The Leaflet / by Nihalsing B Rathod
Lawyers who defended activists in the Bhima Koregaon case risked being branded anti-national, but they believed that they were innocent and it was necessary to uphold the rule of law and constitutional values, says Nihalsing B Rathod.
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BBC News / by Geeta Pandey
Life in prison is expected to be tough.
But in recent weeks, jail authorities in India have been called out for being especially cruel to prisoners, particularly the government’s critics who are described as “human rights defenders” by international rights groups.
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22/12/2020
Hindustan Times / by K A Y Dodhiya
The Bombay high court (HC) has directed the state government and National Investigation Agency (NIA) to let Telugu poet and accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case, P Varavara Rao stay in Nanavati Hospital till the next hearing on January 7, 2021.
The court, while taking note of the 82-year-old’s current health status asked the hospital to submit the latest health report before the next hearing, and also announced that it would hear the pleas on the next date of hearing as the same was pending for some time now.
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21/12/2020
The Leaflet / by The Leaflet
The Bombay High Court Monday directed the Nanavati hospital to submit a fresh report to the Court indicating the health status of Dr. PV Varavara Rao, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.
A division bench of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik also ordered Dr. Rao’s continued treatment at Nanavati hospital till the next date of hearing i.e. January 7, 2021.
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21/12/2020
Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
The Bombay High Court on Monday extended Telugu poet and activist Varavara Rao’s stay at Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai till January 7, 2021, reported Bar and Bench. Rao, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, has been at the private medical facility since mid-November.
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VERSO / by Aditya Bahl
Aditya Bahl protests against the continued imprisonment of the Marxist poet, Varavara Rao, and examines how the current cycle of rightwing repression is part of a much longer political history, shaped by the changing relationship between the Indian state and capitalism.
In Captive Imagination, a collection of essays written in the prison during the late 1980s, Varavara Rao, the Telugu poet and a leading Maoist ideologue in India, narrates a rather uncanny state of affairs.
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16/12/2020
Prisoned Peoples’ Poet Varavara Rao is doing far better now. Hospital care, nursing, regular check-ups, medication have helped a lot. Meeting his own people everyday, even if for an hour a day, reading Telugu after two years added strength. Still physical weakness persists; post-covid issues are there. Sending back to jail might aggravate this again.
We have to see what happens on Dec 21 court hearing…
16/12/2020
India Today / by Vidya
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has told the Bombay High Court that jailed activist Varavara Rao is fit enough to be sent back to jail. Varavara Rao was moved to a hospital over his ailing health.
During the hearing, Varavara Rao’s lawyers sought bail for him… While trying to emphasise that granting bail to Varavara Rao would not mean that he would run away from the trial, Anand Grover said, “He has been tried for 24 cases in his lifetime which is not a joke for anyone and he has been acquitted in all of them. He has been chargesheeted and acquitted. He never absconded and has stood trial and he will stand trial here as well and that should be considered while granting him bail.”
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15/12/2020
The Indian Express / by Express News Service
Varavara Rao, who is lodged at Taloja Central Jail, was shifted to the private hospital following a court order on November 18.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday allowed Telugu writer-poet Varavara Rao, arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Elgaar Parishad case, to remain at Nanavati hospital in Mumbai till the next hearing on December 21.
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15/12/2020
Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
During the hearing, Rao’s counsels pleaded that he be permitted to go back to his home in Hyderabad for treatment.
The National Investigation Agency on Tuesday told the Bombay High Court that Telugu poet and activist Varavara Rao, accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, was “fit enough” to be shifted back to the Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai from a private hospital where he is currently admitted, PTI reported.
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Bloomberg Quint / by Priya Ramani
Varavara Rao is writing poems again. This news, from his nephew N Venugopal is shared with joy. After months of teetering precariously between life and death in Mumbai’s Taloja jail, delirious, bedridden, with an unchanged catheter, and no trained attendants, the Bombay High Court, on Nov. 18, ordered immediate medical attention for Rao, one of the country’s most prolific public intellectuals. The court also okayed family visits.
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Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
A bench of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik also said that the poet’s family can continue to see him at the hospital.
The Bombay High Court on Thursday said that the condition of activist Varavara Rao has improved, but he will continue to remain at Mumbai’s Nanavati Hospital till December 14, reported PTI.
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en | 13:04min | 2020
Newslaundry / by Newslaundry Team
You may lately have come across stories of activists and journalists being charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, or UAPA. The UAPA is an anti-terrorism law which has been used against activists associated with the Bhima-Koregaon movement, the citizenship law protesters, and even a journalist on his way to cover the Hathras rape and murder…
Meghnad S takes you through the history of the UAPA, its evolution from an anti-secession legislation to being an anti-terrorism law, and how it has been misused by successive governments.
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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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The Wire / by The Wire Staff
The SAR urged authorities to repeal the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act “to ensure compliance with obligations under its constitution and international human rights law”.
Scholars at Risk (SAR), an international network of higher education institutions that aims to defend academic freedom, in its Free to Think 2020 report, has called on authorities in India to “ensure the autonomy and functioning of higher education institutions”… In India, the Free to Think 2020 report, the arrest of activists, including students and scholars, amidst nationwide lockdowns raised concerns that the government was “taking advantage of the crisis in order to crack down on dissent”.
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