Mumbai Mirror / by Abhishek Sharan
Decision comes after three labs in the country failed to get anything from the damaged disk.
The Pune police will take forensic help from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to retrieve data from a damaged hard disk seized last August from an accused in the January 2018 Elgar Parishad case, sources said on Wednesday.
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Nov 2019
“When the victory drum started
beating
In the heart of the masses
You mistook it for a person and
trained your guns
Revolution echoed from all
horizons.”
Being thrown into jail is nothing new to the famous Telugu poet Varavara Rao. He has faced at least 25 cases in the last 45 years. His story can be understood through the history of these arrests and the power of his writings, his poetry, his teaching career and his political understandings and analysis of power and oppression, and the path to liberation.
Varavara Rao, or VV was born into a middle class family in Chinna Pendyala, Warangal District, Andhra Pradesh in 1940. He started publishing his poetry at age 17, in 1957, but got interested in revolutionary theory while working as a lecturer at Mahabubnagar. It was during this time that he founded a literature and poetry group called Sahithee Mithrulu and a non-political journal named Srujana to eventually join the Tirugubadu Kavulu (Rebel Poets), who were sympathetic to the armed struggle going on in Srikakulam.
During this time, VV founded the Virasam or Viplava Rachayitala Sangham (Revolutionary Writers’ Association), an association banned by the Andhra Pradesh government in August 2005. The ban was later struck down by the AP High Court in November 2005.
VV, now 74, has published 15 poetry collections of his own, besides having edited a number of anthologies. His poetry has been translated into almost all Indian languages and have appeared in Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and Bengali. His thesis on ‘Telangana Liberation Struggle and Telugu Novel – A Study into Interconnection between Society and Literature’ published in 1983 is considered to be one of the finest works of Marxist critical studies done in Telugu. While in prison he translated Kenyan writer, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s prison diary ‘Detained’ and his novel ‘Devil on the Cross’ into Telugu. He also wrote his own prison diary Sahacharulu (1990), which was translated into English as Captive Imagination.
VV was first arrested under the infamous Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) in Andhra Pradesh, in 1973. He was then arrested during Emergency and was re-arrested at the entrance of the jail and kept imprisoned for an additional week when the Emergency was lifted. He survived many attempts on his life post-Emergency.
He was among the 46 accused of conspiring to overthrow the Andhra Pradesh government in the Secunderabad conspiracy case, and was sent to jail once again in 1985. He was also an accused in the Ramnagar conspiracy case where he was accused to have attended a meeting where the plan to kill two Andhra Pradesh Police constables was hatched. He was finally acquitted of the charges after 17 years, in 2003.
He remains a staunch opposer of neo-liberal globalisation and specifically the globalisation policies adopted by Chandrababu Naidu’s government in the ’90s. He went as an emissary for the People’s War Group in the peace negotiations between the Andhra Pradesh government and Naxalites. After multiple rounds of the talks failed, Virasam was banned only to be reinstated later. Following the banning, Rao was arrested once again in 2005 and was released in 2006. He has been arrested four-times since the formation of the new Telangana state in 2014.
VV has faced at least nine cases under the Arms Act of 1959 and the Explosive Substances Act, 1908 over the last four decades. In perhaps the most ridiculous case, he was charged with distributing bombs to ensure the success of a strike against the custodial death of a Radical Students Union activist in 1985. In response, Varavara Rao wrote a memorable poem, titled :
Reflection
I did not supply the explosives
Nor ideas for that matter
It was you who trod with iron heels
Upon the anthill
And from the trampled earth
Sprouted the ideas of vengeance
It was you who struck the beehive
With your lathi
The sound of the scattering bees
Exploded in your shaken facade
Blotched red with fear
When the victory drum started
beating
In the heart of the masses
You mistook it for a person and
trained your guns
Revolution echoed
from all horizons …
Varavara Rao (VV) was born in Warangal in 1940. He finished his MA in Telugu literature from Osmania University. He worked as a lecturer in several colleges and transformation towards revolutionary ideas started in Varavara Rao’s mind during his tenure in Mahabubnagar district. …
Firstpost / by MN Parth
The Free Press Journal / by Sanjay Jog
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray may form a panel to probe the arrests of activists in connection with Elgar Parishad action by the Pune police. Activists Rona Wilson, Shoma Sen, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Varavara Rao and Sudhir Dhavle, who were arrested, were accused of having Maoist links. Thackeray has sought details regarding the ongoing court cases from the home department.
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Hundustan Times / by Yogesh Joshi
Nearly two years after the Pune police conducted investigations into the Bhima Koregaon violence and named several activists and lawyers as the prime accused, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, on Saturday, sought a fresh probe into the case.
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21 / 12 / 2019
The Econimic Times / by PTI
PUNE: Terming the arrest of activists in the Elgar Parishad case “wrong” and “vengeful”, NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday demanded that a Special Investigation Team be set up under a retired judge to probe the action taken by Pune police.
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The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha
With Sharad Pawar calling for an investigation, The Wire accessed digital evidence that was finally made available to the accused after persistent court fights which reveals several discrepancies on the part of the Pune police.
Mumbai: Nearly two years after the Pune police conducted investigations into the Bhima Koregaon violence and named several rights activists and lawyers as the prime accused while branding them as “urban Naxals”, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar today sought a fresh probe in the case.
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The Wire / by The Wire Staff
On Wednesday, the prosecution had submitted draft charges against the 19 accused named in the case, including several rights activists.
Pune: Conspiracy to “assassinate” Prime Minister Narendra Modi and “overthrow” the government besides “waging war” against the Government of India are among the charges brought against all 19 accused by the prosecution in the Elgar Parishad-Koregaon Bhima case of Maharashtra.
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The Indian Express / by Seema Chishti
The letters, which The Indian Express has access to, reveal a slice of their lives behind bars. Some talk about when they can possibly see the gallows, some are abstract ruminations on life and freedom, while some dwell on the circumstances of their arrest and merits of the case.
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The Times of India / by Vishwas Kothari
PUNE: The state prosecution has proposed the charges of ‘waging a war against the country’ and ‘conspiracy to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’ as well as other terrorism acts in the draft charges submitted to the special UAPA court here on Wednesday against 19 accused named in the Elgar Parishad case.
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The Indian Express / by Express News Service
According to the draft charges, the accused allegedly conspired “to incite people and create violence and to spread disaffection towards government established by law”.
PUNE city police on Wednesday submitted before special judge S R Navandar “draft charges” against 19 out of the 23 accused booked in the Elgar Parishad case under sections of the IPC and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for their alleged links with the banned CPI (Maoist).
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