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Category: Solidarity

When the State Fears a Poet: Varsha speaks up for her uncle

When the State Fears a Poet: Varsha speaks up for her uncle

Boston Review / by Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla

On Saturday, I checked my phone and saw that we’d heard from my uncle, currently a political prisoner in India. “I’m alright,” he said. But he wasn’t alright. His voice was weak and feeble, and his words, disjointed, slipped into Hindi instead of his beloved Telugu. For over six decades, Varavara Rao, the revolutionary poet, captivated generations with his critical poetry and prose. That he was anything less than articulate, let alone incoherent, was a gut punch. The goal of Narendra Modi’s administration has been to silence those like my uncle. Had they succeeded?
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Free Varavara Rao – Release All Political Prisoners

Free Varavara Rao – Release All Political Prisoners

By Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation

… what Varavara Rao and other political prisoners need is more than basic humanitarian care. They need justice.
They have been imprisoned on the ridiculous charge of “conspiring to kill the Prime Minister.” The only evidence against them is their attempts to build an anti-fascist movement in India. Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, Anand Teltumbde, Shoma Sen, Sudha Bharadwaj, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudhir Dhawale and Rona Wilson are not “conspirators”. Each of them has worn their politics on their sleeves, speaking, writing, and working for the rights and assertion of the oppressed in India.
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Cards and letters for jailed India scholar Anand Teltumbde as he turns 70 / Zoom talk 7pm

Cards and letters for jailed India scholar Anand Teltumbde as he turns 70 / Zoom talk 7pm


Dalit artist Siddhesh Gautam’s drawing of Prof Teltumbde in jail

BBC / by BBC

Prominent Indian scholar and human rights defender Anand Teltumbde has turned 70 in a Mumbai prison amid growing calls for his release, writes the BBC’s Geeta Pandey in Delhi.
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‘YOUR IDEAS HAVE SPREAD LIKE WILDFIRE’: A LETTER TO DR ANAND TELTUMBDE ON HIS BIRTHDAY

The Wire / by Suraj Yengde, Balmurli Natrajan, Meena Kandasamy, Sangeeta Kamat and Biju Mathew

The din of darkness sprawls, the night sky devours and us – those who love you yearn for the patient past to be with us and skip the present. There is a silence in the lover’s island while the canon of flames has died in a fascist land.
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Upcoming

@surajyengde & @meenakandasamy talk about Anand Teltumbde´s work, its significance, why is he being targeted?
July 15, 2020
7pm IST

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Alarming Reports of Attacks on Human Rights Defenders in India: UN

Alarming Reports of Attacks on Human Rights Defenders in India: UN

UN / By Mary Lawlor United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders

I continue to receive alarming and regular news about Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) in India. The 79 year-old jailed Human Rights Defender Varavara Rao appears to have serious health concerns. He’s held in the overcrowded Taloja Prison in Mumbai.
We know that HRDs are at great risk in prisons, which are breeding grounds for the virus. His health is frail, and like all HRDs in jail he should be immeditaley released.
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In Solidarity with Varavara Rao: Statements & Visuals

In Solidarity with Varavara Rao: Statements & Visuals


+++ Udpate: VV Rao has been moved to the JJ Hospital in Mumbai +++

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The PUDR said that it had become a standard procedure for the NIA to refuse bail to the poet as he did not suffer from a life-threatening disease.
The People’s Union for Democratic Rights on Monday expressed shock at the deteriorating health condition of poet Varavara Rao, and called for him to immediately be released. Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case, is lodged in Taloja jail in Mumbai and his family has accused the authorities of neglecting his condition.
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AN APPEAL FROM PEN INTERNATIONAL AND PEN DELHI

By Pen International and Pen Delhi

Poet Varavara Rao has been held in jail since 2018 and has been consistently denied bail. Varavara Rao is 81 years old. His health is deteriorating. He is old. He is frail. He is ill. When he speaks with his loved ones what he says does not make much sense. Those taking care of him are concerned. At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is raging and the government has ordered the decongestion of jails to prevent the infection from spreading, there is an even greater risk to Varavara Rao’s health.
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Video: Statement by Meena Kandasamy


en | 2:18 min | 2020
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RELEASE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS

By Communist Party of India (Marxist)

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) expresses grave concern over the deteriorating health condition of several jailed political and human rights activists. Some of them have been reported to have contracted Covid-19 in jail. The deplorable conditions in the overcrowded jails, which lack even basic facilities has contributed immensely to their deteriorating health condition. Many of them have co-morbidities and have been on medications since long.
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Letter by Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury – Leader of Congress Party in the Lok Sabha

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Sign petition: Ensure Immediate Health Care & Release Vara Vara Rao Now

Sign petition: Ensure Immediate Health Care & Release Vara Vara Rao Now

+++ Udpate: VV Rao has been moved to the JJ Hospital in Mumbai +++

By Citizens In Solidarity with Vara Vara Rao

Do sign this open appeal to @PMOIndia & @CMOMaharashtra to #FreeVaravaraRao & ensure proper medical treatment. Click on link below to sign. Add ur name, organizational/professional affiliation and city/location.
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Immediate Transfer to a Hospital and Prompt Treatment for Varvara Rao

Immediate Transfer to a Hospital and Prompt Treatment for Varvara Rao

+++ Udpate June 13: VV Rao has been moved to the JJ Hospital in Mumbai +++

Counter Currents / statement by Romila Thapar, Prabhat Patnaik, Devaki Jain, Maja Daruwala & Satish Deshpande

We appeal to the Government of Maharashtra and the National Investigation Agency to facilitate the immediate transfer of Mr. Varavara Rao to JJ Hospital where he can receive proper treatment. Mr Rao poses no flight risk and has voluntarily submitted to all investigations for the past 22 months. There is no reason in law or conscience to hold him in circumstances that increase risk to his fragile health.
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Press Note from Vara Vara Rao’s Family

Press Note from Vara Vara Rao’s Family


VV Rao’s daughter Pavana and wife Hemalatha in May 2020

By Vara Vara Rao’s Family

DON’T KILL VARA VARA RAO IN JAIL !!
We, the family members of Varavara Rao, world-renowned Telugu revolutionary poet and public intellectual, who is incarcerated in Navi Mumbai’s Taloja Jail, are very much worried about his deteriorating health. His health condition has been scary for over six weeks now, ever since he was shifted in an unconscious state to JJ Hospital from Taloja Jail on May 28, 2020. Even as he was discharged from the hospital and sent back to jail three days later, there has been no improvement in his health and he is still in need of emergency heathcare. …

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By failing to check NIA in Gautam Navlakha case, SC has undermined the Delhi HC

By failing to check NIA in Gautam Navlakha case, SC has undermined the Delhi HC

Scroll.in / by Sruthisagar Yamunan

The National Investigation Agency’s actions were designed to undermine the jurisdiction of the Delhi court.
For India’s higher judiciary, two elements of court proceedings have come to be regarded as sacrosanct. As courts of record, the High Courts and the Supreme Court pay close attention to precedent: rules established in previous legal cases play a strong role when a later case with similar circumstances is decided.
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