New Delhi: The recent series of income tax raids on Indian and global think tanks, independent media promoters and other non-profit organisations is “alarming and unfounded”, said more than 600 Indian citizens from 25 states and UTs while condemning the government action.
In a solidarity statement, they noted that “in the not-too-distant future they will come for us, each one of us. Not just for civil society. Or civil servants. Or any other group.”
The statement refers to the IT department conducting ‘surveys’ on the think-tank Centre for Policy Research, the NGO Oxfam India and the media funding body Independent and Public Spirited Media Foundation on September 7. All three organisations have denied any wrongdoing and have reaffirmed their commitment to their goals.
The signatories include teachers, homemakers, pensioners, social workers, doctors, personnel from the armed forces, journalists, researchers, bankers, academicians, film makers, writers, lawyers, retired civil servants and business persons.
According to the signatories, the statement is titled “In Solidarity with Us” because, “even though the income tax raids are currently directed at only a few of us — those few who are working, despite daunting challenges, to keep not just the government, but also all of us awake and aware of our rights in a constitutional democracy.”
“They — the ones on whom the raids are currently being conducted — are not against the government. They are FOR the nation. Just as we are. All of us. And the more we remind ourselves and our government of this, the more they will remember that they are here not for themselves, but for us. For all of us,” the signatories argued.
The full statement and the list of signatories are reproduced below.
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IN SOLIDARITY WITH US
We, the people.
That is who the following statement is in solidarity with.
We, as in all of us.
Not just civil society. Or civil servants. Or retired personnel from the defence forces, or the judiciary, or the academic community, or the media, or the business world, or any other governmental or non-governmental institutions.
Because when we talk as groups, we can be perceived as indulging in us vs. them.
Since September 07, an array of nonprofits, including a think tank, some international NGOs and a funder of independent media, have been ‘raided’ and subjected to intrusive, sweeping seizures of information by Income Tax authorities without any reasons being provided. In the wake of these alarming, unfounded raids — this statement is in solidarity with all of us. Including the personnel from the Income Tax department ordered to carry out these raids without questioning either their government or their conscience.
Because, in the not too distant future, when they come, they will come for us, each one of us. Not just for civil society. Or civil servants. Or any other group. They will come because they don’t make any distinction between a government and the nation it is meant to serve. They will come for anyone who does make that distinction.
They will come because they fear that each of us, citizens of this great nation, will awaken and point out that distinction. And that we will do it as us, all of us, not just as civil society or civil servants or any other group.
That is why this statement is in solidarity with ALL of us. Even though the income tax raids are currently directed at only a few of us — those few who are working, despite daunting challenges, to keep not just the government, but also all of us awake and aware of our rights in a constitutional democracy.
They — the ones on whom the raids are currently being conducted — are not against the government.
They are FOR the nation. Just as we are. All of us. And the more we remind ourselves and our government of this, the more they will remember that they are here not for themselves, but for us. For all of us.
That is why, in light of the alarming, unfounded Income Tax raids across the country over last week, this statement is in solidarity with us. All of us.
Solidarity Statement Against IT Searches by The Wire on Scribd