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A Statement Issued by New Socialist Initiative (NSI) on the recent
arrests of human rights defenders and public intellectuals
New
Socialist Initiative strongly condemns the arbitrary and malicious manner in
which the Pune Police, at the behest of its saffron masters, raided the houses
of leading human rights activists, lawyers, professors and poets in different
cities simultaneously and arrested five of them - SudhaBharadwaj,
GautamNavlakha, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and VaravaraRao - under
concocted charges.
Demanding
immediate release of all these persons unconditionally and withdrawal of
fabricated charges filed against them under the draconian Unlawful Activities
Prevention Act (UAPA) , it also said that appropriate action should be taken
against the guilty policemen as well involved in this act.
2.
Reports
of these raids reveal that the police had no qualms in treating these persons -
who are highly educated and have devoted larger part of their lives fighting
for the marginalised and exploited upholding constitutional methods - as
dreaded terrorists and also insulting their near and dear ones.
The
case of Prof Satyanarayan, Head of the Department of Cultural Studies and Dean
of inter-disciplinary studies at the English and Foreign Languages University
(EFLU) - a highly respected academic and scholar in his field and author of
many books - reveals, how his house was also raided just because he happens to
be son in law of VaravaraRao, a well-known Telugu poet and activist. Police had
the gall to question his wife why (despite being a Brahmin) she has opted for
intercaste marriage (with a Dalit) and why does not she puts sindoor on her forehead.
3.
The
fast changing developments reveal this ill-conceived move has completely
backfired and has led to tremendous outrage and uproar all over the country,
with marches and rallies organised in different cities and towns joined by hundreds
of people. Declaring that the unfolding situation in the country as worse than
emergency, with a 'republic of Hope' turning into 'republic of fear' people
have underlined that the present government has resorted to this move basically
to deflect attention of the wider populace over its all round failure in
managing the economy or addressing the issue of growing ruptures in social
fabric or reining in vigilante gangs who have made a mockery of rule of law.
It
need to be noted that even the mainstream print media has also questioned the
government for this ill thought move and charged that it is BJP's Mckarthy
moment reminding the people of the witch hunt by the US regime in late fourties
and early fifties against writers, scholars and activists alleging left
leanings.
4.
The
unprecedented intervention by the highest courts of the country in this issue
has played a key role in putting the government on the defensive. The Supreme
Court created history of sorts when it allowed a third party intervention in
this case responding to a petition filed by leading intellectuals and
constituting a three member bench an
issue a notice to the Maharashtra Police. Terming that 'Dissent is
safety valve of Democracy' it has reminded the government that democracy would
not be safe if the government quells dissent. As of now the focus of the case
has shifted to the Supreme Courts, which will deliberate on the issue next
week.
5.
It
is crystal clear that the immediate trigger for this action on part of the Pune
Police was the great expose by the Maharashtra ATS itself of a cache of arms,
explosives and detonators from the houses of Hindutvazealots allegedly associated with the SanatanSanstha
and related Hindutva groups, arrest of five activists and unearthing of a plot
to further exacerbate communal tension by putting bombs at crowded places and
festivals.
In
fact, these revelations had put added pressure on the government at the state
level as well as the centre to ban the SanatanSanstha and its affiliated
organisation Hindu JanjagrutiSamiti. which openly talk of 'Destruction of
Evildoers as Spiritual Practice'. It should not be forgotten here that these
outfits have been under the scanner of the investigating agencies for more than
a decade, for their promotion of violent activities and even involvement of
their associates in terror acts and earlier governments in the state had
similarly sent its recommendations to the centre to ban these outfits.
It
is important to emphasise that this expose was possible because of investigations
into the assassination of GauriLankesh ( Sept 2017) undertaken by Karnataka
police which had revealed how people associated with these organisations were not only responsible for this particular
killing but earlier assassinations of rationalists, scholars and left activists
- namely Dr NarendraDabholkar, Comrade GovindPansare and Prof Kalburgi - which
had rocked the nation The Maharashtra
ATS is reported to be in possession of a hit list prepared by these terrorists
of many scholars, activists, social workers who have always remained critical
of the idea of Hindutva world view and have consistently opposed its
proponents.
6.
The
powers that be had also presumed that nationwide arrests - followed by a pliant
media - would also help cover up their blatant failures on the economic front.
In fact it is for everyone to see that the way in which the BJP dispensation
led by Modi has bungled the economy has also become more and more apparent.
Close
on the heels of the controversy around Rafael deal which is being called a
'Defence Scandal Larger than any thus far" and where "gross misuse of
office and monumental criminal misconduct"
(https://www.newsclick.in/rafale-defence-scandal-larger-any-thus-far) is
evident has come the report released by Reserve Bank of India itself which has
revealed that 99.3 per cent of the demonetised currency has returned to the
bank which has vindicated what ex-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said on the
floor of the house that the whole demonetisation exercise was 'organised loot
and legalised plunder".
Barring
few cheerleaders of the present dispensation there is general consensus that
within a span of one year the Modi government government has delivered ‘twin
blow’ to the economy firstly through demonetisation and secondly through the
ill-conceived Goods and Services Tax (GST), which have proved to be a complete
disaster for our economy and broke the back of small businesses.
Whatever
might have been the claims of the present dispensation before assuming power,
they have proved a disaster on the employment front also. While 2 crore jobs
were promised to the youth, not even 2 lakh new jobs have been created till
date.
7.
As
the unfolding developments demonstrate governments calculations in this case
have gone awry.
It
had felt that with these arrests of leading human rights activists, renowned
intellectuals it would be able to deflect people's attention from its cosy
approach towards these Hindutva terrorists and their deadly machinations. And
as already discussed the government is finding itself on the backfoot on this
issue.
Equally
troubling for the government has been the arrest of a person associated with
Shiv Pratishthan, an organisation floated by SambhajiBhide, a fanatic Hindutva
leader, in the arms haul case. It is the same organisation which is allged to
be involved in the BhimaKoregaon violence against Dalits when they in their
lakhs had taken out a massive procession to the Vijay Stambh situated at
Koregaon near Pune to commemorate 'victory of Dalits' against the Peshwas two
hundred years ago.
A
FIR filed immediately about the violence had directly blamed SambhajiBhide and
another Hindutva zealot MilindEkbote for this orchestrated violence.
PrakashAmbedkar, grandson of Dr Ambedkar, who was a key speaker at the
'ElgaarParishad' event held a day earlier in Pune to 'celebrate this Dalit
victory' had also lodged a similar complaint against these zealots and asked
the police to take up the cases under SC-ST Atrocity Prevention Act (1989).
While the Maharashtra police has not even deemed it necessary to even
interrogate SambhajiBhide - with Maharashtra CM DevendraFadnavis giving him
clean chit on the floor of the house - it seems to be hyper active in following
a fabricated case by a Hindutva activist against these left leaning scholars,
activists.
8.
We
should not forget that these raids and arrests are in continuation of arrests
of SudhirDhawale, ShomaSen, Advocate SurendraGadling, Mahesh Raut and Rona
Wilson in June on allegations of 'instigating the Bhima-Koregaon violence'
which was witnessed a day after the ElgaarParishad and also being part of a
'Rajiv Gandhi type assassination plot' targeting PM Modi. Time and again two
retired judges of the Supreme Courts, Judge P B Sawant and Justice KolsePatil
have underlined that they were the organisers of this ElgaarParishad and the
persons arrested earlier or in this round had no role to play in its organising
the government wants to 'prove' that these persons were involved in it.
9.
The
cavalier manner in which the government itself is investigating the alleged
assassination plot is visible not only in the questions raised by the Delhi HC
about the irregularities and lapses on part of Maharashtra Police when it was
hearing the Habeas Corpus petition against the transit remand ordered by the
CJM Saket Court in the context of GautamNavlakha’s arrest but also the time gap
of around three months in the two round of arrests.
The
story of this plot - supposedly targeting PM Modi - reminds one of the Gujarat
of the first decade of the 21 stcentury, when similar plots were talk of the
town, when Mr Modi happened to be chief minister of the state. It witnessed
deaths of many a innocents in fake encounters on the specious claim that the
particular 'jihadi' had come to assassinate Mr Modi. It is now history how many
a police officers spent years in jail for their alleged role in these fake
encounters. Today, the word 'Jihadi' has been replaced by 'Urban Naxal' - a new
narrative which the government wants to build against its critics and
dissenting voices.
10.
New
Socialist Initiative is of the opinion that draconian laws like Unlawful
Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) - which have been used in arresting these
activists and which have earlier been used against thousands of activists and
innocent persons - should not have any place in democracy.
11.
New
Socialist Initiative has appealed to the people at large - citizens, residents
of this country who still believe in democracy, secularism, equity, pluralism -
to remain vigilant about the machinations of the powers that be at the centre,
as survey after survey indicate that the BJP under Modi is fast losing its popularity, and it is possible that to remain in power
in next elections it may resort to divisive agendas to polarise people.
Delhi
: Dated 31 st August 2018
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