Countercurrents / by Dr Ajay S Sekher
We are going through one of the most dismal times in the history of post-independence India. Anyone who resists, anyone who speaks for the greater common good, for truth and justice, is getting hounded. Hate campaigns are unleashed against them or they are implicated under fabricated charges and thrown into prison.
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Feminism India / by Shivani Chunekar
A transcript of an interview (originally in Marathi) of Suvarna Salve.
… What are the qualities of the artists that inspire you?
Suvarna Salve: Activists like Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor, even Sudhir Dhawale have contributed immensely to the Ambedkarite movement. I always wondered how someone could be this dedicated to a cause, leaving behind their personal life and dedicating their entire lives to the movement. This dedication and immense persistence inspires me and has a place in my heart.
I have worked with Sudhir Dhawale for four years after his initial release and I have seen myself grow during the time I worked with him. I consider myself much more politically developed and mature now than I used to be before I worked with him…
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Scroll.in / by Arundhati Roy
As Diwali approaches and Hindus prepare to celebrate the triumphant return of Lord Ram to his Kingdom (and the spanking new temple that is being built for him in Ayodhya), the rest of us must be content to celebrate this season of serial triumphs for Indian Democracy…
The real purpose of the absurd police-manufactured 2020 Delhi conspiracy, and equally absurd 2018 Bhima-Koregaon conspiracy (the absurdity is part of the threat and the humiliation) is to imprison and pin down activists, students, lawyers, writers, poets, professors, trade-unionists and noncompliant NGOs.
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Press Note by Friends and Family of Sudha Bharadwaj
Friends and family members of Sudha Bharadwaj disappointed
no relief was granted by Hon’ble Supreme Court on medical grounds
The hearing of Sudha Bharadwaj’s Special Leave Petition for medical bail in the Supreme Court on Thursday did not yield any relief for her, giving a big jolt to the immense faith vested by Bharadwaj’s friends and family members in the Apex Court’s humanitarian rationale.
Although the Apex Court advised filing a regular bail as this was a ‘good case on merits’, by denying medical bail to 58-year-old Sudha Bharadwaj, the Hon’ble Court is risking the possibility of Covid 19, given Bharadwaj’s serious comorbidities. …
Statement by Progressive International
Members of the PI Council ring the alarm on arbitrary arrests and the breakdown of justice in India.
The conduct of the Indian Government is unacceptable in the international framework for the protection of human rights and runs counter to the Indian Constitutional framework.
The members of Progressive International call upon the Indian government to immediately stop persecuting non-violent protestors wrongly accused and booked by the police.
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WORLDCRUNCH / BY Laure Gautherin and Anne-Sophie Goninet
From Rosa Parks and Malala Yousafzai to Golda Meir and Corazon Aquino, women activists and political leaders have led the fight for gender equality and human rights around the world over the past century …
Sudha Bharadwaj (India): Law was not this mathematics student’s first love, but after seeing the working conditions of certain minorities in India, Sudha Bharadwaj’s pursuit of justice, as described by an editor of The Wire, led her to obtain a late law degree.
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By CIVICUS
The Indian government is using a variety of restrictive laws – including national security and counter terrorism legislation – to arrest and imprison human rights defenders, peaceful protesters and critics, global civil society alliance CIVICUS said today in a new report.
The report covers:
– The judicial harassment of activists, targeting of journalists and crackdown on protesters;
– How rights violations have continued during President Modi’s second term and throughout the pandemic;
– Calls for the immediate release of arbitrarily detained activists, protesters and human rights defenders.
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By IndustriALL
Calling for the release of sister Sudha Bharadwaj, leader of Industriall Global Union affiliate Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh Union
Geneva, 28 August 2020
Honourable President,
I am writing to you on behalf of IndustriALL Global Union,, which represents more than 50 million workers in the mining, energy and manufacturing sectors in 140 countries, including in India to call upon you to release our colleague and union activist, leader of Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh union affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union, who is kept in prison based on arbitrary and unclear accusations for already two years in India.
The Caravan / by Culture Workers Trust
The Culture Workers’ Support Trust (CWST) condemns the harassment of members of the creative community.
Statement Against State Repression of Culture Workers:
In Solidarity with Rahul Roy, Saba Dewan, Kabir Kala Manch, and Art Students facing harassment and false charges by the state, who are being targeted for exercising their democratic right to raise their voice against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, the National Register of Citizens, the National Population Register and state-sponsored brutality during the anti-CAA protests.
Read more / Full statement
By Human Rights Watch
(New York) The Indian authorities are increasingly bringing politically motivated cases, including under severe sedition and terrorism laws, against critics of the government, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should immediately drop baseless charges against activists, academics, student leaders, and others, and unconditionally release those in custody.
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Counteverview / by Counterview Desk/ Campaign Against State Repression (CASR)
In a statement, CASR said, “Following the model of the Bhima Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad case, the Delhi Police appears to be determined to target those who have spoken out against the communal discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Registry of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) instead of those who incited the violence in North East Delhi leading to the death of over 50 persons, injuries to several hundred, loss of livelihood and displacement of thousands, particularly Muslim residents of the area.”
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Economic Times / by T K Arun
… In the cases registered by the Delhi police, the focus is solely on those who protested against CAA. BJP leaders who held rallies, threatening to take the law into their own hands if the anti-CAA protests were not lifted, are off the police radar.
This playbook looks as if it has been copied from the police action in the wake of the Bhima-Koregaon violence, which saw a Dalit activist killed and several injured during an attack on Dalit celebration of the 200 th anniversary of the victory of Mahar troops of the British East India Company over the Peshwa’s army, ending Peshwa rule once and for all.
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