Statements – Page 3 – free them all

A New Bill Shows Maharashtra Wants to Become a Police State Before Combatting Left-Wing Extremism

12/07/2024 Asha

A New Bill Shows Maharashtra Wants to Become a Police State Before Combatting Left-Wing Extremism

15/07/2024

The Wire / by Ajay K. Mehra

The proposed legislation will authorise state police and other security agencies to arrest an accused person without warrant and by extension, without letting them know of their offence.
As soon as the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill, 2024, tabled in the state legislative assembly on July 11 this year, becomes a law, the state government will have another draconian legal instrument to use against protesters, dissenters, critics and opponents. Like other such laws, this one too has strict provisions making an individual’s arrest non-bailable.
Since the need for such a law is being justified on the grounds that the “menace of Naxalism is increasing in urban areas… through Naxal frontal organisations”, dissenters being framed up as ‘urban Naxals’ is imminent.
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Colin Gonsalves writes: Under proposed ‘urban Naxal’ law, I could be arrested for fulfilling my duty

14/07/2024

The Indian Express / by Colin Consalves

Because the judiciary has let us down again and again, the government has become bold enough to draft a law to trap within its web all those who struggle without guns or bombs for a better India
…
We have gone through the experience of the arrest of the Bhima Koregaon lawyers and social workers, none of whom, even after five years of incarceration, could be shown to have engaged in any act of violence intended to overawe the state by warfare. All of them were denied bail by judges, up to the Supreme Court.
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‘Urban Naxal’ bill is bogey to smother opposition before Maharashtra polls, say Congress, CPI(M)

12/07/2024

The Hindu / by Ateeq Shaikh

In a strongly worded statement issued by the CPI (M) State Secretary, Deputy Chief Minister Fadnavis has been called a “hitman” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah
… The statement reads, “It is well-known that Devendra Fadnavis, then Chief Minister and Home Minister, acted as a hitman for Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in arresting innocent individuals under UAPA on false charges in the Bhima Koregaon case.
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Also read:
▪ What is Maharashtra’s new Bill to curb ‘Naxalism in urban areas’? (The Indian Express / Jul 2024)
▪ Maharashtra: Activists, Lawyers Added to ‘Union War Book’, Listed as ‘Enemies of the State’ (The Wire / Jul 2021)
▪ What makes an Urban Naxal? (MR online / Sep 2018)
▪ From ‘tukde tukde gang’ to ‘urban Naxal’: How media trials enable the government to stifle dissent (Scroll.in / Sep 2018)

India: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on the deterioration of civic space

12/07/2024 Asha

India: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on the deterioration of civic space

12/07/2024

CIVICUS / by CIVICUS

CIVICUS has submitted a report to the UN Human Rights Committee on the state of civic space in India ahead of its review of the state’s implementation of its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in July 2024.
…
The submission calls on the UN Human Rights Committee to make a series of recommendations, including:
Immediately and unconditionally release all HRDs, including Khurram Parvez, HRDs detained in the Bhima Koregaon case, student activists Umar Khalid and Gulfisha Fatima, journalists including Irfan Mehraj, academics and others detained for exercising their fundamental freedoms, and review their cases to prevent further harassment.
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Download the India research brief

Also read:
▪ CIVIC FREEDOMS IN INDIA ‘REPRESSED’: GLOBAL MONITOR CIVICUS (The Wire / March 2023)
Read full report „People Power Under Attack 2022“
▪ India | Civicus Monitor Watchlist – Overview Of Recent Restrictions To Civic Freedoms (March 2022)
▪ AUTHORITIES HARASS AND SQUEEZE FUNDING OF NGOS WHILE ACTIVISTS, JOURNALISTS TARGETED IN INDIA (CIVICUS / Feb 2022)

US House Urges India To Probe Activist Stan Swamy’s Death In Custody

09/07/2024 Asha

NDTV / by pti

According to the resolution, Father Stan played a key role in one of the most significant Adivasi movements in contemporary India.
Three American lawmakers have introduced a resolution in the US House of Representatives, encouraging India to pursue an independent investigation into the arrest, incarceration and death of Father Stan, a human rights activist who died in custody on July 5, 2021.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Jesuit Missions repeats call to clear Indian priest’s name (Indcatholic News / Jul 2024)
▪ Three years after Stan Swamy’s death in custody, activists recall his contributions to Adivasi cause (Scroll.in / Jul 2024)
▪ Jharkhand police to probe into Maoist links with Stan Swamy’s ‘Bagaicha’, 63 other frontal organisations (The New Indian Express / Sep 2023)
▪ Incriminating document found in Fr. Stan Swamy’s computer ‘planted’; similar tampering found in other Bhima Koregaon accused: Reports American forensic firm (The Leaflet / Dec 2022)

‘Bhima Koregaon 16’ go on hunger strike to mark Stan Swamy’s death anniversary

06/07/2024 Asha

Hindustan Times / by Sabah Virani

Swamy, arrested in October 2020, was the oldest prisoner charged under the UAPA. He suffered from Parkinson’s disease and was denied bail on medical grounds
Fifteen of the sixteen accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case, known as the BK-16, a moniker referring to the accused, went on a day-long hunger strike on Friday to mark the third death anniversary of Father Stan Swamy, the sixteenth accused, who died in prison, in July 2021, at the age of 84, awaiting bail.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Stan Swamy’s second death anniversary: Stand Up for What Is Right, demand Co-Accused (The Wire / July 5, 2023)
▪ Caged birds and prison songs: In chorus, Stan Swamy and the Bhima Koregaon accused kept hope alive (Scroll.in | by Vernon Gonsalves | Jul 2023)
▪ How the system broke Stan Swamy: A cell mate recalls the activist’s last days in prison (Scroll.in | by Arun Ferreira | Aug 2021)

In a case involving fake currency, Supreme Court gets real about the right to speedy trial

05/07/2024 Asha

The Leaflet / by The Leaflet

The Supreme Court has provided a timely reminder, as much to itself as to subordinate judiciary and the general public, that presumption of innocence and the right to a speedy trial cannot be counterfeited by ‘national security’.
IN a significant ruling, the Supreme Court has held that irrespective of the nature of the crime, an accused is entitled to a speedy trial.
The court has also remarked that “if the prosecuting agency and the court concerned have no wherewithal to protect the fundamental right to a speedy trial, then they should not oppose the bail petitions on the ground that the crime committed is serious.”
Read more

Also read:
▪ ‘Trial will take years & years & years:’ SC grants bail to Bhima Koregaon accused Gautam Navlakha (The Print / May 2024)
▪ Contrary To SC’s Rules Of Assignment, At Least 8 Politically Sensitive Cases Moved To One Judge In 4 Months (article 14 / Dec 2023)
▪ Inconsistencies in Bail Orders Mean Individual Liberty Is Now the Outcome of Judicial Lottery (The Wire / Oct 2022)
▪ How many years can an undertrial languish in jail without trial? Bombay High Court asks NIA on Bhima-Koregaon Violence (Free Press Journal / Jul 2021)

3 years after Stan Swamy’s death in custody, activists recall his contributions to Adivasi cause

05/07/2024 Asha

Indian villagers vow to keep alive Father Swamy’s legacy

08/07/2024

UCA News / by UCA News Reporter

The Jesuit priest became a mot in the eye of the pro-Hindu government for standing with tribal people
People in a southern Indian village have vowed to keep alive the legacy of Jesuit Father Stan Swamy, who they say was forced to die as a prisoner three years ago because of his commitment to the poor.
Young people in Swamy’s native village of Viragalur in Tamil Nadu state have formed an association — Stan Swamy Youth Association — to immortalize the memory of the priest through their work.
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Three years after Stan Swamy’s death in custody, activists recall his contributions to Adivasi cause

05/07/2024

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

Activists stressed the need to take the human rights campaigner’s work ahead at an event in Ranchi to mark his third death anniversary.
Three years after human rights activist and Catholic priest Stan Swamy died in police custody in a Mumbai hospital, his name remains to be cleared of the allegations against him in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case.
This is what activist Aloka Kujur reminded her fellow activists and supporters who had gathered at the Bagaicha Social Research Centre in Ranchi on Friday to commemorate Swamy’s third death anniversary.
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Celebrating the Spirit of Stan Swamy

05/07/2024

Sabrangindia / by Fr Cedric Prakash SJ

When on 5 July 2021, they killed Jesuit Fr Stan Swamy, they succeeded only in destroying the frail body of an 84-year-old Catholic Priest. Today, three years after that fateful day, the Spirit of Stan Swamy lives on. Millions of people: the Adivasis and the Dalits, the excluded and the exploited, the marginalised and the exploited, the displaced and the denied, the poor and other vulnerable, the academics and the writers, human rights defenders, other civil society and political leaders remember him with fondly.
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Father Stan Swamy: “I am not a silent spectator!”

05/07/2024

Christiantoday.co.in / by Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ

Just before his arrest in October 2020, in a video-message that went viral, Fr. Stan Swamy said, “What is happening to me is not something unique happening to me alone. It is a broader process that is taking place all over the country. We are all aware how prominent intellectuals, lawyers’ writers, poets, activists, students, leaders, they are all put into jail because they have expressed their dissent or raised questions about the ruling powers of India. We are part of the process. In a way I am happy to be part of this process. I am not a silent spectator, but part of the game, and ready to pay the price whatever be it.”
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Video: Testimony of Stan Swamy, two days before his arrest on 8 October 2020.

en | 7:48 min | Oct 6, 2020
Watch video

Also read:
▪ Caged birds and prison songs: In chorus, Stan Swamy and the Bhima Koregaon accused kept hope alive (Scroll.in | by Vernon Gonsalves | Jul 2023)
▪ How the system broke Stan Swamy: A cell mate recalls the activist’s last days in prison (Scroll.in | by Arun Ferreira | Aug 2021)

Although we received news by late evening on October 8, 2020, of Father Stan Swamy’s arrest, we were quite shocked to see him the next morning in the adjourning barrack conversing with inmates in his impeccable Hindi.
I was at that time lodged in a cell at the prison hospital with my co- accused Varavara Rao (or VV) and Vernon Gonsalves. More

▪ Incriminating document found in Fr. Stan Swamy’s computer ‘planted’; similar tampering found in other Bhima Koregaon accused: Reports American forensic firm (The Leaflet / Dec 2022)

▪ Framed to Die – The Case of Stan Swamy

By Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)
Edition: Aug 2021
Publisher: Peoples Union for Democratic Rights, Delhi
Language: English
Paperback: 45 pages
Access a free PDF copy of the book here

Release India’s Political Prisoners / Video: 10 Political prisoners of the Modi era

03/07/2024 Asha

Jacobin.com / by Safa Ahmed

Since reaching power, Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has jailed political critics using bogus terrorism and incitement charges. But an electoral setback for his party offers hope of change in India and a crack in his authoritarian Hindutva order.
… There are those who do make it out of prison. But in one harrowing case, imprisonment under the UAPA became a death sentence. In 2018, violent clashes broke out between Dalits and Hindu militant groups in Bhima Koregaon, a village in Maharashtra state. Instead of arresting any militants, police in the state arrested sixteen eminent activists, academics, and lawyers over the next two years — all of whom were involved in civil rights work supporting marginalized Dalits and tribal Adivasi communities.
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Video: Meet 10 ‘political prisoners’ of the Narendra Modi regime in jail without trial

By The Telegraph

en | 4:45 | 2024
From Kashmir to Pune, from the barrage of detainees from the CAA-NRC protests to the Delhi riots case accused to the infamous Bhima Koregaon arrests, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s time in office has been marked by a number of ‘political prisoners’ who remain indefinitely behind bars, with their trials still pending.
Watch video

Also Read:
▪ How The Indian Prison System Denies Basic Freedoms, Rights And Dignity To Political Prisoners (The Polis Project / June 2024)
▪ The Opposition Must Demand the Release of all Political Prisoners (The Wire / June 2024)
▪ Punished without trial: How India’s political prisoners are being denied basic rights in jail (Scroll.in / Aug 2022)
▪ India’s Hindu Nationalist Project Relies on Brutal Repression (Jacobinmag / April 2021)

India: Authorities must immediately repeal repressive new criminal laws

01/07/2024 Asha

Amensty.org / by Amnesty International

As three new criminal laws, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhinayam (BSA), come into effect today replacing three British-era laws in India, Aakar Patel, chair of board at Amnesty International India said:
“The provisions of the amendments to and overhaul of the criminal laws in India would have debilitating consequences on the effective realization of the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and fair trial.”
Read full statement

Also read/watch:
▪ India: Arrests, Raids Target Critics of Government (Amnesty International / Oct 2023)
▪ AI Report: India’s exploitation of terrorism financing assessments to target the civil society (Amnesty.org / Sep 2023)
▪ Incriminating document found in Fr. Stan Swamy’s computer ‘planted’; similar tampering found in other Bhima Koregaon accused: Reports American forensic firm (The Leaflet / Dec 2022)
▪ Fabricating Evidence Against Life and Liberty: Tampering with Fr. Stan Swamy’s computer and its implications for Bhima Koregaon case (Mumbai Rises to Save Democracy / Dec 2022)
▪ Leaked Data Shows Surveillance Net in Elgar Parishad Case May Have Crossed a Line (The Wire / July 2021)

The Opposition Must Demand the Release of all Political Prisoners

23/06/2024 Asha

The Opposition Must Demand the Release of all Political Prisoners

23/06/2024

The Wire / by Partho Sarothi Ray

It is the duty of a revitalised opposition to prevent the continuation of the darkness that has descended over India in the last 10 years.
The results of the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, although quite unexpected and surprising for many, has brought a fresh breath of life to the sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic Republic of India. Nay, it might have brought it back from the brink of the precipice into which it would have tumbled with another outright victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Read more

Also read:
▪ To Think of Modi 3.0 as Less Dangerous Would Be a Misreading (The Wire | Anand Teltumbde | June 12, 2024)
▪ Who Does June 4 Belong to? (The Wire / June 5, 2024)

Colonial Reality of India’s Criminal Laws Remains Despite the New Hindi Names

21/06/2024 Asha

Colonial Reality of India’s Criminal Laws Remains Despite the New Hindi Names

21/06/2024

The Wire / by Rajshree Chandra

The argument that we are in the process of decolonizing laws is a bogus one and it reveals our hypocrisies more than anything else.
… Arundhati Roy today is now going to be being tried under many provisions of IPC along with the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for a speech she gave in 2010, 14 long years ago.
Fourteen years ago, she was charged with sedition (S. 124 A) based on a complaint that her speech (in Delhi) advocated separation of Kashmir from India and therefore “jeopardised public peace and security”. Fourteen years later, charges have been upgraded, and she is now also charged under the anti-terror law UAPA for reasons that are legally confounding but politically quite apparent.
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SKM condemns prosecution sanction of Arundhati Roy, Showkat Hussain under UAPA

20/06/2024

Deccan Herald / pti

The Delhi LG, earlier last week, gave his sanction to prosecute Roy and Hussain for allegedly making provocative speeches at an event in 2010.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Thursday condemned Delhi LG V K Saxena’s approval to prosecute author Arundhati Roy and former Central University of Kashmir professor Sheikh Showkat Hussain under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
… “The slapping of UAPA reflects that the present government, although cut down to size in recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, nonetheless wishes to continue with its older line of clamping down on any dissent and branding it as ‘anti-national’,” the organisation added.
The SKM claimed the National Investigation Agency has sent to jail 16 leading intellectuals and activists with “false charges” in the Bhima-Koregaon case.
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Talons intact – Indian democracy is not free from fascism yet

22/06/2024

The Telegraph / by Asim Ali

The electoral setback for the BJP marks an important check on the accelerated process of “fascistization of the regime” as I had noted in my column for The Telegraph last month
The last fortnight has been marked by a widespread sentiment of relief at the failure of the Narendra Modi regime to come back with a full majority. The relief is understandable. The sentiment, which seems out of place, represents the exultation at the triumphant redemption of Indian democracy from the clutches of fascism.
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▪ Video: PUCL and over hundred organisations present: Repeal UAPA – Persecution by Prosecution

Lawyers, the persecuted, their families and others will present how UAPA is being used to persecute activists and silence dissent. The 3 days will see State-wise sharing from AP, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, J&K, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Telangana & UP

► Repeal UAPA – Day Three (en + … | 2h 51min | Jan 2021)
► Repeal UAPA – Day Two (en +… | 2h 22min | Jan 2021)
► Repeal UAPA – Day One (en + … | 2h 17min | Jan 2021)