September 2018

2 September 2018
UNITED KINGDOM
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
Protest in London to Stop the Witch-
Hunt of Human Rights Activists in India!
and Resist the Modi Emergency !
31st August saw a powerful protest
in London to Stop the Witch-Hunt of
Rights Activists in India! and Resist
the Modi Emergency!
Why we were protesting
The Modi government has
unleashed a massive witch hunt
against a whole range of dissenting
voices targeting some of India’s most
credible and respected human rights
activists and public intellectuals, using
trumped up charges and patently false
allegations to try to silence all opposition
and terrorise dissidents.
In raids on 28 August across the
country, a series of activists were
arrested -noted Chhattishgarh-based
trade union leader and tribal rights
campaigner Sudha Bharadwaj (arrested
from Faridabad), renowned writer
Varavara Rao (arrested from
Hyderabad),activists Arun Ferreira
(who has incidentally written a book
on his experience of being in prison
for five years on false charges) and
Vernon Gonsalves (picked up from
Mumbai) and long-standing human
rights campaigner Gautam Navlakha
(who was arrested from his residence
in Delhi but the High Court stayed his
remand to Pune).
Among those whose houses have
been raided are Ranchi-based Father
Stan Swamy (who has been opposing
corporate landgrab and Hindutva violence
in Jharkhand and has recently
been charged with ‘sedition’), journalist
Kranthi Tekula, lawyer Susan
Abraham who is defending Surendra
Gadling and others, Dalit writer and
academic Anand Teltumbde, and
Pavana and Prof. K. Satyanarayana
(daughter and son-in-law of Varavara
Rao). On 29 August, the Supreme
Court responded to a petition filed on
behalf of those arrested by ruling that
they should not be kept in police custody
but under house arrest until
September 6, noting that ‘Dissent is
the safety-valve of democracy’.
The BJP-led Maharashtra
Government and the Pune Police are
using the Bhima Koregaon violence of
January 1 2018 as the pretext for planning
this witch hunt. The year 2018
started with violence against Dalits in
Bhima Koregaon when thousands of
Dalits gathered there in a commemoration
of a historic victory. Hindutva
thugs with saffron flags in hand
attacked the Dalits. The main masterminds
behind the Bhima Korgaon
anti-Dalit atrocity are Shambhaji
Bhide and Milind Ekbote. Both of
them are closely connected with the
BJP. Shambhaji Bhide is the founder
of the Shivpratisthan Sangstha, which
has incited several communal riots in
Maharashtra. Both of them are roaming
free while human rights and Dalit
rights activists are being targeted.
The human rights movement which
emerged out of the experience of
resistance to the 1975-77 Emergency
is today being branded as an ‘Urban
Naxal’ project. An actual incident of
anti-Dalit violence is being manipulated
to persecute Dalit rights activists.
While Hindutva terrorist organisations
like Sanatan Sanstha are enjoying full
impunity to openly threaten people
and call for overturning the
Constitution, lawyers, writers, poets
and public intellectuals have been
framed with outlandish charges of
plotting an assassination of the Prime
Minister, in a move with striking parallels
with the history of Nazi
Germany.
The fact that as K. Pavana and Prof.
K. Satyanarayanan have testified, the
police raiders asked questions like
‘Why do you read books by Mao and
Marx?’ ‘Why do you have pictures of
Ambedkar and Phule and not of
gods and goddesses?’ and ‘Why do
you not wear jewellery and sindoor as
a wife?’ indicates what are now considered
‘crimes’ in Modi’s India.
These raids and arrests, the slapping
of sedition charges and the invoking of
draconian laws like UAPA are all
aimed at reducing India to a republic of
fear. The Indian state is doing this in
partnership with the organized lynch
mobs murdering Muslims and Dalits
on a daily basis and the hired assassins
being deployed to kill dissidents. The
assassinations of Dabholkar, Pansare,
Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh, the failed
attempt on the life of Umar Khalid,
repeated attacks on Swami Agnivesh
and the continuing persecution of
human rights campaigners are all part
of the same strategy of silencing dissent
and subordinating democracy to a
fascist regime of fear and repression,
hate and lies.
But resistance is growing and in
response to this new spate of attacks
on activists, lawyers and writers who
have always fought for the oppressed
and marginalized, the people have
come onto the streets to demand their
unconditional release in protests in
cities across India.
This protest at the Indian High
Commission in London by South Asia
Solidarity Group and CasteWatchUK
was been called in solidarity with this
resistance.
Mr Muman , Chair of Caste Watch
UK compared the current state of vigilance
and repression to the Gestapo
unleashing reign of terror. He
endorsed Arundhati Roy’s observation
that the British were blamed for divide
and rule but the BJP is guilty of divert
and rule in the run up to the election
2019.
Our demands:
Stop the Witchhunts! Release the
human rights activists , lawyers and
writers arrested on these fake charges!
Stop Hindutva Terrorism!
At the protest the names of those
arrested were called out as we
demanded that they were freed.
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Editor-in-chief
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Marketing & Creative Manager
Columnists
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Farzana Suri
Arun Kumar
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