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Swiss parliamentarians and trade unionists formed a solidarity committee for BK16

Swiss parliamentarians and trade unionists formed a solidarity committee for BK16

By SOLIFONDS

Parliamentarians and trade unionists establish solidarity committee for arrested human rights activists, lawyers, intellectuals and cultural workers in India

Press Release Nov 30, 2020
Swiss parliamentarians and trade unionists have formed a solidarity committee for political prisoners in India. With this they protest against the criminalization of human rights activists and government critics in India and demand their release. They also call on the Indian government to ensure that they are released, that irregularities in the proceedings against the arrested persons are investigated and that rights of the prisoners are fully guaranteed. The committee was initiated by the Solidarity organization SOLIFONDS, which has been in contact with the well-known arrested lawyer and trade unionist Sudha Bharadwaj for years. …

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Extreme Hindu nationalists smother dissent in India

Extreme Hindu nationalists smother dissent in India

New Frame / by Alf Gunvald Nilsen

The Indian poet Varavara Rao was arrested in 2018 and is still being detained. His treatment is symptomatic of how the right-wing government is waging war on opposition and minority voices.

“This life in jail is life crippled –
You can no longer
Apprehend your world
…
Here your mind is an injured eye
That flutters shut”

This is how Varavara Rao, an octogenarian poet, writer and radical activist from the state of Telangana in southeast India, described his experience of imprisonment during the second half of the 1980s, in the essay collection Captive Imagination.
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Remember detained human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj – secure her immediate release

Remember detained human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj – secure her immediate release

Tweets by American Bar Association – ABA Justice Defenders Program

#India: During the #16DaysOfActivism, we remember detained human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj. We urge authorities to secure her immediate release in the absence of clear evidence of criminal conduct. @NIA_India #FreeSudha #FreeBhimaKoregaon #16days #OrangeTheWorld
The @chr_aba report found that Ms. Bharadwaj has been subject to numerous fair trial violations, including prejudicial public statements by the police and lack of independent public witnesses. @UN_SPExperts @UNIndepJudges

Also read: The Preliminary Fair Trial Report: Bhima Koregaon (Oct 2019)


CIVICUS: This #16Days we continue the call for #India to free #WHRD Sudha Bharadwaj, an activist and human rights lawyer who has spent over 2 years in detention.

People’s organisations demand release of Bhima Koregaon case accused

People’s organisations demand release of Bhima Koregaon case accused

People’s organisations demand release of Bhima Koregaon case accused

29/11/2020

The Times of India / by Siva G

Andhra Pradesh: Various people’s organisations demanded the police to release the arrested people’s organisations leaders including adivasis, women, dalits and minorities unconditionally along with the 16 persons detained illegally in the Bhima Koregaon case.
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Tribal Rights Activist Among 67 Slapped With UAPA Over ‘Maoist Link’ Suspicion

29/11/2020

The Wire / by Gali Nagaraja

Driven to a frenzy over purported statements given by Maoist sympathisers, Andhra police have arrested several human rights activists from Andhra Pradesh and Haryana.
Hyderabad: Athram Suguna, a 38-year old school teacher of the Gond tribe from Telangana’s Fakrigutta in Adilabad district, has been caught in a cat-and-mouse game with no end in sight.
Suguna works as a school assistant in a zilla parishad high school at Utnoor. After a group of suspected Maoist sympathisers supposedly spilled the beans on a network of Maoists to the police, the latter have framed her in a case under the draconian and stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
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To Why Stan Swamy, 83, Couldn’t Get A Straw, Probe Agency’s 10-Point Reply

To Why Stan Swamy, 83, Couldn’t Get A Straw, Probe Agency’s 10-Point Reply

To Why Stan Swamy, 83, Couldn’t Get A Straw, Probe Agency’s 10-Point Reply

30/11/2020

NDTV / by Neeta Sharma

Father Stan Swamy, the 83-year-old tribal rights activist who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and was arrested last month over his alleged involvement in the Bhima-Koregaon case, couldn’t get a straw and sipper for around four weeks because the National Investigation Agency (NIA) didn’t have them, the agency has said.
In a 473-word news release divided into 10 points, the agency on Sunday said it never confiscated Mr Swamy’s straw and sipper during his arrest nearly two months ago. “NIA had conducted his personal search in presence of independent witnesses and no such straw and sipper were found,” it said.
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How the legal process played football with Parkinson’s patient Stan Swamy’s sipper & straw

30/11/2020

The Print / by Bhadra Sinha & Poojarsi Ganesan

A special NIA court has rejected Jesuit priest and Parkinson’s patient Stan Swamy’s request for a sipper & straw after giving probe agency 20 days to respond.
Is an inmate required to wait for a month to get basic articles, such as a sipper and straw for a Parkinson’s patient?
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Principles and norms laid down in the Constitution of India / Save Our Constitution

Principles and norms laid down in the Constitution of India / Save Our Constitution


Delhi, 2019

Is India governed by the principles and norms laid down in the Constitution of India

29/11/2020

The Leaflet / by Jacob Peenikaparambil

The Constitution of India was adopted more than two years after independence from British rule. It provided a common vision and set goals towards which both the government and people of India could strive as well as the foundational principles of governance of a nation.
Along with celebrations, this day is also for introspection for Indians. How far has the vision and goals of the constitution been realised? …
Dissent is demonised as anti-national by the government and the ruling party. The judiciary that is entrusted with the task of protecting the fundamental rights of the citizens is often shirking from its responsibilities.
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Save Our Constitution

29/11/2020

The Leaflet / by Cedric Prakash

In times when the Supreme Court is selectively granting relief for wide-scale violation of constitutional rights, it is important to save the constitution by saving the Article which embodied the heart and soul of the Constitution according to Dr Ambedkar i.e Art 32…
Fr Stan Swamy and fifteen others who are ‘allegedly’ involved in the Bhima-Koregaon conspiracy case are in jail- some of them languishing for more than two years now. Besides these, there are several others imprisoned under the UAPA, and were also charged and arrested on the archaic ‘sedition’ law and even on ‘contempt of court’.
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From sippers and sweaters to mail and mulaqats, how prisoners are being kept waiting for basics

From sippers and sweaters to mail and mulaqats, how prisoners are being kept waiting for basics

From sippers and sweaters to mail and mulaqats, how prisoners are being kept waiting for basics

29/11/2020

Times of India / Himanshi Dhawan

Letters from wife? Rejected. Sipper for Parkinson’s patient? Court hearing awaited. Warm clothes to deal with the capital’s chilly temperatures? Allowed but after a long wait.
Many a political prisoner in Maharashtra and Delhi has been struggling for access to basic necessities these last few month.
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Stan Swamy gets a sipper, finally

29/11/2020

Mumbai Mirror / by Shruti Ganapatye

The ‘inhumane’ treatment meted out to the 83-year-old Parkinson’s patient by the NIA and Taloja jail authorities had drawn a lot of flak from citizens.
Almost 50 days after his arrest, 83-year-old tribal rights activist Stan Swamy , who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, was provided a sipper by the Taloja Jail authorities.
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The Dangers of UAPA Were Sown in Earlier Preventive Detention Laws in India

The Dangers of UAPA Were Sown in Earlier Preventive Detention Laws in India

The Leaflet / by Mihir Desai

Preventive detention laws and anti-terrorism laws, that deviate from regular principles of criminal law, have a history of misuse. In his speech delivered at the KG Kannabiran Lecture 2020, Senior Advocate MIHIR DESAI argues that the time has come to sideline the dreadful UAPA due to the increased and ever more dangerous misuse of anti-terror laws. People are being arrested just for dissenting with the government and denied bail.
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Stan Swamy, 83, waits as the buck is passed on his sipper and straw

Stan Swamy, 83, waits as the buck is passed on his sipper and straw

The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak

The Maharashtra government and authorities in Mumbai’s Taloja central jail say Swamy, who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease, has been provided with all basic facilities, including a straw and sipper cup, since he was taken to the hospital ward within weeks of his arrival in prison.
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lawyers & well-wishers send straws & sippers for Stan Swamy / Video: Denied Sipper, Straw in Jail

lawyers & well-wishers send straws & sippers for Stan Swamy / Video: Denied Sipper, Straw in Jail

Lawyers Send Straws & Sippers To Mumbai’s Taloja Jail For 83-Year Old Stan Swamy

28/11/2020

Live Law / by Live Law News Network

After 83-year-old Father Stan Swamy moved the NIA Court seeking adequate facilities at the Taloja Jail as he is unable to drink water from glass due to medical reasons, a group of lawyers have sent straws and sippers for him. Stating that the authorities must ensure that the detention of persons at the jail must be ‘human’, the members of the Bar urged the Jail Superintendent of Taloja Jail to make arrangements for all inmates as per the jail manual who have special medical needs.
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Disability Rights Organisation To Send Sipper For Stan Swamy In Taloja Jail

28/11/2020

Outlook / by pti

NPRD also appeals all disability rights organisations, activists to join this campaign and send sippers to Swamy.
Tribal activist Stan Swamy’s painful wait for a sipper cannot be tolerated any longer, said a prominent disability rights organisation that is planning to send the drinking aid to the jailed octogenarian, who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
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Over 100 straws & sippers sent for Father Stan Swamy as outrage builds up over denial of assistive aids

27/11/2020

Newzhook / by Newshook

The plight of Father Stan Swamy continues to draw outrage among disability rights groups and ordinary citizens. Over 100 straws and sippers have been sent to the Taloja Jail where he is lodged in as well as the National Investigation Agency office. The 83-year-old activist has Parkinson’s disease, a condition recognised as disabling under RPWD Act 2016.
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#SippersForStan: Social media users launch campaign to send sippers to jailed activist Stan Swamy

27/11/2020

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The National Investigation Agency’s statement in court on Thursday that it would not be able to provide a sipper and straw to jailed activist Stan Swamy has prompted social media users around the country to take matters into their own hands and send these items to him themselves.
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Video: Denied Sipper, Straw in Jail. How Stan Swamy´s case is different from Arnab Goswami´s

27/11/2020


en | 53min | 2020

Mojo Story / by Barkha Dutt

A Special NIA Court in Mumbai denied 83-year old Stan Swamy, suffering from Parkinson’s, booked under the UAPA Act, of basic amenities like a straw and a sipper.
Watch video