed by the Arsenal reports (Report one, two, three).
Read more

Also read: Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line (The Wire, July 18, 2021)

Sudha Bharadwaj, Fr Stan not Maoists: Deccan Herald told to remove ‘malicious’ ad

Sudha Bharadwaj, Fr Stan not Maoists: Deccan Herald told to remove ‘malicious’ ad

‘Sudha Bharadwaj, Fr Stan not Maoists’: Deccan Herald told to remove ‘malicious’ ad

16/07/2021

Counterview / by Counterview Desk

In a joint letter, more than 100 civil society groups and citizens* have demanded that from the daily “Deccan Herald” editor Sitaraman Shankar and owners to withdraw and apologise for publishing the visual connect advertisement in its Bengaluru edition on July 15, stating, it is meant to “vilify” human rights activists Sudha Bhardwaj the late Fr Stan Swamy.
Read more

Making a game of a person’s death: Deccan Herald apologises after outrage over Stan Swamy ‘quiz’

16/07/2021

The Print / by Angana Chakrabarti

A group of activists and civil society members hit out at the English language daily Deccan Herald over a ‘prize-winning quiz’ that appeared in the newspaper’s Thursday edition.
The quiz, part of the ‘DH Visual Connect’ contest, which appears in the newspaper every day, drew “connection” between three pictures — the Bhima Koregaon victory pillar, activist Sudha Bharadwaj, and a Communist flag bearing the hammer and sickle.
Read more