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Revamped Shakti Bhatt prize honours activists Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha

Revamped Shakti Bhatt prize honours activists Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha

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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Free Varavara Rao – Release All Political Prisoners

Free Varavara Rao – Release All Political Prisoners

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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Cards and letters for jailed India scholar Anand Teltumbde as he turns 70 / Zoom talk 7pm

Cards and letters for jailed India scholar Anand Teltumbde as he turns 70 / Zoom talk 7pm


Dalit artist Siddhesh Gautam’s drawing of Prof Teltumbde in jail

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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‘YOUR IDEAS HAVE SPREAD LIKE WILDFIRE’: A LETTER TO DR ANAND TELTUMBDE ON HIS BIRTHDAY

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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Upcoming

@surajyengde & @meenakandasamy talk about Anand Teltumbde´s work, its significance, why is he being targeted?
July 15, 2020
7pm IST

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Alarming Reports of Attacks on Human Rights Defenders in India: UN

Alarming Reports of Attacks on Human Rights Defenders in India: UN

UN / By Mary Lawlor United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders

I continue to receive alarming and regular news about Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) in India. The 79 year-old jailed Human Rights Defender Varavara Rao appears to have serious health concerns. He’s held in the overcrowded Taloja Prison in Mumbai.
We know that HRDs are at great risk in prisons, which are breeding grounds for the virus. His health is frail, and like all HRDs in jail he should be immeditaley released.
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Sign petition: Ensure Immediate Health Care & Release Vara Vara Rao Now

Sign petition: Ensure Immediate Health Care & Release Vara Vara Rao Now

+++ Udpate: VV Rao has been moved to the JJ Hospital in Mumbai +++

By Citizens In Solidarity with Vara Vara Rao

Do sign this open appeal to @PMOIndia & @CMOMaharashtra to #FreeVaravaraRao & ensure proper medical treatment. Click on link below to sign. Add ur name, organizational/professional affiliation and city/location.
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Immediate Transfer to a Hospital and Prompt Treatment for Varvara Rao

Immediate Transfer to a Hospital and Prompt Treatment for Varvara Rao

+++ Udpate June 13: VV Rao has been moved to the JJ Hospital in Mumbai +++

Counter Currents / statement by Romila Thapar, Prabhat Patnaik, Devaki Jain, Maja Daruwala & Satish Deshpande

We appeal to the Government of Maharashtra and the National Investigation Agency to facilitate the immediate transfer of Mr. Varavara Rao to JJ Hospital where he can receive proper treatment. Mr Rao poses no flight risk and has voluntarily submitted to all investigations for the past 22 months. There is no reason in law or conscience to hold him in circumstances that increase risk to his fragile health.
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Sign petition: Justice for the BK11 undertrials

Sign petition: Justice for the BK11 undertrials

By Counterview

This is the background note for signatures sought by July 15 10:00 p.m. for an online petition to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

The Hon. Chief Minister of Maharashtra
Mantralaya, Mumbai
Respected Chief Minister,
We, the citizens of a democratic republic appeal to you regarding the eleven persons- Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Varavara Rao, Mahesh Raut and Rona Wilson accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.
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BACKGROUND NOTE: INDIA’S 11 ACTIVISTS FACE ‘MALAFIDE’ INTENTIONS, POLITICAL VENDETTA, EXTRANEOUS CONSIDERATION

The Constitution of India, Article 21, guarantees protection of life and personal liberty to every individual. Yet, the rights of activists and lawyers incarcerated under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) since 2018 in Maharashtra jails are at grave risk due to the delay and dragging of cases since the last 24 months.
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Socialist Party (India) Demands the Immediate Release of Varavara Rao

Socialist Party (India) Demands the Immediate Release of Varavara Rao

By Socialist Party (India)

… Mr Rao is now 80 years old. He recently developed major health complications because of which he has had to be hospitalised. His continued imprisonment under such circumstances, as well as in the face of the risk posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, is unacceptable. Socialist Party (India) demands that Varavara Rao be released and all charges against him dropped immediately.
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