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Category: Solidarity

Stan Swamy’s message and letter from Taloja prison

Stan Swamy’s message and letter from Taloja prison

By Fr. Stan Swamy SJ

“Dear friends,
Thank you so much for the solidarity support by so many, for me and my co-accused. I am really grateful.
The Prison administration provides breakfast, tea, milk, lunch and dinner. Any additional edibles are to be purchased from the prison canteen, twice a month. Also, newspapers, toiletries, stationary and other essentials can be purchased through the prison canteen.
My needs are limited. The Adivasis and the Society of Jesus have taught me to lead a simple life. bI had brought with me a “sipper-tumbler”, to drink tea and water. However, the same was disallowed at the prison gate, on entry on 9 October.
Now, I am using a baby-sipper mug, which I purchased through the prison hospital. I have communicated this need to our lawyers. I am still awaiting to receive the sipper-tumbler.
Varavara Rao is very sick. Kindly, pray for him. Listening to the life-narratives of the poor prisoners is my joy in Taloja. I see God in their pains and smiles.”
Fr. Stan Swamy SJ

Jailed Jesuit seeks prayers for seriously ill co-prisoner

20/11/2020

Matters India / by Matters India Reporter

Mumbai: Father Stan Swamy, who is in a Mumbai jail for more than one month, has sought prayers for a fellow prisoner who has become seriously ill.
“Varavara Rao is very sick. Kindly, pray for him,” the octogenarian Jesuit told confrere over phone…
Jesuit Father Arockiasamy Santhanam, secretary of the National Lawyers Forum of Religious and Priests, says they expected the prison authorities would give Father Swamy the sipper tumbler after P Chidambaram, a senior politician tweeted about his need. “He not received the same, at least till yesterday,” he told Matters India November 19.
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Also read: ‘Humanity is bubbling in Taloja prison,’ Stan Swamy says in letter to friends (Nov 15)

PUDR: Case a conspiracy to undermine Varavara Rao’s right to life / Access to Healthcare in Prison

PUDR: Case a conspiracy to undermine Varavara Rao’s right to life / Access to Healthcare in Prison

Elgar Parishad case a conspiracy to undermine Varavara Rao’s right to life, says rights group

19/11/2020

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The Peoples Union of Democratic Rights (PUDR) pointed out that Rao has still not been granted bail, but was only allowed the right to proper medical care.
The Peoples Union of Democratic Rights on Thursday demanded the immediate release of Telugu poet and activist Varavara Rao, who was arrested two years ago in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case. The group said the Centre’s ongoing inquiry into the Elgar Parishad conclave of 2017 was a conspiracy that has sought to undermine the 80-year-old’s right to life and was “taking away his human right to dignity”.
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Why did Varavara Rao Petition Courts for Access to Basic Healthcare in Prison?

19/11/2020

The Leaflet / by Megha Katheria

While state apathy and inefficiency may cost Varavara Rao his life, his shifting to Nanavati Hospital does little to assure that no other prisoner will meet the same fate in the future.
THE Bombay High Court has ordered the Maharashtra Government to shift the 81-year-old poet and activist Varavara Rao to Nanavati Hospital for treatment. The state has also been warned against shifting him out of Nanavati without informing the court. This comes at the end of a long legal battle fought by P Hemalatha, Rao’s wife, spanning over three months only to secure basic treatment for him as he is seriously ailing.
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Musical Event: Here to Stay – Ideas Cannot be Arrested

Musical Event: Here to Stay – Ideas Cannot be Arrested

mid-day / by Shunashir Sen

A musical event this weekend will highlight the plight of political activists locked behind bars
Justice delayed is justice denied. That’s the maxim that some people have brought up in connection to political activists who have been imprisoned without their bail pleas being heard, some for years on end. The country’s criminal justice system is in the spotlight at a time when people are voicing their concern about the pending cases of activists Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen and hundreds of others like them who have been spending their nights in jail cells.
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Silent rally taken out seeking Stan Swamy’s release / Christians ask Indian leaders to ensure bail for Jesuit

Silent rally taken out seeking Stan Swamy’s release / Christians ask Indian leaders to ensure bail for Jesuit


Kohima, Nov 17, 2020

Silent rally taken out in Belagavi seeking Stan Swamy’s release

18/11/2020

The Hindu / by Special Correspondent

Members of several Christian organisations took out a silent rally in Belagavi on Tuesday to protest against what they called the unlawful arrest of pro-people activist and Jesuit priest Stan Swamy.
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Christians ask Indian leaders to ensure bail for elderly Jesuit

18/11/2020

UCA News / by UCA News reporter

President and PM urged to seek release of Father Swamy, whose health is deteriorating in jail.
Christian leaders have appealed to the Indian president and prime minister to help end the detention of an elderly Jesuit after the priest wrote to a colleague saying that his deteriorating health has rendered him unable to eat or drink without help from jail inmates.
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NPRD seeks NHRC Intervention on Stan Swamy

NPRD seeks NHRC Intervention on Stan Swamy

By National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD)

Press Release
Nov 17, 2020
The National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) has petitioned the National Human Rights Commission seeking its intervention to provide reasonable accommodations to Fr. Stan Swamy, who is lodged in the Taloja Jail, Maharashtra.
83-year old Stan Swamy is a person living with Parkinson’s, which is a condition recognised as disabling as per the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. As per various laws and conventions to which India is a signatory, it is obligatory that Stan Swamy be provided with requisite age & disability appropriate accommodations, assistive aids including straws and sippers as also human care assistance as required.
The full text of the letter addressed to the NHRC Chairman yesterday is being released herewith.

(Muralidharan)
General Secretary, NPRD
…

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Appeal to the Civil Society of India on two years of Varavara Rao’s arrest

Appeal to the Civil Society of India on two years of Varavara Rao’s arrest

Release the Poet / by Release the Poet Committee

730 Days without ‘Personal Liberty’! Now the Supreme Court itself is in the People’s Courtroom.
Today, on 17th November 2020, it completes two years of Varavara Rao’s arrest in the alleged Bhima Koregaon case. Since then the people’s poet is in jail with alarming health adversities. His bail pleas or applications for a proper hospitalization were repeatedly opposed and rejected, making the situation worrying for his family, comrades & peoples at large.
Even prior to and after his arrest, the list of witch hunts was far from being short! …

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India’s Era Of Unequal Liberties / Protect our Republic, my lords

India’s Era Of Unequal Liberties / Protect our Republic, my lords

Arnab Goswami & India’s Era Of Unequal Liberties

16/11/2020

Article 14 / by Zaid Wahidi

On 11 November 2020, the Supreme Court granted bail to television show-host Arnab Goswami, who had been in judicial custody for seven days on an abetment to suicide charge related to a 2018 case. The merits aside, the manner in which the judicial machinery functioned to protect Goswami’s liberty was extraordinary… However, when the Supreme Court’s own approach to cases concerning personal liberty is tested on the touchstone of these observations, the reality could not be more of a contrast…
Sudha Bharadwaj: Imprisoned For 811 Days
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Protect our Republic, my lords

16/11/2020

The Hindu / by Sriram Panchu

The judiciary’s quick intervention in the Arnab Goswami case turns the spotlight on other serious cases that languish.
The facts are brief. Mr. Arnab Goswami of Republic TV, a media group perceived to be supportive of the ruling party, was arrested by the Mumbai Police on November 4, 2020 on a charge of abetting the suicide of Anvay Naik … The High Court heard his case for five hours on a holiday, and said exactly this on November 9…
There is however the disturbing contrast between the breakneck speed of the Supreme Court in this case with other cases which involve large scale and serious violations of fundamental freedoms.
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Five cases on personal liberty decided by Justice DY Chandrachud

15/11/2020

Bar & Bench / by Murali Krishnan

Supreme Court Bench headed by JusticeDY Chandrachud, on November 11 granted bail to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief, Arnab Goswami in an abetment to suicide case against him…
Below are a few cases in which Justice Chandrachud was confronted with issue of personal liberty/ bail.
Bhima -Koregaon arrests
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