The New Indian Express / by Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Over 300 prominent citizens appealed for the release of 11 jailed activists, including Varavara Rao and Sudha Bhardwaj, who are yet to get bail despite prisons being overcrowded and some inmates testing COVID positive.
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7:27min | 2020
By friends of Mahesh #freemahesh
Mahesh Raut, our brother and friend, is in jail for over 2 years. For defending democracy, in his home district, Gadchiroli. He deserves to be free.
This video is an attempt to present the real picture which paid media won’t show you.
Watch video
Rediff.com / by Prasanna D Zore
On August 28, 2020, the respected lawyer and human rights activist Sudha Bharadwaj will complete two years in jail …
“If somebody is working for poor people, then does it mean they are criminals?”, Maaysha, Bharadwaj’s daughter who got to speak with her mother after four months on June 9, asks Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com.
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Indian Cultural Forum / by ICF Team
We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned about the health of 11 respected fellow citizens:
1. Mr. Varavara Rao
2. Ms. Sudha Bhardwaj
3. Ms. Shoma Sen
4. Mr. Anand Teltumbde
5. Mr. Gautam Navlakha
6. Mr. Arun Ferreira
7. Mr. Vernon Gonsalvez
8. Mr. Surendra Gadling
9. Mr. Mahesh Raut
10. Mr. Sudhir Dhawale
11. Mr. Rona Wilson
These activists, many of them eminent scholars, writers and poets, have worked for the welfare of India’s poorest and most marginalised people over decades. Yet they have been turned into politcal prisoners and incarcerated. They have not been granted bail despite the fact that in the prisons of Maharashtra where they are being detained, some inmates have died and many others have tested positive for COVID-19.
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The Wire / by The Wire Staff
New Delhi: Close to a 100 renowned intellectuals from across the world have appealed to President Ram Nath Kovind and Chief Justice of India (CJI) S.A. Bobde to release professor G.N. Saibaba and activist Varavara Rao, saying they have been imprisoned in ‘fabricated cases’ and that they are vulnerable to infection in the ‘overcrowded Maharashtra prisons’.
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News 18/ by Eram Agha
The statement accuses the central government of using the novel coronavirus pandemic as a cover to crush all forms of dissent. It also demands that all political prisoners be immediately released.
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Newsclick / by Newsclick Report
Registering their protest against an increasingly “authoritarian” state, users on social media in India used the hashtag #LalSalaamComrade on Twitter this evening. The hashtag also comes about days after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) held that the use of “lal salam” and “comrade” meant that one is a Maoist.
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Selection of posters @ #LalSalaamComrade (click to enlarge)
The Wire / by Anjana Prakash
By failing to uphold the sanctity of the high court’s order in a matter where the NIA’s conduct appears surreptitious and mala faide, the Supreme Court has undermined the majesty of the law.
A senior once told me that the best way to understand the law was to know the law. His advice confused me in the beginning, but I soon realised how profound it was. I recall this in the context of the case of Gautam Navlakha and others. I don’t hold their brief, but if I’ve chosen to speak, it is as a thinking person.
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The Polis Project / by The Polis Project & maraa
PROFILES OF DISSENT | The profile spotlights the life and work of Sudha Bharadwaj a trade unionist, and a civil rights activist who had fought against land acquisition, and has worked and lived in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh for 29 years.
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Release All Political Prisoners!
Repeal UAPA and all other draconian laws!
Rise in rage against state repression!
