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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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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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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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Release the Poet: NO BIAS! JUSTICE FOR ALL!

Release the Poet: NO BIAS! JUSTICE FOR ALL!

By Release the Poet Committee @ FB

Release the Poet Committee’s statement at Kolkata Press Club on 23rd Nov
“…If we look upon the flood of tweets and whatsapp texts, memes and mimics denouncing the highest seat of judiciary – the Supreme Court – in the last few months, we could clearly see that it was unprecedented in the history of India! People are openly getting judgmental and bitterly critical about the so called “temple of justice” discounting the risk that is ‘contempt of court’. The state should lend an ear to this alarm, which is, ACTUALLY, directed to them. …

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UAPA and the growing crisis of judicial credibility in India

UAPA and the growing crisis of judicial credibility in India

Observer Research Foundation / by Niranjan Sahoo & Jibran Khan

The Democracy Report 2020 by V-Dem Institute created quite a storm recently in India’s policy circles. The report claimed that the world’s largest democracy is on the verge of losing its status as a democracy. Noting India’s rapid slide into an autocracy, the Sweden-based report, which produces the most comprehensive analyses on the health of democracy across the world, cited trends of dramatic erosion of basic civil liberties, particularly media freedom and suppression of the freedoms of free speech and dissent as the key reasons for this major dip…
The last two years, in particular, have witnessed a sharp rise in the arrests of several prominent human rights defenders, civil society leaders, agitating leaders and even protesting students under the UAPA and sedition laws, including Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Varavara Rao, Anand Teltumde, Gautam Navlakha, and Arun Ferreira.
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A List of Activists, Scholars and Scribes Whose Personal Liberty Remains at Judiciary’s Mercy

A List of Activists, Scholars and Scribes Whose Personal Liberty Remains at Judiciary’s Mercy

A List of Activists, Scholars and Scribes Whose Personal Liberty Remains at Judiciary’s Mercy

13/11/2020

The Wire / by Ismat Ara and Sukanya Shantha

On September 7, following sustained interrogation at the National Investigation Agency’s office in Mumbai, two activists of the Kabir Kala Manch – Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor – were arrested for alleged connections to the 2018 Elgar Parishad case. Days later, another young cultural activist of the group, Jyoti Jagtap, was arrested too…
The Wire has put together a list of cases where activists and journalists arrested in the past years have struggled either in securing regular hearings, or in having their basic human rights protected, or both. Their situations put the Supreme Court’s assertion on “personal liberty” during Goswami’s bail hearing in harsh perspective.
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Stan Swamy vs Arnab Goswami: Are activists fighting a losing battle? Whither justice?

14/11/2020

Counterview / by Fr Sunil Macwan SJ

It is time one raised pertinent questions over the courts denying bail to Fr Stan Swamy, who was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), and granting it to Arnab Goswami, editor-in-chief of the Republic TV, arrested under the charge of abetting suicide of Avay Naik, who ended his life in 2018. It is travesty of justice that a human rights activist is not only denied bail but is also made to wait for weeks to hear a response to his legitimate request for a straw to drink water, while Arnab Goswami walks free.
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Law and the Subversion of Justice in India

Law and the Subversion of Justice in India

Institute of Postcolonial Studies / by Yug Mohit Chaudhry

While purporting to investigate the Hindutva-fuelled riots of 1st January 2018 following the Elgaar Parishad commemoration of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon, an iconic event in Dalit historiography, the state has imprisoned some highly respected intellectuals, scholars and social activists…
Many of these sixteen are role models and heroes of our times: they have sacrificed themselves for the weak and the poor, deepened democracy, and given dignity and meaning to those surviving on the margins of existence ignored by successive governments. If at all they erred, it was in excess of love for those they served.
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2 years, 3 charge sheets & 16 arrests — Why Bhima Koregaon accused are still in jail

2 years, 3 charge sheets & 16 arrests — Why Bhima Koregaon accused are still in jail

The Print / by Apoorva Mandhani

Since 2018, stringent UAPA rules, SC’s Zahoor Watali order, NIA takeover and allegedly ‘inadmissible’ evidence has made sure that all accused remain in custody.
On 31 December 2017, a group of activists, political leaders and even retired judges came together at Shaniwar Wada in Pune.
Called the Elgar Parishad (Congress for Speaking Aloud), the organisers of this event included former Supreme Court judge, Justice P.B. Sawant, and former Bombay High Court judge, Justice B.G. Kolse-Patil. The event saw songs, street plays and speeches on various issues, including Dalit rights and criticism of the Narendra Modi government. 
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