Article 14 / by Abhinav Sekhri
Varavara Rao. Sudha Bharadwaj. Devangana Kalita. SafooraZargar. Scores of activists and students, all labelled criminals, all charged under a law whose legal processes ensure that proof of their innocence or guilt is rendered irrelevant.
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The Indian Express / by Lifestyle Desk
Starting this year, the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize now known as the Shakti Bhatt Prize, will honour an author’s body of work rather than their first book, as was hitherto practiced. This year’s honours go to Anand Teltumbde, scholar, activist and writer of Khairlanji: A Strange and Bitter Crop and Republic of Caste along with Gautam Navlakha, an activist, journalist and writer of Days and Nights in the Heartland of Rebellion.
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Boston Review / by Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla
On Saturday, I checked my phone and saw that we’d heard from my uncle, currently a political prisoner in India. “I’m alright,” he said. But he wasn’t alright. His voice was weak and feeble, and his words, disjointed, slipped into Hindi instead of his beloved Telugu. For over six decades, Varavara Rao, the revolutionary poet, captivated generations with his critical poetry and prose. That he was anything less than articulate, let alone incoherent, was a gut punch. The goal of Narendra Modi’s administration has been to silence those like my uncle. Had they succeeded?
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By Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation
… what Varavara Rao and other political prisoners need is more than basic humanitarian care. They need justice.
They have been imprisoned on the ridiculous charge of “conspiring to kill the Prime Minister.” The only evidence against them is their attempts to build an anti-fascist movement in India. Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, Anand Teltumbde, Shoma Sen, Sudha Bharadwaj, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudhir Dhawale and Rona Wilson are not “conspirators”. Each of them has worn their politics on their sleeves, speaking, writing, and working for the rights and assertion of the oppressed in India.
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BBC / by BBC
Prominent Indian scholar and human rights defender Anand Teltumbde has turned 70 in a Mumbai prison amid growing calls for his release, writes the BBC’s Geeta Pandey in Delhi.
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The Wire / by Suraj Yengde, Balmurli Natrajan, Meena Kandasamy, Sangeeta Kamat and Biju Mathew
The din of darkness sprawls, the night sky devours and us – those who love you yearn for the patient past to be with us and skip the present. There is a silence in the lover’s island while the canon of flames has died in a fascist land.
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@surajyengde & @meenakandasamy talk about Anand Teltumbde´s work, its significance, why is he being targeted?
July 15, 2020
7pm IST
The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak
The NIA, probing the case, can now file a chargesheet against the two men in 180 days since their arrest on April 14.
Observing that due to the lockdown, the investigating officer in the Elgaar Parishad case could not “investigate the matter effectively”, a special court has extended the detention of academic Dr Anand Teltumbde and activist Gautam Navlakha by another 90 days. The NIA, probing the case, can now file a chargesheet against the two men in 180 days since their arrest on April 14.
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The Times of India / by Sagarika Ghose
… Today, as a result of mass celebration of rough and ready justice by police bullets on the streets, the notion of human rights has been gravely undermined, constricted and even mocked. So called ‘human rights wallahs’ are subject to shrill public vilification, lampooned, called ‘anti-nationals’ and repeatedly denounced by jingoist media.
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Edex / by Johanna Deeksha
Ten months ago, the professor’s house was searched by the Maharashtra police and he lost a lot of his academic work, books and research material. It’s trauma that he is simply not past yet.
Two days ago, Delhi University professor Hany Babu was visited at his house by two men who said they were from the local office of the National Investigation Agency. They served him a notice and asked him to appear on July 15 at the NIA’s Mumbai office.
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The Leaflet / by Indira Jaising
The Supreme Court of India has repeatedly held that imprisonment does not deprive a prisoner of other fundamental rights that can be exercised consistently with detention. This logic should apply with more force to undertrials and doubly during a pandemic.
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The Leaflet / by Megha Katheria
From the senior activists and lawyers to younger activists like Safoora Zargar, the state has walked at turtle space in granting bail or even protecting the health of the political prisoners during a pandemic. The state of our prisons and the necessity to decongest them is well known. The author explores the democratic and constitutional implications on keeping political prisoners, with comorbidities, locked during a pandemic.
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By Young Poets of the Nation
We call upon young fellow poets to stand up for Varavara Rao because of who we are able to stretch the reach of our imagination and ideas and write poetry.
#FreeVaravaraRao
