Tag: activists arrests

The Prison Song of Surendra Gadling

While out on temporary bail in August, the rights activist sang a song written by Kabir Kala Manch’s Ramesh Gaichor for his friends and colleagues about the sordid conditions in prison.

Mumbai: Surendra Gadling, a human rights lawyer from Nagpur, has always considered courtrooms his stage. Between serious arguments, he would casually break into songs of cultural and political resistance. He would be commonly found invoking political theories and remembering shahirs from the Dalit community amid serious legal arguments. His court appearances usually attracted an eager audience from among his peers and junior lawyers.

So, when 51-year-old Gadling, one of the first persons to be arrested in 2018 for his alleged involvement in the Elgar Parishad case, was released on temporary bail for a week in August, he dressed up in his usual black lawyers’ suit and headed straight to Nagpur sessions court. Here, his friends and colleagues were eagerly waiting to hear about his “teen saal, do mahine and ek saptah (three years, two months and a week)” spent in three different prisons of Maharashtra.

“I have done some human rights lawyering when I was out (before arrest). But after spending time in three different prisons, I am convinced I wasn’t prepared for this. Prison needs a lot more work,” he began. In the next 11 minutes, he recited a song written by a cultural activist of Kabir Kala Manch and his co-accused Ramesh Gaichor.

The song debunks the common perception that “prisoners live aish ki zindagi (a comfortable life),” he explained. The song recorded in August was made available to The Wire by his colleagues with Gadling’s consent.

From the cramped space to one “all-purpose” soap per month, the song narrates the everyday life of those incarcerated. “Every prisoner gets just a bucket of water per day. He is supposed to use that one bucket for his daily ablutions and drinking. That water is also meant to clean toilets. Water scarcity commonly triggers fights inside the jail,” he explains, between the song.

Prisoners, he says, come up with ingenious ways to cope with the harshness of incarceration. “Dinner is served by 4 pm and by the time it is time to eat, the food is stone cold. Things are much worse on Sundays; dinner is served by noon,” he shares. And the time of serving food is the least of their problems. The watery dal and the two hard chapatis are inedible, he says. “So as the lights go off, some courageous among us, manage to get a handi (pot) and add tomatoes and masalas and make the food palatable,” he shares, before confessing that this “illegal act” if brought to the notice of the jail administration, it can land him and his co-prisoners in trouble.

Also read: Surendra Gadling’s Computer Was Attacked, Incriminating Documents Planted: Arsenal Consulting

Unlike in most states, prisoners in Maharashtra, are eligible for non-vegetarian food occasionally. Gadling, between the song, says that during the pandemic, most prisons in the state stopped serving any kind of meat. “So, we had to make do with pigeons that we managed to hunt in the jail,” he laughingly sings.

The song also touches upon the difficulties faced by prisoners in getting any kind of medical attention. “From the simple cold to the complicated COVID-19, the doctor asks for a court order to treat you,” he says. This part of the song is a sordid reminder of the condition of Jesuit priest Stan Swamy before he died in July this year.

Before becoming a lawyer, Gadling worked as an apprentice in the railways. From a very young age, he actively participated in different socio-cultural movements across Nagpur. Along with his friends – Sambhaji Bhagat an activist, a people’s poet and balladeer and Vilas Ghogre, also a prominent poet and activist from Mumbai who died by suicide to protest against the 1997 Ramabai killings – Gadling had started an organisation called ‘Awhan Natya Manch’. This group would organise cultural evenings in the bastis of Nagpur and engage in conversations around rights and oppressions.

Over the years, Gadling has become a formidable force and a point person for cases of illegal killings, police excesses, fakes cases, and atrocities against Dalits and Adivasis in the region. He is one of the few legal experts in Maharashtra, dealing in special laws like UAPA, the Forest Rights Act, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. He was, until his arrest, handling the case of G.N. Saibaba, a wheelchair-bound Delhi University professor jailed for alleged Naxal links. He handled most of these cases pro bono.

Here is a video link to the song he sang in the Nagpur sessions court premise in August:

Draconian Laws, Trumped-Up Charges: In India, 2020 Was a Year of Crushing Dissent

The year, which kicked off with countrywide protests and riots in the capital, saw personal liberties take a big hit with anti-terror and defamation laws being used routinely to silence dissenters and human rights defenders.

Mumbai: Disproportionate application of draconian laws, divisive media reporting and jail terms for students and activists were some of the main highlights of 2020. Almost every month this year, several activists and academics have been either arrested or booked under counter-terrorism law, sedition and other laws, for merely expressing their discontent against the current dispensation.

There has been a clear pattern at play. In states where the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power, the local police worked overtime profiling and targeting critical voices. In other states, central agencies like the National Investigations Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) were deployed.

On December 12, 2019, the Narendra Modi administration passed the discriminatory Citizenship (Amendment) Act. This was met with country-wide protests led primarily by university students and common citizens. The protests that began last December spilled over the most part of 2020. The communally charged atmosphere was further fanned, leading to an outbreak of full-fledged communal violence targeting the Muslims of North Delhi. At least 53 people, a majority of them Muslims, lost their lives in the deadly violence. Scores were severely injured.

Delhi riots

Security personnel walk past Bhagirathi Vihar area of the riot-affected northeast Delhi, February 26, 2020. Photo: PTI

The one-sided attack, with obvious evidence in the public domain, was overlooked, and the investigations instead focussed on academics, activists, and opposition leaders, with the Delhi police naming them as “prime suspects”. After FIRs, arrests followed and almost all who were arrested continue to be in jail. Since then, their personal liberty has remained at the judiciary’s mercy.

In November, The Wire published a long list of activists, student leaders, scholars and journalists who have continued to suffer prolonged incarceration and how their applications for bail or quashing of FIRs have been pending without hearing for long periods of time before different courts.

Year 2020 is not unique that way. This crackdown on human rights defenders began soon after the BJP came to power in 2014. In 2018, nine activists, academics and lawyers were arrested under trumped up charges and labelled ‘Urban Naxals’. By mid- 2020, the number increased to 16 and two prisoners – in their 80s – are among those incarcerated. The accusations have shifted from conspiring a riot at Bhima Koregaon village in the outskirts of Pune district to plotting to kill Modi to being the most dreaded “urban Naxals”. The trial, even over two years later, is yet to nowhere close to commencement.

Also read: The Dissenting and Defiant Citizen Is Indian of the Year

Identical patterns have been followed in the bulk arrests that have followed in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Kashmir and Assam. The charges have ranged from being “masterminds” of the Delhi riots to making “seditious” speeches during the anti-CAA protests. Most arrestees have multiple cases slapped against them, virtually making their release impossible. Writing critical or satirical tweets against the current dispensation have also landed several behind bars. Elderly citizens in need of sippers to drink water and pregnant women were not spared either.

It will be years before these charges are put on trial, but by then these activists would have spent years in jail – which is a primary purpose of such charges. After all, the process itself is designed to be a punishment.

There has been an evident growing trend in usage of draconian laws like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the past few years. The National Crime Bureau Record (NCRB), which maintains the data of the nature of crime and the corresponding laws applied, has noted a whopping 165% rise in the number of UAPA cases since 2016. While 35 cases were registered under UAPA in 2016, it has dramatically risen to 93 in 2019. There is no consolidated data to find out the number of case files this year, but purely going by the trend around and the number of people arrested, the number of cases must have exponentially increased. The NCRB data does not tell how many of these cases are politically motivated and how many were registered for actual terror activities.

Globally, year 2020 will be known for how the novel coronavirus ravaged lives and economies. In India, however, the year would well be remembered for how personal liberties were trampled and anti-terror legislations like UAPA, that were crafted for “exceptional circumstances”, have been routinised.

Also read: Editorial: The Protests are Not Just Anti-CAA, But Pro-Constitution

Alongside counter-terrorism laws, defamation laws were more generously used against those criticising both the state and judiciary. Senior advocate Prashant was tried and held guilty for two of his tweets on the chief justice of India (CJI) S.A. Bobde. The CJI was photographed reportedly riding a Rs 50 lakh motorcycle belonging to a BJP leader in Nagpur without a mask or helmet.

Bhushan posted the picture, with the following text: “CJI rides a 50 Lakh motorcycle belonging to a BJP leader at Raj Bhavan Nagpur, without a mask or helmet, at a time when he keeps the SC in Lockdown mode denying citizens their fundamental right to access justice!” Justice B.R. Gavai said that Bhushan committed “serious contempt of the court” and eventually fined him Re 1.

Similar criminal contempt proceedings were initiated against actor Swara Bhasker, and most recently comedian Kunal Kamra.

Permission for protests were virtually denied across states. While the spread of COVID-19 was cited as a reason for denial of permissions, the government was evidently afraid of the growing dissenting voices against it.

In October, following the rape and death of a young woman from Dalit community from Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, people were enraged and sought justice. At the forefront was Azad Samaj Party leader Chandrashekhar Azad, who along with 400 others was booked for violating Section 144 in the area. They were also accused of rioting and booked under the Epidemic Diseases Act.

It is not like the BJP alone discouraged dissent. In Maharashtra, where the Maha Vikas Aghadi government ousted the BJP and took over last November, similar pattern was followed. Young cultural activists were served externment notices and asked to pay up an unbelievable Rs 50 lakh as a surety sum. The Maharashtra government, however, following public outrage offered to close the extrernment proceedings against activists and students who had participated in protests through the year.

‘Attempt to Curtail Dissent’: Mumbai Police Seeks Rs 50 Lakh as Surety From Activist for Protesting

The police is classifying Suvarna Salve as a ‘habitual offender’ – a section which is disproportionately used against marginalised identities.

Mumbai: The cost of exercising one’s constitutional right to protest in Mumbai has been fixed at Rs 50 lakh.

The Mumbai police has issued a notice seeking surety of a whopping Rs 50 lakh from a 24-year-old student and cultural activist Suvarna Salve for participating in an impromptu protest in January, organised in Mumbai in the wake of the attack on students and faculty members inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus.

While this is the only FIR ever registered against Salve, the Mumbai police have also decided to classify her as a “habitual offender” and initiate another administrative procedure of “externment” against her.

Salve, a lead singer and activist of the cultural troop Samata Kala Manch, was one of the 31 persons to be booked by the MRA Marg police for participating in a peaceful rally from Hutatma Chowk to Gateway of India in South Mumbai on January 6. Over 300 people from across Mumbai had joined the rally which was organised in protest against the violent attack on students in JNU campus by activists belonging to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS’s) students’ wing, Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

The Mumbai police’s decision to slap FIRs against activists in the city had attracted severe criticism. Rights activists and political leaders had termed the Mumbai police’s action as excessive and also equated it with the Delhi police which had remained a “mute spectator” and done nothing to control the masked mob that roamed around freely for almost three hours in the JNU campus but later had booked the victims instead.

Also read: Police’s Stern Response Fails to Dampen the Spirit of Women in Mumbai Bagh

In Mumbai, the protest was organised at two separate spots, just a few kilometres apart. The police have filed two separate FIRs – one at MRA Marg police station and another at Colaba police station – for those attending the protests. In both places, several prominent figures like former Bombay high court judge B.G. Kolse-Patil, and actor Sushant Singh had participated. When the rally soon transformed into a sit-in protest at Gateway of India and more and more people joined in support, state ministers like Jitendra Awhad visited the spot to negotiate with protestors.

While the initial decision was to not take criminal action against the protestors, the police had eventually changed their stance. In all 31 persons have been named in the FIR and have been booked under section 141, 143 and 149 (unlawful assembly) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code, along with section 37 of the Bombay Police Act, 1951.

All sections are bailable and punishable for less than six months. Prominent persons were excluded from the FIR and only student activists and some lawyers were named. Some of them even claimed that they were not present at the protest site but were still named in the FIR.

Police notice issued to Suvarna Salve under section 100 (e) of CrPC. Photo: Special Arrangement

Despite of filing a case of unserious nature, the police have sought an unusually high surety, and more strangely have demanded it only from Salve. The notice, issued on August 24, has sought an explanation as to why Salve a proceeding should not be initiated against her under Section 110 (e) of the CrPC. The notice also seeks at least one of two persons to appear as a “surety”, pledging an amount of Rs 50 lakh, ensuring her good behaviour for the next two years. If she fails, the amount or the property would be confiscated by the state.

Salve says this is done to discourage her from participating in any political activism in the future. “This is done clearly with an intention to harass,” she said. “There were several influential people who had participated in the protest but they chose to go behind one student activist. They know I will never be able to furnish such surety ever. I belong to a Dalit community, and stay in a slum rehabilitation housing,” she pointed out.

Also read: Photojournalist ‘Beaten up’ by Police at Mumbai Anti-CAA Protest

Since her college days, Salve has been a vocal anti-caste voice, participating in protests and students’ agitation across India. In 2016, when Rohith Vemula, a PhD scholar at University of Hyderabad, was allegedly killed in an “institutional murder”, Salve joined the Joint Action Committee (JAC) formed to fight for justice for Vemula and other Bahujan students facing discrimination in campuses.

In the past years, when anti-caste organisations and political parties like Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi called for a bandh in the state, Salve like several other activists was served a notice under Section 144 of the CrPC against participating in any public gathering. “There has been a systematic attempt made to curtail dissenting voices. Like me, several other Ambedkarite activists have been served such notices,” she said.

Her lawyer Ishrat Ali Khan says the police’s decision to classify her as an “habitual offender” also stems from the same mentality. “Look at the crime here – organising and participating in a peaceful protest. From no stretch of imagination can an individual exercising their right to expression and protest be termed as a habitual offender,” he said.

Section 110 of the CrPC, also in legal parlance called as “chapter proceedings” is initiated against those who have been booked in multiple crimes. An executive clause, the proceedings under this section is initiated by the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) level officer and if convicted, the person is externed for a stipulated period of time outside the district limit.

Several researchers have pointed to its discriminatory nature and how it gets disproportionately used against marginalised identities like Dalits and Denotified Tribes. In most cases, it is noticed that the executive officials hearing the case convict the person and the individual then has to move the high court to get their name cleared. This is a tedious process, requiring both resources and patience.

Also read: Woman Who Held ‘Free Kashmir’ Poster Booked by Mumbai Police

Khan, in his over a decade of experience handling cases under this section, said he had never seen the section being slapped against someone for protesting. “The subsections cover several crimes like theft, dacoity and extortion. The police claim to use it against “hardened criminals”, something that Salve or any dissenting activists don’t qualify for, he said.

Why the State Fears My Friend, Sudha Bharadwaj

They cannot fight her in court, so they are calling her a Maoist. They don’t have any real evidence against her, so they are converting the process itself into punishment.

Exactly two years ago, Sudha Bharadwaj was arrested in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case.

It is very painful for me to read about her declining health and the several serious ailments she has been suffering from during her imprisonment – heart disease, arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, depression. Even after two years, she has been denied bail and is being held without a trial.

I suddenly realised why it was so important for the state to cling onto this myth of Bharadwaj being a Maoist. That’s the only way they can lock away someone they fear even more – a democratic rights defender working within the purview of the law. Anyone who knows her, as I have for 35 years, knows that the charges are completely baseless. We have been close friends and, over the years, have been a part of the significant decisions in each other’s lives.

Sudha and I first met in 1984, and have remained friends since. It was an unlikely friendship. I was this chic Delhi University graduate who had joined JNU for an MA in Economics and would still party on Saturday nights with my Hindu college and Modern School friends.

Sudha was a sensitive and serious mathematics student from IIT Kanpur, with her captivating toothy smile and trademark earnestness. She had a remarkably grounded understanding of oppression and an endearing repertoire of protest music. While I was more inclined to discuss ideas of the European new radical left in all kinds of abstract ways, she was deeply grounded in the lives of the people she talked about. She dressed in kurtas and pants (never jeans!) or printed terrycot or polyester salwar kurtas, while I was a self-consciously big bindi, kohl-eyed ethnic-wearing sort. What a contrast we were in appearance and personality!

Our meeting was accidental. She was my favourite professor’s daughter, whose home had become a refuge for us starving hostellers who loved the food she gave us, smuggled and by invitation!

Also read: Sudha Bharadwaj’s Daughter on What It’s Like to Be Under House Arrest

That was a heady time. 1984 was a year when two watershed events took place that would go on to become turning points in our lives: the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi and the Bhopal gas tragedy. Sudha and I became close in our journey to understand the political economy of India’s development and the importance of fighting oppression through democratic movements.

In the late 1980s, we worked together with a group of nine or ten other students on a working-class newspaper called Baatcheet, which was entirely dependent on Sudha’s enormous energy and initiative. She was instrumental in helping me ground my abstract ideas, from the irrelevant hedonism of chai and cigarettes at campus dhabas to the more sobering reality of the lives of the working poor. She motivated us airy-fairy pseudo-intellectuals into communicating in a more relevant manner. We went together to Hoshangabad – I, for my MPhil fieldwork, and she to work on a rural education programme. We shared a house in Kishore Bharati for a year.

Thirty-five years ago, around 8 in the morning, Sudha would set out from her JNU house across the quadrangle for the library at Delhi University. I now live in the same quadrangle. She would drop by in my Godaveri hostel room. We would pick up some chai and come to the rocks (and many creepy crawlies) in the quadrangle where her mother lived, and talk for hours about oppression, politics, feminism, environmental movements, Adivasis, our loves and lives and so on. We knew our paths were going to be different, she has always been someone who goes to people, to live and work amongst them. But we have always treasured the many seasons of our friendship and respected each other’s work.

Sudha Bharadwaj. Photo: Mahtab Alam

Her mother, professor Krishna Bharadwaj, shaped Sudha’s personality in a way that I think neither of them ever fully realised. Both of them were gentle, generous, warm and loved music, Konkani food and literature. They shared a deep humanitarian empathy and personified the principle of “high thinking simple living”. They had long discussions about Sudha’s future after her MA in Mathematics.

I was often the interjector, mediator, sounding board (for both!) and even referee when things got too frictional. Her mother never stopped her from pursuing her desire to go and live in Chhattisgarh, but she wanted Sudha to have a more secure career too. She was worried that Sudha was very straightforward and self-effacing, and not at all worldly-wise. When Sudha decided to give up her US citizenship, there was some consternation. Sudha joined Delhi University for an MPhil as this conversation with her mother continued.

She had a deep love and understanding for her mother, whose struggles and pain were well hidden behind an affable demeanour, bright eyes and a successful career. But she was a rock of support for Sudha, through thick and thin. Unfortunately, at a very young age (mid-fifties) professor Bharadwaj had a terminal brain disease. Sudha nursed her through it, postponing her plans for moving out by a few months. The loss of her mother was also the loss of a home for Sudha, and in your late twenties, that’s a really devastating experience.

Watch | There Is an Attempt to Silence Lawyers Who Defend the Marginalised: Sudha Bharadwaj

The late 1980s and early 1990s were a period of political confusion, with two broad trends: a range of organisations (precursors to the modern-day NGOs) replaced the apolitical state in service delivery in the areas of health, education, etc. and several movements that indulged in hollow sloganeering. Sudha was clear about wanting to work with a grassroots organisation and was very impressed with the Shankar Guha Niyogi-led Chhattisgarh Mukti Morch (CMM).

She was attracted to it because it straddled the two seemingly alternative paths to grassroots work: service delivery and political movement through its synergistic use of the strategy of sangharsh (struggle) aur nirman (build). It created alternatives in health, education and mining technology that were empowering for the people and reproducible for the state. This ideological commitment to sangharsh aur nirman has remained with Sudha for the last 35 years.

The other important attraction for her was CMM’s ability to work amongst Adivasis with a clear understanding of the intersectionality between class and ethnicity. It is for this reason that Sudha has focused on working-class, gender and resource rights of Adivasis while eschewing narrow identity politics. “Who is a Chhattisgarhi?” she would ask. “Everyone who toils in Chhattisgarh,” she would answer, interpreting the question of “moolvaasi versus pravaasi” through the lens of class. Well before PESAA and the forest rights acts were passed, Sudha was working on the question of resource rights of Adivasis, their symbiotic relationship with “jal jangal aur zameen” and the dispossession of Adivasis from their habitat, “a rich land of poor people”.

Her decision to pursue law and practice in Bilaspur was a direct outcome of her deep commitment to constitutional rights and democratic movements. For her, the struggle for constitutional rights involved defending what one had and pushing the boundaries for more relief to the working poor.

So she fought cases against the diversion of forest land for mining that violated due process while demanding the forest rights act; she fought against the contractualisation of the permanent workforce while defending the rights of small enterprises; she fought against the environmental and socio-economic devastation of open cast mining while searching for alternatives like semi-mechanised mining. Even a cursory look at her case list would demonstrate how she was at the heart of the challenges to resource grab and plunder, euphemistically called the “ease of doing business”. That’s why the state hates her, because she fought using the law and challenged them, because she provided a channel for the poor to challenge the state in court.

During her many visits to Delhi, she would often stay with us. She would quickly have a “head bath” after the 48 hour long gruelling journey in an unreserved compartment, open the fridge and make herself a bread butter and jam sandwich while I made tea and would settle down for a nice chat. She once arrived barefoot as her chappals were lost on the train!

Also read: First, They Came For the Lawyers…

My daughter Ragini absolutely loved Sudha masi’s visits. Sudha would read out stories to baby Ragini, watch old classics like The Sound of Music or Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron with her. Aunt and niece have a special bond, because Sudha always treated Ragini as an adult. And sided with her in the many conflicts mother and daughter had! As Ragini grew older, they shared the same love for books and literature and read Harry Potter and The Making of The English Working Class together. In fact, this little bundle of joy – her daughter Anu – was brought to our house by Sudha for the first time.

Sudha decided to move to Delhi as a Professor of Law at the National Law University in Delhi in 2017. This gave hundreds of students the wonderful opportunity to gain from her rich experience as a lawyer from the movement to defend human rights, workers’ rights and Adivasis’ rights.

This is when she was arrested under a state-sponsored a narrative which came in the guise of its exact opposite. A person like Sudha, who has always stood and defended the constitution and the law was projected as a Maoist. The point really is that since they cannot fight her in court, or through democratic means, they are calling her a Maoist.

And because they don’t have any real evidence against her that can stand up in a trial, they are converting the process itself into punishment and denying her bail despite her long incarceration and poor health.

Smita Gupta is a Delhi-based economist and activist.

Why Is Anand Teltumbde So Dangerous for the Narendra Modi Government?

He is one of the followers of Babasaheb Ambedkar who has continuously highlighted the need to fight Hindutva on both the social and economic front.

Even as the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic looms large and prisons are becoming dangerous hotspots of contagion, even as the Supreme Court of India directs prisons to release undertrials and convicts on interim bail, even as the Indian nation grinds to a halt following a lockdown, even as hundreds of thousands of migrant workers are stranded and sheltered in schools, there is one thing that no virus appears to be capable of stopping – the Indian state’s persecution of one of India’s foremost intellectuals, Dr Anand Teltumbde.

Why is Teltumbde considered so dangerous by the ruling neoliberal, Hindutva regime?

When violence first broke out at Bhima Koregaon in 2018, the police investigation concentrated on two Hindutva activists Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote. However, the rightwing forces  of the Sangh parivar quickly released a report finding fault with this line of enquiry. They instead falsely accused the Elgar Parishad – a collective of progressive Ambedkarite organisations and activists that held the annual mass gathering at Bhima Koregaon – of having links with the Maoists.

It is common knowledge that Maoist organisations are banned in India. Why was an Ambedkarite Dalit commemorative event portrayed as a Maoist event? Anyone who has followed the events that have transpired since will clearly understand that such a far-fetched, fraudulent link was made with the sole purpose of targeting Dalits and Ambedkarites, making use of the legal apparatus in its most vicious forms.

Soon, even the word ‘Maoist’ was dropped and for the sake of garnering great publicity and also to build consensus around the arrest of activists from around the country, the ruling dispensation started deploying the term “urban Naxal”.

This unique terminology allowed them to carry out their witch-hunt of intellectuals and activists in the cities; anyone with the remotest Leftist sympathies could be hauled into this urban naxal net if needed. This allowed them to concoct a headline grabbing plot alleging that there was a Left-wing conspiracy to assassinate the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On the basis of this fabricated plot, they have already sent to jail the respected labour lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, English professor Shoma Sen, advocates Surendra Gadling and Vernon Gonsalves, social activist and researcher Mahesh Raut, journalist Arun Ferreira, editor Sudhir Dhawale, political prisoners’ rights activist Rona Wilson and celebrated octogenarian Telugu poet Varavara Rao.

Two more activists were also named in the chargesheet: Anand Teltumbde and journalist-activist Gautam Navlakha, both of whom have been told to surrender to the National Investigation Agency on Tuesday, April 14.

Also read: A Letter to the People of India, on the Eve of My Arrest

The nature of the case and the absurdist fabulous plot has also allowed the police to harass anyone anywhere: a professor in Hyderabad (Dr K. Satyanarayana) and a professor in Delhi (Hany Babu) had their homes searched, their computers trawled for information. Sadly, these might not be the last arrests we see.

Why is Anand Teltumbde being targeted in this vicious manner? Why have the powers-that-be decided that he, along with Gautam Navlakha must go to jail even as the Supreme Court wants prisoners to be released so as to contain the novel coronavirus pandemic?

Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Babasaheb Ambedkar, has already pointed out that one of the prime reasons behind this targeting is that Teltumbde is a son-in-law of Babasaheb’s family. The hidden agenda of the BJP-RSS and the cluster of right-wing organisations called the Sangh parivar is to attack the legacy of Babasaheb. Anand Teltumbde neither attended the Bhima Koregaon event, nor was he involved in the organising team, so why is he being singled out for this witch-hunt? This is because of the politics that he articulates, a politics that is anathema to the rightwing, neoliberal regime.

He is one of the followers of Babasaheb who has continuously highlighted the need to fight Hindutva on both the social and economic front. One the one hand, he has laid bare the Brahminical anti-social casteist nature of the Sangh parivar, while on the other he has relentlessly attacked the anti-people economic policies of Neoliberal Hindutva. One of his recent publications is titled Republic of Caste: Thinking Equality in the Time of Neoliberal Hindutva. He upholds Ambedkar’s radical vision of ushering social and economic democracy in India through the annihilation of caste and state socialism.

Teltumbde has pointed out the explicit socialist vision of Babasaheb Ambedkar:

“I should have from that point of view expected the Resolution to state in most explicit terms that in order that there may be social and economic justice in the country, that there would be nationalisation of industry and nationalisation of land, I do not understand how it could be possible for any future Government which believes in doing justice socially, economically and politically, unless its economy is a socialistic economy”(December 17, 1946).

In the same article, he quotes Babasaheb again to emphasise the importance of anti-caste revolution for the success of socialism,

“Men will not join in a revolution for the equalisation of property unless they know that after the revolution is achieved they will be treated equally and that there will be no discrimination of caste and creed. The assurance of a socialist leading the revolution that he does not believe in caste, I am sure, will not suffice. The assurance must be the assurance proceeding from much deeper foundation, namely, the mental attitude of the compatriots towards one another in their spirit of personal equality and fraternity.”

Furthermore, this programme and doctrine of annihilation of caste alongside socialism is articulated by a scholar from a Dalit background – and it is the Dalit-Bahujans who form the majority of India’s de facto working class. This means challenging caste will also present the greatest challenge to untrammelled, exploitative capitalism.

This radical vision of Babasaheb’s anti-caste socialism is directly antithetical to the RSS-BJP’s Neoliberal Hindutva, which wants to thrive on caste, class and gender inequality in society. The targeting of religious minorities is its main weapon to polarise and divide India on communal lines to achieve that regressive end.

Also read: Don’t Pity Anand Teltumbde, Pity the System that Incarcerates Him

Right from its genesis, the RSS has worked as the stooge of British imperialism and upholder of Manuvad. When British colonialism was exploiting Indian resources and Indian people for their own interest, RSS chief M.S. Golwalkar had famously uttered at the peak of Indian freedom struggle, ““Hindus, don’t waste your energy fighting the British. Save your energy to fight our internal enemies that are Muslims, Christians, and Communists.”

It is another matter that patriotic Indians, including Hindus, never listened to anti-national Hindutva and fought British colonialism tooth and nail till the country got independence. In another instance, Golwalkar, praising Manu wrote,

“It is this fact which made the first and greatest law giver of the world – Manu, to lay down in his code, directing all the peoples of the world to come to learn their duties at the holy feet of the “Eldestborn” Brahmans of this land.”

However, much to the Sangh’s discomfort, the constitution of India Article 15, clearly laid out “prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth”.

Also read: Why We Must Defend Anand Teltumbde

Teltumbde belongs to that league of Ambedkarites who stands like a progressive intellectual wall against the neoliberal Hindutva of the RSS-BJP. It is important for the anti-people, RSS-guided Central government to breach this progressive intellectual wall for their forward march towards an unequal, regressive society of Hindutva ridden with caste discrimination, class inequality and patriarchal domination. They want to accelerate this time machine which will take us into the dark ages. For this reason, they have concocted a fake story of Maoist instigated violence and save the Hindutva activists who were behind the Bhima Koregaon violence and falsely implicate the Ambedkarite-led Elgar Parishad.

However, the truth will eventually prevail.  For this reason, it is important that all patriotic Indians must refute this nefarious attempt of the Sangh, using the Modi-Shah led Central government machinery to discredit progressive and egalitarian Ambedkarite intellectuals like Teltumbde.

His planned arrest on Ambedkar Jayanti is a blot on our nation. We demand his immediate release, and we demand the release of all the activists, thinkers and advocates who have been jailed in the Bhima Koregaon case.

Jignesh Mevani is MLA for Vadgam, Gujarat. Meena Kandaswamy is a poet and writer. Her most recent book is Exquisite Cadavers.

Bhima Koregaon: Amid Demands For Fresh Probe, A Hard Look at the Case’s Discrepancies

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.

Speaking to the media in Pune, Pawar said he would be meeting Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to discuss the case and to demand that a special investigation team (SIT) be set up.

This is a significant development as the earlier BJP-led government had used its might to ensure that the arrested activists remain in jail and had from time to time alleged that the accused were involved in a larger conspiracy to “assassinate” Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In June 2018, the Pune police had arrested nine rights activists and lawyers in a “well-coordinated, all-India level” investigation into what it termed “urban Naxalism’, but digital evidence made available to the accused reveals several discrepancies and possible tampering on the part of the Pune police.

The Pune police have solely relied on electronic evidence gathered from the computers of those arrested – mainly from Delhi-based prisoners’ rights activist Rona Wilson and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act expert and Nagpur-based Dalit rights lawyer Surendra Gadling – to build their case.

However, a closer look at the true copies made available to the accused only earlier this month after persistent court fights to access the evidence, The Wire has found several anomalies and inconsistencies in the claims made by the police, and the legal process that was followed.

Several anomalies

On April 17, 2018, the Pune police carried out multiple raids across India at the homes of several rights activists and lawyers. Among the first was 47- year-old Wilson, whose house was raided at 6 am. The raid, according to the time stamp on the video made available to the accused and accessed by The Wire, went on from 6:05 am to 2:02 pm, at his 10×12 square feet flat in the middle-class neighbourhood of Munirka in New Delhi.

After the raid, the police claimed to have followed the obligatory legal procedures and sealed Wilson’s computer, two external hard drives of one terabyte and 500 gigabyte each, and two memory cards comprising of the eight-hour-long video recorded at his place at the time of the raid. According to the charge sheet and the repeated claims made by the Pune police before the lower and higher judiciary, all the evidence was stored in an ‘anti-static bag’ and sealed with Lac sealing wax.

Evidence, as per procedure, once seized, is required to be sealed to ensure that it is not interfered with – including by policemen.

However, the time stamp on the forensic report shows that one of the two memory cards of the video recordings was last accessed at 5.22 pm – three hours after it was sealed. This timestamp raises doubts over the claims and the sanctity of the entire process of seizing and recording of evidence in the case.

Also read: Bhima Koregaon: NCP Leaders Ask Thackeray to Withdraw Cases Against Activists

Similarly, as per the standard operating procedure followed while collecting digital evidence, the investigating team has to take special care. In case the system is switched off at the time of the raid, the police, as per the prescribed rules laid down under the Information Technology Act, 2000, ought to seize the gadget in its original form. In Wilson’s case, however, the team, headed by the investigating officer in the case Dr. Shivaji Pawar, can be seen switching the computer on at 11.26 am and the computer remains switched on for several minutes before being taken into custody.

Strangely, the police have omitted this fact in the panchnama prepared soon after the raid at Wilson’s residence. While it lists the material seized and other related procedures, there is no mention of any reason for switching the computer on, the duration for which it was left running and also the methodology adopted in the raid process.

Four grabs from the video recording done by the Pune police at the time of raid conducted on June 6, 2018. A team led by investigating officer Dr. Shivaji Pawar (wearing a beige shirt) had visited Rona Wilson’s house. The raid had continued for over eight hours.

Another crucial pattern seen in the forensic report detailing material found on Wilson’s computer indicates that all “incriminating evidence”, as claimed by the police and later mentioned in the chargesheet filed in the case, were found in just one folder saved in the ‘E drive’ of the computer. According to the forensic report, the folder, named “RBackup” contained letters, documents and several finance updates maintained by Wilson from time to time.

A close scrutiny of this particular folder is essential as the police’s case is largely dependent on evidence collected here – as claimed, the conspiracy letter of the “assassination plot” of prime minister Narendra Modi was found in this folder.

According to the police, the letter is addressed to one ‘comrade Prakash’, and in it, the accused have allegedly discussed a “sinister plot” to kill the prime minister. The police, however, have not found any more evidence regarding this serious claim. These letters were selectively leaked to a few media houses soon after the arrests.  

This ‘Rbackup’ folder, furnished to the defence lawyers as exhibit No. 17.1, appears to have been archived, created and last accessed all within a matter of few seconds. The forensic report shows it was created on ‘Sun Feb 11 15:41:48 UTC+0530 2018’ and last accessed at the same time ‘Sun Feb 11, 15:41:48 UTC+0530 2018’ and last written a few seconds later at ‘Sun Feb 11, 15:41:17 UTC+0530 2018’.

The folder contains letters supposedly exchanged between Wilson and ‘comrade Prakash’, documents for several meetings and accounts maintained from several human rights meetings and congregations. Names of several leading human rights activists and lawyers have also been mentioned in these letters.

Also read: A Year Later, Rights Activists Accused in Bhima Koregaon Case Struggle for Bail

Soon after the first round of arrest of five persons – writer and Dalit rights activist Sudhir Dhawale, tribal land rights activist and former Prime Minister Rural Development Fellow Mahesh Raut, Nagpur university retired professor Shoma Sen, Rona, and Gadling – on June 6, at a press conference, the Pune police had claimed that the arrested accused were plotting to kill PM Modi in a “Rajiv Gandhi style” assassination plot.

On August 28, the police arrested four others: Hyderabad based poet and writer Vara Vara Rao, rights activist and lawyer Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj.

The two volumes of chargesheet, however, don’t go beyond the claims of assassination made in the letters seized.

Curious case of folders ‘cut and pasted’ on Gadling’s desktop

Similarly, in the case of Nagpur-based lawyer Surendra Gadling, the police claimed to have found incriminating evidence in a backup file stored on his desktop. In a detailed news report published this month in Caravan magazine, authors Martand Kaushik and Anjaneya Sivan raised questions about the curious pattern in the “last accessed” timestamps for all the incriminating files.

“The date and time in the timestamps range from “Thu Dec 7 22:04:07 UTC+0530 2017” to “Thu Dec 7 22:05:55 UTC+0530 2017” – a span of one minute and 48 seconds. This suggests that the last thing to have happened to these files is that they were cut and pasted into their current location,” the reporters have pointed out.

Gadling’s lawyer Nihalsing Rathod raised an interesting point while speaking to The Wire. “The charges against these accused are of assassinating the prime minister. Any layperson can tell you to see this conspiracy through, one has to carry out an extremely clandestine conspiracy and it has to go beyond a few wild claims made in purported letters found so openly on someone’s computer desktop,” he said.

Pointing to Gadling’s work as a lawyer, he said, “Gadling has been a criminal lawyer for nearly two decades handling cases of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and other stringent laws. It is rather silly what the police have claimed in this case so far.”

Also read: Arrests, Summons, Externment: Maharashtra Police Moves Against 200 Activists

Several files found in Gadling’s computer were created and accessed months before his computer was installed. According to the forensic report, Gadling’s computer was installed on November 2, 2017. However, several documents saved on his computer show a date stamp of several months prior to installation.

Police failure to follow the due process

It is important to note that the police was fully equipped at the time of the raid. Along with the Pune police, the local district police, two Panch (who, as per the Code of Criminal Procedure is an independent, respectful person from the locality) witnesses from Pune and a cyber expert had accompanied the police.

Yet, the police did not comply with the procedures of handing over the “hash value”, the numerical value of the digital seal, to the accused persons soon after the raids. These hash values are a crucial piece of evidence as any attempt of tampering made from either side would be recorded as a separate numerical value.

Top row (from left): Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut
Middle row: Shoma Sen, Vernon Gonsalves, Varavara Row; Bottom row: Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira and Rona Wilson

The police have no reason to deny the hash value since they were accompanied by a cyber expert during each of these multiple raids. However, they either did not provide hash value at all or, in some cases, it was given several months later only after defence lawyers submitted multiple applications. In Gadling’s case, it was given only in the month of November – five whole months after his arrest. The police have not yet given any explanation for this delay.

In the case of the video recording carried out at Gadling’s house, the police completed the seizure only a day after the raid, i.e. April 18.

The cases of the witnesses

As per subsection 4 of Section 100 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the police are deemed to find two independent and respectable persons of the same locality where search raids are to be carried out. These witnesses are called Panch witnesses and are considered to be independent persons testifying in the case.

However, in every raid other than the one at Gadling’s house, the Pune police made use of ‘stock’ witnesses who had travelled with the police team from Pune – thereby compromising the independence of their observations.

Raid without permission

On two separate occasions before raids took places, the Pune police had sought permission to conduct searches at the residences of those arrested and other accused named in the chargesheet. However, these applications were rejected.

While rejecting the police’s application, judicial magistrate of first-class (JMFC) P.T. Shejwal- Kale, in an order passed on March 9, 2018, had observed that, “Nowhere, the investigating officer has mentioned as to why he presumes that, accused will not produce the documents by notice under Section 91 of the CrPC… Hence, I am of the view that search warrant under section 93 of the CrPC is not warranted.”

The police, seem to have carried on with the raid despite this order. 

Pune magistrate court’s order denying permission to the police to carry out the raids.

The Wire has tried to contact the Pune police for comments on these discrepancies in the case, but has yet to receive a reply. The story will be updated as and when the police respond.

It has been close to a year-and-a-half since many of those arrested have been in jail. Their lawyers have been running pillar to post trying to secure bail and to keep those named in the FIR who have not been arrested out of jail.

Meanwhile, on December 18, the police submitted draft charges to the Pune sessions court and the court is scheduled to frame charges soon.

‘Plot to Kill PM’, ‘Waging War’ in Draft Charges in ‘Elgar Parishad’ Case

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.

On Wednesday, the prosecution had submitted draft charges against the 19 accused named in the case, including nine activists and lawyers – Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Arun Ferriera, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Varavara Rao. All of them are under arrest.

Top row (from left): Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut
Middle row: Shoma Sen, Vernon Gonsalves, Varavara Row; Bottom row: Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira and Rona Wilson

The draft charges were submitted in the special Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) court presided over by additional sessions judge S.R. Navander.

“These charges include conspiracy to wage war against the Government of India, to overthrow the government, conspiracy to murder the constitutional authority, recruitment of students and training them for subversive activities, procuring weapons and ammunition and other unlawful activities,” said Ujjwala Pawar, special public prosecutor.

Also read: Bhima Koregaon: NCP Leaders Ask Thackeray to Withdraw Cases Against Activists

According to the draft charges brought under IPC sections 121 and 121A, some of the arrested accused along with some absconding accused, who are active members of the banned CPI (Maoists) and other front organisations engaged in “waging war” against the Government of India and the Government of Maharashtra, the prosecution stated.

It said the accused were conspiring to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his roadshows in a manner similar to the killing of former PM Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.

“For the same, they conspired to demand and organise Rs 8 crore for the supply of M-4 (sophisticated weapon) with 400,000 rounds and other arms and ammunition through designated supplier from Nepal and Manipur and conspired to assassinate Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi during his roadshows on the lines of Rajiv Gandhi incident,” according to the draft charges.

The accused conspired to overthrow the Government of India and the state government by means of criminal force or show of criminal force, the prosecution said.

“Thereby (the accused ) committed an offence punishable under section 121A of the IPC,” it said.

The prosecution said after going through the evidence, the court will frame charges against the accused, setting the stage for the commencement of trial.

According to the Pune Police, the Elgar Parishad conclave held here on December 31, 2017, was supported by Maoists, and the inflammatory speeches made at the event led to caste violence at Koregaon Bhima war memorial on outskirts of the city the next day.

The Left-leaning activists arrested during the subsequent probe had links with Maoists, the police claimed.

Also read: The People’s Fighters: Meet the Five Arrested in the Bhima Koregaon Case

In pursuance of the conspiracy, some of the arrested accused along with some those absconding and underground, organised Elgar Parishad through their front organisation Kabir Kala Manch for creating communal disharmony, according to the draft charges.

At the conclave, they enacted provocative songs, short plays, dance, and distributed books and Naxal literature and exploited communal sentiments of Dalits and other classes in order to create violence, instability, and chaos in Pune district, including Koregaon Bhima, the prosecution said.

Besides the nine arrested activists, the other absconding/underground accused against whom the draft charges were submitted are Sagar Gorkhe, Harshali Potdar, Ramesh Gaichor, Dhawla Dengale, Jyoti Jagtap of Kabir Kala Manch and underground cadres of CPI (Maoist) – Milind Teltumbade, Comrades Prakash, Mangalu, Deepu, Kishan alias Prashanto Bose.

The accused have been booked UAPA, an anti-terror law, and relevant sections of the IPC.

The IPC sections slapped against the accused include 120B (criminal conspiracy ), 121 (waging or attempting to wage or abetting waging war against GoI) 121A (conspiracy to commit offences punishable under section 121), 124A (sedition) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 117 (abetting commission of offence by public or by more than ten persons).

Anyone convicted under the IPC section 121, which deals with waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government of India, faces the death sentence or imprisonment for life.

The activists have denied the charges, while their counsel has called the evidence against them “flimsy“. Several people who were attacked in the Bhima Koregaon violence have accused Hindutva leaders Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote of orchestrating it. The police overlooked those complaints and instead named the rights activists as the accused.

After the Maha Vikas Aghadi government of the Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP was formed, there have been signs that the prosecution may be dropped. NCP MLA Dhananjay Munde wrote to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, requesting him to look into the “false allegations” made against the activists and lawyers.

(With PTI inputs)

Bhima Koregaon: NCP Leaders Ask Thackeray to Withdraw Cases Against Activists

Sources in the government say a concrete announcement is likely to be made on December 6 in favour of the Dalit community.

Mumbai: Nearly 18 months after rights activists and lawyers were sent to jail on bizarre charges of being “urban Naxals”, the newly formed Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra is showing signs of taking another look into the allegations.

NCP MLA Dhananjay Munde has written to the state’s chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, requesting him to look into the “false allegations” made against activists and lawyers who have been languishing in jail. Munde, in his letter, has demanded that the cases be withdrawn and the activists be released soon. NCP, along with Sena and Congress has recently formed a government in the state.

Last year, the Pune police, in two rounds, had arrested nine activists. These activists, according to the police, have been involved in “urban Naxalism” and had allegedly plotted to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a “Rajiv Gandhi style assassination plot”. Those arrested are also accused of triggering violence on thousands of Dalit-Bahujans who were visiting Bhima Koregaon in the outskirts of Pune on January 1, 2018. The gathering was organised to celebrate the 200th anniversary of a historic battle won by the British army – largely comprised of soldiers from the Dalit community – against the Peshwa regime ruled by the Brahmin king Baji Rao II in 1818.

In a letter, written in Marathi, to the CM, Munde said, “The BJP government has falsely implicated several activists. While some of them are already behind bars, others have been forced to visit the courts on a daily basis. BJP government has always been against an individual’s freedom of speech.” Munde further says, “People raising their voice against the government are intentionally attacked. At such times, it is important that those who have been victimised by the BJP government are given justice.”

Dhananjaya Munde’s letter.

Sena, which was in alliance with the BJP until early this year, had been critical of the way Fadnavis government had handled the investigation. Sena, in its mouthpiece Saamana had ridiculed the Pune police’s grounds for arrest. While the practice of “using the police” for different aims is not new for the politicians and government, in the present instance, “the faster the truth emerges, the better,” (remove the ‘mukhota‘) for the police, the paper’s editorial in September 2018 read.

Those arrested include Sudhir Dhawale, a writer and Mumbai-based Dalit rights activist, Surendra Gadling, a UAPA expert and lawyer from Nagpur, Mahesh Raut, a young activist on displacement issues from Gadchiroli, Shoma Sen, a university professor and head of the English literature department at Nagpur University, Rona Wilson, a Delhi-based prisoners’ rights activist, advocate Arun Ferreira, advocate Sudha Bharadwaj, writer Varavara Rao and Vernon Gonsalves. While the first five were arrested on June 6, others’ arrests followed.

Also read: A Year Later, Rights Activists Accused in Bhima Koregaon Case Struggle for Bail

Soon after the violence in Bhima Koregaon, two senior Brahmin Hindutva leaders – Manohar Bhide and Minind Ekbote – were thought to be the masterminds behind the attack. Several victims had named them as the prime accused and said they had plotted and unleashed their men on the Bahujans visiting Bhima Koregaon. But the police overlooked those complaints and instead named several rights activists as the accused.

Top row (from left): Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut; Middle row: Shoma Sen, Vernon Gonsalves, Varavara Row; Bottom row: Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira and Rona Wilson

The police had solely based this case on electronic evidence and alleged letters that were exchanged between the arrested accused and some persons shown to be “absconding” in the case.  The veracity of the electronic evidence has been challenged by the defence lawyers and also former judges.

Advocate Nihalsing Rathod, who has been appearing for some of the arrested persons in the case, welcomed the sitting government’s interest to relook into the allegation. He says, “The entire case is mythical and evidence has been planted since Day 1. The police have till date not given the accused hash copy of the seizures made from their homes. We have made several applications demanding mirror image of the electronic evidence the police claim to have recovered from their computers. But that too hasn’t been handed over to the accused.”

While a bunch of activists were named as the main perpetrators of the violence at Bhima Koregaon, the state police had also launched a combing operation against Dalit rights activists, especially those politically assertive, and charged them for vandalism and attack. Several hundred were arrested in the aftermath of the attack and eventually released. The Devendra Fadnavis-led government had promised to take these cases back. However, the promise wasn’t honoured. Several activists have been slapped with legal notices, summons and externment notices on a regular basis and the Dalit community in the state has lived under the constant fear of being arrested.

Also read: Arrests, Summons, Externment: Maharashtra Police Moves Against 200 Activists

Prakash Gajbiye, an NCP leader and member of the legislative council, has written a letter to Thackeray asking to look into these cases and stop the harassment of Dalit youth in the state. “The Fadnavis government made use of the local police and had implicated several Dalit rights activists, including women and young children,” Gajbiye has pointed out.

Several other leaders, including NCP’s Jitendra Awhad, have sought the government’s attention into the matter. On December 6, on Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s death anniversary, a large number of Bahujans will be gathering in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park. Sources in the government have indicated that some concrete announcement is likely to be made on December 6 in favour of the Dalit community. “The government is serious about reviewing these cases. Several activists have suffered under the Fadnavis government and we want to ensure that doesn’t repeat in our government. We are trying to take every measure to avoid that situation,” a senior leader told The Wire.

Along with the criminal cases registered across the state, Fadnavis had also set up a judicial commission to look into the reasons behind the violence. More than a year-and-half later, the commission has not even completed recording the statements. Elected members of the recently appointed Maha Vikas Aghadi government have also sought a review of the commission’s work.

Fifth Supreme Court Judge Recuses Himself From Hearing Gautam Navlakha’s Plea

The activist is challenging the Bombay high court’s order refusing to quash the FIR registered against him in the Bhima Koregaon case.

New Delhi: A fifth Supreme Court judge has recused himself from hearing activist Gautam Navlakha’s petition challenging the Bombay high court’s order refusing to quash an FIR lodged against him in the Bhima Koregaon violence case.. Justice Ravindra Bhat followed Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice B.R. Gavai, N.V. Ramana and R. Subhash Reddy to become the fifth judge in three days to recuse himself from hearing the case.

While CJI Gogoi recused himself on Monday (September 30), the three other judges recused themselves on Tuesday. None of the judges has provided a reason for recusing themselves.

Navlakha and other activists and lawyers have been charged for having alleged Maoist links and triggering violence at the Bhima Koregaon rally in 2017. The Pune Police arrested several activists across the country in September 2018. Among those accused are Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Sudha Bharadwaj, all of whom have been arrested.

They have been charged under provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and sections of the Indian Penal Code.

On September 13, the Bombay high court had refused to quash the FIR lodged against him in the case noting that there was prima facie substance in the case. The high court had said, “Considering the magnitude of the case, we feel a thorough investigation is required”.

The high court had however extended the protection from arrest to Navlakha for a period of three weeks to enable him to approach the Supreme Court to file an appeal against its order.

My Anti-National Bookshelf Could Get Me Into Trouble

Writers have suffered all over the world for their books and their convictions. In this Brave New Technological Paradise of ours, now it could be the turn of the reader.

Note: This article was first published on September 4, 2018 and is being republished on August 29, 2019, after the Bombay high court asked Vernon Gonsalves to explain why he had a copy of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace in his house.

As a sickular and a ‘libtard’ (unfortunate word, not mine), I have a lot of books at home. As a ‘presstitute’, I have even written a few. But given what is happening in our country now, I am seriously reassessing my bibliomania – not only just because I am running out of space to keep them, but because it has become risky to do so.

The arrests of five activists from different parts of the country last week by the Pune police is an omen of these risks. While conducting the raids, the cops looked closely at books these activists had at home and they had questions.

From the home of EFLU professor K. Satyanarayana, a son-in-law of arrested writer and poet Varavara Rao – who has made no secret of his sympathies for the Maoists – the cops picked up all material that was red in colour and also books and pamphlets with references (including photos) to Dalits, caste or Karl Marx. “They asked me why I had books of Mao and Marx. Why I had songs of Gaddar…Why do you want to be an intellectual? Why can’t you be happy with the money you are getting?” Similar questions were posed to Rao’s other son-in-law K.V. Kurmanath – the police found the books on Dalits he had in his collection highly suspicious.

Clearly, for the Pune police at least, “intellectuals” are dangerous and possibly planning an insurrection. Even as the courts have criticised the shoddy procedural lapses while arresting the five, the Pune police commissioner has said that incriminating evidence has been collected, which apparently suggests that these activists were planning to acquire weapons and also instigate attacks on security forces. In other words, a war against the state.

These events have made me take a close look at my own bookshelf. How would the cops interpret my own collection? Will they find it sinister? Should I be worried and keep those books out of sight from now on?

What would they say, for example, if they chanced upon books on and by Jawaharlal Nehru, who, if not actually a Maoist sympathiser, is now considered responsible for all that is wrong in this country? When the highest in the land makes it clear that Nehru is persona non grata and must not be named in any context – even when discussing the space programme or the IITs, which were set up under his administration – then the officials down the line quickly pick up the signals. So many books on Nehru would definitely be seen as borderline seditious.

Gandhi might just about escape scrutiny, but a volume of Das Kapital by Karl Marx would get the alarm bells ringing. There are other Marxes too – a wonderful biography of his daughter Eleanor and a couple of books on Groucho Marx. This would certainly make me a bona fide Marxist. Fortunately, a copy of Mao’s red book, picked up in a leftist store in New York a long time ago has gone missing, but there are biographies of his lying around somewhere – a Maoist too!

The Soviets are well represented. During the heyday of India’s friendship with the USSR, beautifully designed books were available for really low prices and found a ready market in India via the various People’s Publishing House outlets in the cities. They sit proudly on the shelf: biographies of Lenin, and books on history, science and even folk tales and the great novels of course. Crime and Punishment – highly suggestive.

Then there are the classics – Shakespeare, Shaw, Dickens. Julius Caesar, about a power made ruler? Arms and the Man? Great Expectations? Does this imply the dream of ‘achche din‘ is forever lost? Various Indian authors, from Prem Chand to Yashpal to Manto – hmm, books about the prostitutes in red light areas!

All the great detective and mystery novels – Conan Doyle, Christie, Chandler – Murder Most Foul, The Body in the Library and more like them, may perhaps indicate some crime is being planned. I can see the top cop asking,“Why do you have so many books about crime? That clearly shows you are mixed up with criminals of some sort.”(John Le Carre will probably escape their scrutiny as The Honorable Schoolboy sounds quite like the ‘Adarsh Bharatiya Balak’ and therefore could get me some brownie points.) Alice in Wonderland – I wonder what they will make of it.

On the other hand, there are several books on the British Raj and the East India Company, which could easily establish me as an agent. To compound it, there are hardly any books on religion and I think I was lucky that I did not buy any of Wendy Doniger’s works. But a book by M.F. Husain on his stint in parliament is positively incendiary.

Even omissions could raise questions. Religious texts are conspicuous by their absence – somehow never had the time nor the inclination to get them. And why is there not a single book on management techniques: how to become a leader types or the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People or biographies of great CEOs of global companies. No interest in them at all.

There are others too that I may not have noticed in the jumble that is my bookshelf. But a search by a raiding party – and they can be pretty thorough – could unearth tomes one picked up at various stage of life without care or worry and which today would be considered subversive. Who could foresee how things would turn out?

So I live with some dread. With the way the state is beginning to look into every aspect of the citizen’s life, telling her what she can eat, who she can love or marry and even how to prove not just her patriotism but also her citizenship, how long before it comes out with a prescribed list of books that can be bought and read? This is easily achievable – just make it mandatory to give one’s Aadhaar number while buying a book.

Writers have suffered all over the world for their books and their convictions. In this Brave New Technological Paradise of ours, now it could be the turn of the reader.

Take a photo of your bookshelf and tweet it to us with #MyAntiNationalBookshelf.