Protest Against "Witch Hunting" of Activists in Gujarat in the Pretext of Tackling Maoism

Today there was a demonstration in front of Gujarat Bhawan in New Delhi to protest against ongoing "witch hunting" of activist by the State in the pretext of tackling Maoism. The protesters also submitted a Memorandum to the Resident Commissioner of Gujarat Government in Delhi, though not without some minor scuffle with Delhi and Gujarat Police as the Bhawan is located in Prime minister's high security zone.The demonstration saw participation by activists mostly from New socialist Initiative, Stree Adhikar Sangathan , National Alliance of People's Movement, People's Union for Democratic Rights.

Below is the background to the protest and also some images:

About a month back all of you may have been informed about the arrest of Avinash Kulkarni, a widely respected activist who has been working on the human rights of Adivasis in Gujarat. His contribution to the formulation of the Forest Rights Act and later on in monitoring its implementation by enabling a large number of Adivasis to claim their land rights is well known. Avinash is now languishing in jail, with charges of fomenting Maoism, waging war against the nation and a host of other false charges slapped on him.

It is also a well known fact that in Narendra Modi government's regime many of the human rights activists in Gujarat have faced harassment in different ways and serious attempts have been made to quell any dissenting voices. Continuing with this trend now the Gujarat Police arrested another trade unionist and Dalit activist Srinivas Sattayya Kurapati (Kishore) and illegally detained Amrit Vaghela (known as Ambubhai), and Kishore’s wife Hansa (Ambubhai’s niece, who is an employee of SEWA Ahmedabad) on charges that they are Maoists on May 30th. Ambubhai and Hansa were released later on June 1st mid night. They were not allowed any access to lawyers, family or anyone while they were detained illegally.

Srinivas (Kishore) hails from a remote village in Andhra Pradesh; he had migrated to Surat in search of employment and had become quite active in the trade union movement in Surat. He worked in Surat from 2000 to 2006 and then joined Darshan, an NGO in Ahmedabad which promotes socio-political awareness through theatre and cultural activism. He was working as a computer operator there. It was really horrendous to see the Gujarati TV channels such as TV 9 airing the ridiculous police version today how this simple NGO worker and trade union activist being described as the mastermind of the Maoist strategy in Gujarat, and even linked to the ‘Maoists’ who perpetrated the Jhargram railway sabotage! Hansa, Kishore’s wife, is a grassroots level worker in SEWA, and her only involvement has been in the cultural programmes and theatre of Lok Kala Manch in recent times!

The office of Darshan, the NGO where Kishore has been working has been raided today evening and their computer was taken away by the crime branch. The Director of Darshan, Hiren Gandhi was summoned for questioning by the crime branch.

It is to be noted that Ambubhai is a cultural activist par excellence, who founded the Lok Kala Manch in 1980, which has since produced and performed several plays on Dalit issues, on women’s issues, political satires, particularly productions on communal harmony and the dangers of the ideologies of communal hatred. He has been active in countering the Sangh Parivar and the Modi brigade long before 2002 and more intensely after 2002. His activities definitely did create a major setback to the strategy of VHP-Bajarangdal-BJP vis-à-vis Dalits. It is a known fact now that cadre of the Parivar which had some Dalit presence, particularly in Ahmedabad is now faced with significant desertion of these communal outfits by many of the Dalit cadres. Recently he led a major grassroots level movement known as ‘Swabhiman Andolan’ against the bootleggers in Gomtipur area of Ahmedabad, exposing conclusively the well-known nexus between the police and the bootleggers. His courage and integrity has always posed a threat to the police and the political establishment of the BJP.

The persecution of the human rights, cultural and trade union activists is completely intolerable and we must protest any such attack on the freedom of expression and right to dissent. We appeal to all the human rights activists, Dalit and Adivasi rights organizations and concerned civil society leaders to come out openly against such victimization and arrests of human rights and social activists like Ambu bhai, Srinivas, Avinash and others.

In solidarity,

AISA, Delhi Solidarity Group, Forum for Democratic Initiatives, NAPM, New Socialist Initiative,Progressive Students Union, PUCL, PUDR, Stree Adhikar Sangathan and many others