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Category: Solidarity

Nearing 180th day of incarceration, Stan Swamy carries cross, ‘awaits’ his Easter

Nearing 180th day of incarceration, Stan Swamy carries cross, ‘awaits’ his Easter

Counterview / by Fr Cedric Prakash SJ

April 4 was Holy Saturday 2021! Christians, in an age-old custom, waited devoutly, in patient silence but with deep hope: The tomb which contains the body of Jesus would be thrown wide open in a few hours, revealing the Resurrection of Jesus, his triumph over death and the promise to mankind of eternal life.
In some cell, in the Taloja jail (near Bombay), Jesuit Fr Stan Swamy nearing the 180th day of his incarceration, is still carrying his cross, still making that steep and difficult climb to Golgotha – but still in patience but with hope, awaiting his Easter!
On March 22, Sessions Judge Dinesh E. Kothalikar of the Special NIA Court, denied Fr Stan Swamy bail. In the detailed court order of 34-pages Justice Kothalikar said that based on the ‘material available on record’, Fr Stan seemed to be a member of a banned Maoist organisation:
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Also read: Bail denied to Fr. Stan Swamy SJ in India – A Statement from the Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat, Rome (March 22, 2021). Read full statement (PDF): SJES-Rome March31

Indian courts and Medical Bail

Indian courts and Medical Bail

CJP / by Zahid Maniyar

The Special NIA court rejected Father Stan Swamy’s bail plea on grounds that “he was not only the member of banned organisation CPI (Maoist) but was also carrying out activities to further the objective of the organisation which is nothing but to overthrow the democracy of the nation.”
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More Than 2,500 Activists, Academics, Others Issue Statement Demanding Stan Swamy’s Release

More Than 2,500 Activists, Academics, Others Issue Statement Demanding Stan Swamy’s Release

More Than 2,500 Activists, Academics, Others Issue Statement Demanding Stan Swamy’s Release

30/03/2021

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

“Stan Swamy is a symbol of the plight of thousands of undertrial prisoners who languish in jail for years under fabricated UAPA charges.”
A group of more than 2,500 people from India and abroad have issued a statement demanding the release of 84-year-old Stan Swamy, whose bail was rejected by a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on March 22.
Swamy, an Adivasi rights activist, is one of the 16 academics, lawyers and activists arrested in the Elgar Parishad case. He was arrested in October last year and suffers from acute Parkinson’s disease along with several other age-related ailments. Swamy had sought bail on the grounds that the prosecution has failed to establish his involvement with the ongoing investigation.
Read more / read the full text of the statement and the list of signatories.

Endorse: Appeal for Immediate Bail to 84-year Old Stan Swamy

28/03/2021

By various activists from Jharkhand

Please consider endorsing and circulating the attached statement against rejection of bail application of 84-year old Stan Swamy and appeal for his immediate bail. Endorsements (name, affiliation/organisation and place) should be sent before 8 am on Tuesday, 30 March 2021.

Appeal for Immediate Bail to 84-year Old Stan Swamy

We, the undersigned, are shocked by the rejection of a bail application filed by Stan Swamy in the Bhima Koregaon case by the special NIA (National Investigation Agency) court on 22 March 2021. He was arrested on 8 October 2021 and continues to languish in jail. …

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The Targeted Silencing of Thinker, Student, Reporter / Criminalisation of Anti-Cast Research

The Targeted Silencing of Thinker, Student, Reporter / Criminalisation of Anti-Cast Research

The Targeted Silencing of the Trinity of Thinker, Student, Reporter

28/03/2021

The Wire / by Pamela Philipose

Academia and journalism are intertwined. Both create and question knowledge, both demand a critical engagement with society, and both have a distinct interface with the public.
What is more, journalism and academia routinely draw from – and contribute – to the other. In a conversation carried by The Wire (‘Watch | The State of India’s Academic Freedom’, March 25), reference was made to the elements that constitute academic freedom…
Courageous individuals who stood up and spoke out felt the full force of a vengeful state machinery. If we are to consider the Bhima Koregaon arrests, four of the 16 people put behind bars were formally attached to universities. Anand Teltumbe, a former IIT professor, was a management professor at the Goa Institute of Management; Shoma Sen, the head of the English Literature department, Nagpur University; Sudha Bharadwaj, was visiting professor at the National Law School, Delhi; Hany Babu, was professor of language and linguistics at Delhi University.
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Criminalisation of Anti-Cast Research

27/02/2021

By International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF)

27 March
8pm IST
Register here: http://shorturl.at/hzHM5

Anti-caste academic research and activism in India are increasingly threatened with criminalisation and surveillance from the state: from the arrests of academics and students to the militarisation of campuses, from the banning of books, plays and film screenings to the censorship of activities deemed as detrimental to the reputation of the government. The persecution of academic-activists in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence is a case in point. …

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Artwork in Solidarity with Anand, Sudha, Rohit and all Political Prisoners (pics)

Artwork in Solidarity with Anand, Sudha, Rohit and all Political Prisoners (pics)

By Ashoka Students

Click to enlarge pics

Ashoka students call for class boycott next week, demand university reinstate Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Arvind Subramanian

20/03/2021

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

In a statement issued late Friday night, the elected student body said that the two professors’ controversial exit had eroded their trust in the university administration to protect students from “external pressures”.
… “Here, it is crucial to acknowledge the socio-economic capital required to make these demands and protest for these changes given the larger political context of the country. The state crackdown on academics and activists has only worsened during the pandemic. We stand in complete solidarity with all the academics and activists who have resisted the state’s brutality, organized in support of targeted groups and been subject to imprisonment and torture for it including, but not limited to the Bhima Koregaon 16, peaceful anti-CAA protestors and most recently Nodeep Kaur and Shiv Kumar,” the statement reads further.
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Video: Livestreamed prayer service / Jesuit Stan Swamy remains in jail, bail postponed again

Video: Livestreamed prayer service / Jesuit Stan Swamy remains in jail, bail postponed again


by Cedric Prakash (March 21):
Do JOIN: Special Day of Prayer and Fast for Fr Stan Swamy and others JCSA is inviting you to a livestreamed prayer service *PRAYING TOGETHER*
Date: Sunday, Mar 21, 2021 07:30 PM Indian Time +++

en | 28min | 2021
Watch @ Youtube here

Jesuit Stan Swamy remains in jail, bail postponed again

18/03/2021

UCA News / by UCA News Reporter

An elderly Indian Jesuit arrested more than five months ago on charges of sedition remains in jail as a special court postponed its verdict on his bail application for the third time.
The verdict on the bail application of 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy was postponed again on March 16 by the special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) based in western India’s Mumbai city.
“The frequent postponements have disappointed us,” said Father A. Santhanam, a Jesuit lawyer based in Tamil Nadu state who is closely following the case.
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The ‘Buts’ To Freedom Of Speech In India / Why Bail to Vara Vara Rao Augurs Well for Indian Democracy

The ‘Buts’ To Freedom Of Speech In India / Why Bail to Vara Vara Rao Augurs Well for Indian Democracy

The BJP’s Toolkit Is Not Working That Well

17/03/2021

The Wire / by Amit Shrivastava

Despite the BJP-RSS’s repression tactics having a terrifying and chilling effect on the right to protest, two of India’s largest movements have taken shape since 2019.
By now, it’s fairly obvious that the NDA government has a standard toolkit for dealing with what it regards as troublesome movements. The script goes like this …
The police stand on the sidelines as first propaganda and then violence is unleashed by either the Sangh parivar organisations or others. We’ve now seen this in JNU (in 2016 and again in 2020), in Bhima Koregaon, in the Republic Day incidents, and most terrible of all, in the Delhi killings of February 2020.
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The ‘Buts’ To Freedom Of Speech In India

17/03/2021

Feminism India / by Guest Writer

A trembling, disillusioned father told his daughter to flee her homeland for her safety. This seems like a plot taken straight from a classic wartime story fraught with separation and grief. In reality, such was the conversation my friend had with her father following the unlawful arrests of activists. The Disha Ravi toolkit case was the last straw.
The ‘buts’ to the freedom of speech in India only seem to point to a dictatorial reality, much like that of Airstrip One in George Orwell’s 1984, where even the mere thought of protest is met with prosecution.
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Why Bail to Vara Vara Rao Augurs Well for Indian Democracy

16/03/2021

NewsClick / by Ajay Gudavarthy

Collective rights cannot remain intact without a collective spirit. The Bombay High Court has shown such compassion lives on in India.
It restores faith in the judiciary and augurs well for Indian democracy that the Bombay High Court has granted bail to revolutionary poet VV Rao on medical grounds. In a sense, the current regime and VV, as he is known among friends, are on opposite ends of the political spectrum.
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