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Category: Statements

Endorse: Petition for release of Stan Swamy by Socialist Party (India)

Endorse: Petition for release of Stan Swamy by Socialist Party (India)

Indian Cultural Forum / by Socialist Party (India)

Stan Swamy has been a thorn against the establishment for decades. He has always stood on the side of the Adivasis of Jharkhand whose plight he understands well. His methods have always been peaceful – often making use of the vehicle of Public Interest Litigation. Yet, now the government  – through the NIA – has arrested and jailed Stan Swamy for conspiring to incite violence in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon episode and of being a part of the banned CPI (Maoist) party.
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Release the Poet – Convenors’ Statement on United Forum Against Fascism

Release the Poet – Convenors’ Statement on United Forum Against Fascism

By Release the Poet Committee

Comrades & Friends!
On the eve of the upcoming Bhima-Koregaon Day, this is our statement on behalf of ‘Release the Poet’ Committee to the anti-fascist people of West Bengal.
In this state as well as throughout the whole country, the danger of Hindutva-Manuvadi Fascists is no longer an impending possibility, it has become a burning truth. The BJP-RSS has reared its ugly aggresive head in West Bengal, taking full advantage of the mismanagement, corruption and dictatorship of the present and former governing parties in the state, and with the corporate-funded financial powers, the muscle power of the Brahmanical Saffron forces, the central judiciary and paramilitary forces. …

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The Dissenting and Defiant Citizen Is Indian of the Year / The Cost of Voicing Dissent

The Dissenting and Defiant Citizen Is Indian of the Year / The Cost of Voicing Dissent

The Dissenting and Defiant Citizen Is Indian of the Year

26/12/2020

The Wire / by Sidharth Bhatia

Whether at Shaheen Bagh or on the highways outside Delhi, Indians are standing up for dignity and rights for all.
In an environment where dissidence is considered an act of rebellion, even sedition, where people are thrown into jail for standing up for rights, and where even a cartoon or a joke can get the politicians riled up, some Indians have let it be known that they will not get cowed down. Especially when it comes to matters of dignity and livelihood.
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The cost of voicing dissent: UAPA against G.N. Saibaba, Gautam Navlakha, Father Stan Swamy and others

26/12/2020

Countercurrents / by Kunal Pant

… UAPA has been disproportionately targeted against minorities (Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis), activists, human rights defenders and political opponents… UAPA has been disproportionately targeted against minorities (Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis), activists, human rights defenders and political opponents… Cases in point are Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, and Rona Wilson – all Dalit activists – allegedly for being associated with the “Elgar Parishad.” (Bhima Koregaon).
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A Lookback At Arrests Made Under The UAPA

25/12/2020

Mumbai Live / by Mumbai Live Team

As 2020 nears towards the end, we look back at three of the arrests that have been made under the anti-terror law by the name Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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How Does an 83-Year-Old Jesuit End Up in Prison? / Video: In Conversation with Fr Stan Swamy

How Does an 83-Year-Old Jesuit End Up in Prison? / Video: In Conversation with Fr Stan Swamy

Solidarity poster & Crib in Mumbai

Christmas message: Where are we heading to?

25/12/2020

The Telegraph / by Fr J Felix Raj, SJ

It is now a global festival that has transcended the perimeters of religion and symbolises different sentiments – love, friendship, hope, benevolence, forgiveness and amity.
This Christmas, I remember my fellow Jesuit, Fr. Stan Swamy. December 25 is his 79th day in jail. I wonder how he is celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ at Taloja.
As a true Jesuit, I am confident that he is reaching out to the fellow prisoners and sharing with them the joy of the newborn divine Baby Jesus, and if the jail authorities do not ask him to appeal to the court for permission, he would distribute some sweets and wish them all a Feliz Navidad.
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How Does an 83-Year-Old Jesuit End Up in Prison?

24/12/2020

The New York Times / by Nikhil Kumar

Father Stan Swamy spent decades fighting for the rights of India’s marginalized people. In October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government imprisoned him under antiterrorism laws…
Before he was arrested in October under India’s antiterrorism laws, Father Swamy spent decades championing the welfare of the Indigenous tribespeople who account for around a quarter of the population in Jharkhand, one the country’s most resource-rich yet impoverished states.
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In Conversation with Father Stan Swamy

24/12/2020

Countercurrents / by Vidhya Bhusan Rawat

None would ever have imagined that an octogenarian Stan Swamy would face such a harsh treatment for his committed work for the Adivasis of Jharkhand. When the governments of the world over honor activists who work in tiring circumstances and devote their time to areas far away from their places than we must realise that it is not for money or fame but for pure committment and convictions. Father Stan Swamy was born in Trichy and as a Tamilian Christian he had enormous opportunities for him but he dedicated over thirty years of his life to the service of Adivasis in Jharkhand.
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Video: In Conversation with Father Stan Swamy

en | 34 min | 2017

This conversation was recorded about three years back at the Ranchi office of Father Stan Swamy when I visited Jharkhand. Hailing from Trichy district in Tamilnadu, Father worked tirelessly for the Adivasis in different parts of the country. He was also associated with Indian Social Institute, Banglore but his love was Jharkhand where he dedicated his entire life since 1990s.
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Prison life, a great leveller: Stan Swamy shares a poem from jail

Prison life, a great leveller: Stan Swamy shares a poem from jail

Sabrang India / by Sabrangindia

Jesuit Priest Father Stan Swamy (83) writes he’s pained to see so many young inmates in Taloja Jail, shares a christmas message of compassion.
Jesuit Priest Father Stan Swamy, the 83-year-old human rights defender, who is lodged in Taloja Jail, has written a short poem in his latest communication from jail. As he prepares to spend Christmas in jail, instead with his beloved tribal community and his colleagues back home in Ranchi, Swamy shares thoughts on equality, compassion, and even of oneness with nature, that is perhaps what most inmates hold on to as they await justice.
Read more / read poem

Joginder Ugrahan says ‘Naxal’ tag is only to divide farmers

Joginder Ugrahan says ‘Naxal’ tag is only to divide farmers

The Print / by Fatima Khan

Joginder Ugrahan, 75, has been stationed at Tikri border since 28 November. His union’s protest demanding activists’ release created a row, but he says his words will be his legacy.
… On 10 December, the union marked the international human rights’ day by holding up posters of activists and scholars who have been arrested under stringent laws such as the UAPA in the last few years – Sudha Bhardwaj, Varavara Rao, Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, among others.
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Varavara Rao in Prison: Maoists and Other Enemies of the Indian State

Varavara Rao in Prison: Maoists and Other Enemies of the Indian State

VERSO / by Aditya Bahl

Aditya Bahl protests against the continued imprisonment of the Marxist poet, Varavara Rao, and examines how the current cycle of rightwing repression is part of a much longer political history, shaped by the changing relationship between the Indian state and capitalism.
In Captive Imagination, a collection of essays written in the prison during the late 1980s, Varavara Rao, the Telugu poet and a leading Maoist ideologue in India, narrates a rather uncanny state of affairs.
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Rights award for jailed Stan Swam

Rights award for jailed Stan Swam

The Telegraph / by Animesh Bisoee

The award would be sent to the priest at Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai and the money to his organisation in Ranchi.
Father Stan Swamy, the 83-year-old jailed priest, has been selected for an award honouring the late Mukundan C. Menon, journalist and founder of the human rights organisation People’s Union for Civil Liberties.
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