Times of India / by Shishir Arya
Nagpur: Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary D Raja unleashed an attack on the Centre over its handling of the Elgar Parishad case. “How long would professors and intellectuals be kept behind bars?“
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Also read:
● Release all innocent persons arrested in Bhima Koregaon case, says CPI (The Hindu / Feb 2021)
Free Press Journal / by Anushka Jagtiani
The lawyer and activist talks about her time in prison and From Phansi Yard, her currently released book
Sudha Bharadwaj chose to surrender her US passport and dedicate her life to fighting the battles of exploited labourers in Chhatisgarh. Her activism led to her arrest in 2018 in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case along with 15 others, and she spent three years in jail — in Pune and Mumbai. She is currently out on bail and therefore cannot comment on the case as an under trial.
She speaks about her time in jail, the unlikely friendships she made, and how she became ‘vakeel aunty’ to many poor inmates and even helped get some out on bail.
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Author: Sudha Bhardwaj
Publisher: Juggernaut
Pages: 216
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Publisher: Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)
Edition: January 2021
Language: English
Sudha Bharadwaj’s interview by: Darshana Mitra and Santanu Chakraborty
Paperback: 316 pages
Access a free PDF copy of the book here:
Sudha_Bharadwaj_speaks (2,1 MB)
30/11/2023
The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala
In a departure from what has become an unfortunate practice of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in bail matters, of seeking long adjournments from courts for various reasons, as soon as the Bench expressed an inclination to grant Shoma Sen medical bail, NIA counsel Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj said he is ready to argue the matter of the regular bail as soon as next Tuesday.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court allowed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to argue against the regular bail plea filed by women’s rights activist and academic Shoma Sen on Wednesday, December 6.
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28/11/2023
The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala
In what has become an unfortunate repetition, a division Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose and Augustine George Masih today adjourned the hearing of the bail plea by Shoma Sen once more.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court adjourned the hearing of the bail plea filed by women rights activist and academic Shoma Sen once again.
A division Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose and Augustine George Masih allowed the adjournment sought by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
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Also read:
● Since Evidence Tampering Not Ruled Out, Shoma Sen and Rona Wilson Want Chargesheets Quashed (The Wire / Oct 2023)
● “Hopefully waiting” writes Shoma Sen from prison (InSAF India / Jul 2023)
● Shoma Sen moves Supreme Court seeking bail (The Leaflet / April 2023)
WBUR / Deepa Fernandes speaks with Suchitra Vijayan
Host Deepa Fernandes speaks with Suchitra Vijayan, co-author of the new book “How Long Can the Moon be Caged?,” which documents how people who speak in favor of Muslims and minority communities have increasingly been arrested and imprisoned by the Indian government.
Podcast
en | 9:45min | 2023
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Book excerpt: ‘How Long Can the Moon be Caged?’
By Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia
A Dalit activist we spoke to said that most people do not encounter the state the way Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims do. She told us: ‘The state has always had a boot on our necks.’ Forget living; imagine what it takes to survive this. The boot is always pressed against minorities’ necks, making it hard to breathe, demanding that they beg for dignity every day. She added: ‘[For us] it doesn’t matter who is in power; oppression is the only thing that hasn’t changed’.
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Also read/watch:
● Kabir Kala Manch: A History of Revolutionary Singing and State Repression (ritimo / April 2022)
● Video: Dafachya Talavar (Songs of Defiance) – A short documentary on Kabir Kala Manch | Hindi, Marthi (subtitles: English) | 24:01min | 2022
The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala
Senior advocate Anand Grover, appearing for Gadling, stated that evidence recovered from Gadling in the Bhima Koregaon case is being repurposed for use in the Gadchiroli arson case.
Wednesday, the Supreme Court allowed the Maharashtra government time to file a counter-affidavit in the bail plea by human rights lawyer and Dalit rights activist Surendra Gadling.
… The Bench directed the state government to file a counter-affidavit within one week and posted the matter for hearing in two weeks.
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Also read:
● Does opposing mines & protecting our forests mean we support “Maoists”, Adivasis protest mining in Gadchiroli (Sabrangindia / Nov 2023)
● Supreme Court issues notice in bail plea of Surendra Gadling (The Leaflet / Oct 2023)
● Surendra Gadling’s Computer Was Attacked, Incriminating Documents Planted: Arsenal Consulting (The Wire / July 2021)
● Now Gadchiroli Police takes custody of Surendra Gadling, P Varavara Rao, prompting senior lawyers to say this is ‘ever-greening of charges’ (The Leaflet / Jan 2019)
The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala
On October 23, the Bombay High Court had allowed Rao to travel to Hyderabad for surgery in his right eye. The high court had directed Rao to approach the National Investigation Agency court for surgery for the other eye, after returning to Mumbai following the first surgery.
Today, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court of special judge Rajesh Kataria allowed activist, writer and teacher and poet Dr P. Varavara Rao to travel to Hyderabad to undergo cataract surgery on his left eye.
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● Bombay HC allows Varavara Rao to undergo cataract surgery in Hyderabad (The Indian Express / Oct 2023)
● Supreme Court grants permanent medical bail to P. Varavara Rao in Bhima Koregaon case (The Leaflet / Aug 2022)
● Varavara Rao granted six-month bail on medical grounds (The Leaflet / Feb 2021)
Deccan Herald / by Jyoti Punwani
Maharashtra, under Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis, is set to have a new ‘public security’ law where even peaceful expressions of dissent will be targeted.
… ‘Urban Naxals’ has been a favourite bogey of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre, and was used as a label against the Leftist intellectuals arrested for the January 1, 2018 violence at Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra.
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Also read:
● ‘Urban Naxal’ is a label to terrorise intellectuals: Prabhat Patnaik (The Telegraph / Feb 2023)
● Maharashtra: Activists, Lawyers Added to ‘Union War Book’, Listed as ‘Enemies of the State’ (The Wire / Jul 2021)
● From ‘tukde tukde gang’ to ‘urban Naxal’: How media trials enable the government to stifle dissent (Scroll.in / Sep 2018)
The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanawala
Senior advocate Anand Grover, appearing on behalf of Shoma Sen, emphasised that Sen has been lodged in jail for five and a half years without trial and the bail hearing before the Supreme Court has been pending for five and a half months.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court adjourned the hearing of the bail plea filed by women rights activist and academic Shoma Sen.
Read more
Also read:
● Since Evidence Tampering Not Ruled Out, Shoma Sen and Rona Wilson Want Chargesheets Quashed (The Wire / Oct 2023)
● “Hopefully waiting” writes Shoma Sen from prison (InSAF India / Jul 2023)
● Shoma Sen moves Supreme Court seeking bail (The Leaflet / April 2023)
16/11/2023
Times of India / by Rebecca Samervel
Even as an accused in the 2018 Elgar Parishad case sought continuation of his psychiatric treatment, saying he was suffering from depression and and excessive worry for two years, a special court said that considering the treatment papers received from the chief medical officer of Taloja prison and answers given by him the judge’s interaction, prima facie, there is no reason to believe that he has any sort of “unsoundness of mind” or mental illness.
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15/11/2023
The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak
The court directed jail authorities at Taloja Central Prison to submit his medical records. Referring to the reports, the court said that while the accused was referred to JJ Hospital and was on medication for depression and referred for counselling, the psychiatrist in October had advised that the medicines be stopped.
An accused in the Elgaar Parishad case told the court, on November 8, that although he has been suffering from depression for the past two years, the medicines prescribed to him have been discontinued from last month.
Read more
Also read:
● NIA court directs prison authorities to provide Sagar Gorkhe treatment at J.J. Hospital (The Leaflet / Nov 2023)
● Securing the right to health of political prisoners (The Leaflet / Oct 2022)
● Relatives of BK16 Flag Prison Authorities’ ‘Criminal Negligence’ and Deteriorating Health of Undertrials (Newsclick / Sep 2022)
● Hunger Strike unto death against the harassment from Taloja Central Jail’s apathetic administration (By Sagar Gorkhe / May 20, 2022)
11/11/2023
Scroll.in / by Ila Manish
These poems seek to bring a truth to light, they are unafraid to challenge, to confront, to hope.
Meena Kandasamy introduces the poet-subject of Varavara Rao: A Life in Poetry with the epithet “India’s most-incarcerated poet”. She has co-edited the new collection published by Vintage Books with Telugu journalist, N Venugopal. The translations contained within speak volumes about the life of the man who wrote them. Each poem spurs the reader into restlessness, and takes them back into the contexts in which Rao was writing. And the contexts are many – as the helpful yet unobtrusive annotations that the editors have provided will tell you.
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12/11/2023
Counterview / by Harsh Thakor
Varavara Rao was born in 1940 and became an established poet in his early teens. At the age of 17 years, he was published in the journal called “Telugu Swatantrata”, which gave him status as a modern poet. At 18, he wrote ‘Don’t Fear, Dawn Will Break’ which was considered one of his best poems. At 26, he started a journal called “Modern Literature in Telugu”. His first poetry collection came out in 1968. Since then, around 17 volumes of poetry have come out.
He is considered the leading twentieth-century poet of Telugu, spoken by approximately ninety-six million people.
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Also read/watch:
● Tomorrow there won’t be any classes’: Activist Varavara Rao’s poems get an English translation (Scroll.in / by Varavara Rao, N Venugopal & Rohith / Jul 2023)
By VIRASAM
Book Launch || Live Laamakan || 13-07-23 || VIRASAM
en / telugu | 2:16:35 | 2023
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