Tag: Anand Teltumbde caste

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

His incarceration shall remain an indelible black mark on the history of governance of this country.

When he surrenders on April 6, 2020, as per the Supreme Court’s directions, professor Anand Teltumbde will be the first alumnus of the hallowed IIM, Ahmedabad, the first IIT professor and the first CEO of a company to be charged under the dreaded Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which renders a person suspected by the police utterly defenceless. He will also be the first member of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s family to be incarcerated.

One of the most highly educated figures in the country, professor Teltumbde has had a stellar academic career, passing out from some of the elite institutions of the country, despite his upbringing in a poor family of landless labourers from Vidarbha. He has also held leadership positions in campus and was decorated with many recognitions and awards.

His colleagues at Visvesvaraya National Institute Of Technology, at Nagpur, say that he held an unbreakable record in college elections whenever he contested them. They maintain that had Teltumbde pursued a career in electoral politics, as many expected him to, he could have emerged as a front-ranking leader in the country.

But early on his life, Teltumbde rejected the notion of pursuing a career in mainstream politics. However, he never abandoned his passion for uplifting weaker sections of society even whilst pursuing a professional career. Throughout his life, he worked silently for this cause.

His colleagues in companies have said that he was extremely popular among employees, particularly those of the working class. They respected his fairness and accepted his decisions – even those that they were displeased with.

On certain occasions, Teltumbde would narrate entire incidents to support his position in the discussion. One such incident that he told us about was from when he was a trainee at Indian Oil Corporation in the 1970s. Owing to his non-conformist behaviour, he was given a project by the management in West Bengal’s Bardhaman, during a period of extreme industrial unrest. Reports of officers being beaten by workers were so common that at the Barauni Refinery, where Teltumbde was posted, the managerial staff lived in fear of the workers.

Also read: Forum for RTE ‘Disappointed’ by SC Decision on Anand Teltumbde’s Anticipatory Bail

During such turbulent times, when his chief manager asked him about the manpower that he needed for the project, Teltumbde made a rather unusual request: that he be given those workers who had a record of beating at least one manager and were considered problematic for the management. The chief manager was stunned by such a request by a fresher in the company but obliged him by sending 14 such ‘problematic’ workers, drawn from various units, with a history in alleged misbehaviour.

Most of them were union functionaries and were reputed as workers who shirked labour. Yet such was Teltumbde’s behaviour with them that the workers became a team and managed to finish the project way before the scheduled deadline and within a fraction of its perceived cost.

When the time came for Teltumbde to return, the elderly workers, in tears, acknowledged that working alongside him was the best period of their lives and wondered how a ‘kid’ like him had made such a difference. It reflected not only his management philosophy but also a very humane side of his personality.

Teltumbde would always say that he had yet to meet a bad person; every person had something in them and it was left to managers to extract the best out of them. In each of the numerous assignments he handled over four decades of his corporate life, he created something new and dynamic.

When he became head of information systems in Bharat Petroleum in 1995, he transformed, within just six months, the moribund Electronic Data Processing department of a giant corporation into a front-ranking information system that even the IT companies envied. Everything new in the country in information technology – enterprise-wide office automation, networking, e-mail and workflow systems, Intranet, document management system, data warehousing and business intelligence systems, Knowledge Management System and implementation of SAP – was implemented at Bharat Petroleum.

While his juniors adored and almost worshipped him, his seniors lived in discomfort, as he could not be taken for granted. Therefore, he did not get rewarded in time. But even that could not stop him from reaching the top. He became the executive director at BPCL and retired as the managing director and CEO of Petronet India Limited.

Also read: Why We Must Defend Anand Teltumbde

After his retirement, he was invited by IIT Kharagpur to join its faculty of Business Management, where he taught until July 2016, before transferring to the Goa Institute of Management that had asked him to start a new programme in Big Data Analytics. He designed a novel programme and successfully implemented it as the first programme in India. For this, All India Council for Technical Education had to create a new name.

The programme was ranked among the top ten analytics programmes in the country before it was even past its first term and its strength had doubled before even a single batch had passed out.

Professor Teltumbde had an unusual parallel career as a writer, commentator, analyst, public intellectual and a civil rights activist who stood steadfast on the side of the oppressed.

He consistently wrote about contemporary issues and established himself as a public intellectual. He was selected to preside over the last Vicharvedh Sammelan, the prestigious forum of the intellectuals in Maharashtra, which existed between the 1990s and early 2000s. While occupying the high positions in the corporate world, he would participate in various fact-finding missions as a member of the Maharashtra-based Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR). He would participate in every possible protest against injustices across the country.

As a professor at IIT Kharagpur, he would travel to lead the protests against the killing of Dalits in Paramkudi in Tamil Nadu and  spearhead the movement of Dalits in Pathpalli in the Mahbubnagar district of Telangana.

His writings thus acquired a unique flavour, which did not easily fall in any familiar genre.

He wrote 28 books, a number of book chapters, numerous articles and delivered scores of lectures in fields which were far from his formal discipline. Most of them have been translated by activist circles across the country into local languages. Even for a professor of disciplines like sociology, political science, economics or anthropology, his volume of output would be enviable.

Watch | ‘I Don’t See Any Anti-Caste Movement Today’: Anand Teltumbde

Even as the present government has implicated him in the Elgar Parishad case under the draconian UAPA, the public and institutions continue to hold him in high respect, expressing their disagreement with the government’s actions. For instance, his institute, the Goa Institute of Management instituted him on its board of governors and public institutions kept honouring him with prestigious awards.

Just last year, he was awarded by a Bengaluru-based Ambedkarite organisation with their highest recognition of the Bodhisatva Award and the Kerala-based Professor Aravindakshan Memorial Trust honoured him with its prestigious annual award.

One pities the system that would lock up such an illustrious man behind bars. His incarceration shall remain an indelible black mark on the history of governance of this country.

Anupam Banerjee is a research scholar and Anirban Goswami is an alumnus of IIT, Kharagpur. The essay is based on personal interactions with Anand Teltumbde while he was at IIT and with other people who knew him.

Prakash Ambedkar, Family Express Concern Over Pune Police Hounding Anand Teltumbde

‘The vehemence with which the Central government took away the case to NIA, the intentions of the state has become clearer.’

New Delhi: The Maharashtra-based Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief and Dr. B.R Ambedkar’s grandson Prakash Ambedkar and his family on Saturday came out in defence of social activist Anand Teltumbde, who has been implicated in the Elgar Parishad case. 

Addressing a press conference, Prakash and his family said Teltumbde has been “a part of us since 1983” and that they were extremely concerned about his “hounding” by the Pune Police. The VBA chief’s defence came after Teltumbde’s plea to quash the case was rejected by the Bombay high court recently. 

 “When in August 2018 the Pune Police implicated him in the now-infamous Elgar Parishad case, we were aghast but sure that the police would realise their mistake and if it goes to court, the court would quash the case.” 

“Over the last two years we reared this notion. But recently when the high court rejected his petition and the vehemence with which the Central government took away the case to National Investigation Agency (NIA), the intentions of the state has become clearer that it wants to incarcerate him in jails for years.”

The family expressed hope that the Supreme Court would come to Teltumbde’s rescue.

Speaking to the press at Maharashtra Sadan in the national capital, Prakash said that Teltumbde was being targeted by the BJP government at the Centre as he is a part of the Ambedkar family.          

Also watch | ‘I Don’t See Any Anti-Caste Movement Today’: Anand Teltumbde

“We also wish to make it clear that as a candid and original thinker, his opinions may not sound stereotypical but he is Ambedkarite at the core and has contributed to define Babasaheb Ambedkar’s ideas more than any living person today,” he said. 

He said that Teltumbde, born in a poor family of landless labourers, had strived hard to emerge as an intellectual. “… he has earned laurels in academic passing from elite institutions like VNIT, IIM, Ahmedabad and earned his doctoral degree in the frontier science of Cybernetics. He ranks among the best educated persons in the world,” Prakash said.  

Highlighting his professional achievements, Prakash also spoke on Teltumbde’s role as a member of the Maharashtra-based Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR). “[He] was elected as its General Secretary…even when he was outside Maharashtra,” the VBA president said. 

“Such a person has been implicated in the fabricated case of Elgar Parishad, which he did not even attend. When he was illegally arrested by the Police, there was a wave of protests across the world at unprecedented scale. The process of Elgar Parishad case has amply revealed the fabrication of case. The case that stood on the confiscated digital devices, which in absence of the hash values remained wide open to be manipulated by the police must have been dismissed at the inception itself,” the leader said. 

He expressed concern that the police had gone ahead with the case against him despite the fact that “nothing” was recovered from him. 

If Teltumbde is arrested, he would be tried under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act which does not allow anticipatory bail. This may mean that Teltumbde could be in jail for years even at the time of trial.

‘I Don’t See Any Anti-Caste Movement Today’: Teltumbde on Ambedkar Jayanti

At an event organised by The Leaflet, Teltumbde spoke about contemporary challenges impacting India’s anti-caste movement.

New Delhi: Noted academic and author of several books on anti-caste, Anand Teltumbde, addressed a public gathering in Delhi on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti.

This year marks 128 years since the birth of Babasaheb Ambedkar in 1891.

Teltumbde is currently seeking anticipatory bail in the Elgaar Parishad case where the Pune police have alleged that about 22 well-known public intellectuals and activists, including Teltumbde, have links to Maoist groups and were involved in the Bhima Koregaon violence of 2017. His bail hearing comes up in court on April 16 along with Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Fereira.

Also read: ‘Bizarre, Concocted Theories’: The Many Holes in the Case Against Anand Teltumbde

At the event organised by The Leaflet, a website managed by senior advocates Indira Jaisingh and Anand Grover, Teltumbde spoke about contemporary challenges impacting India’s anti-caste movement.

His talk focused on fractures in India’s Dalit rights, anti-caste and Ambedkarite movement. His critique of the discourse, literature and movement was unsparing – he raised questions about Ambedkar as well as politicians and followers of Ambedkar who claim to work in his name.

“I don’t see any anti-caste movement today,” said Teltumbde. “I have not come across anyone who explicitly says they want caste annihilation.”

‘Annihilation of caste’ is a radical center-piece text of the Dalit movement. It was a speech which Ambedkar had prepared in 1936, to address a gathering of Hindu reformists who had invited him to speak on caste. They rescinded his invitation but the text was published anyway.

“Caste as a system is collapsing but caste as a consciousness is increasing,” said Teltumbde.

His speech in Delhi made critical references to various political parties, including ones that they say are working for the betterment of Dalit lives.

On the BJP he said, “They said that wherever Ambedkar laid his foot, will be memorialised. Paradoxically, whatever Ambedkar stood for is being trampled on.”  He referred to the Congress’s promise of a basic income and said that “these are the modes of the ruling class.”

On parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party, he asked, “Is it the goal that Dalits become rulers? That is what BSP is promising.”

In 1942, Ambedkar founded the Scheduled Castes Federation which evolved into the Republican Party. Teltumbde said that today the party has an uncountable number of factions: “Caste is like an amoeba. It keeps on splitting. So how does one organise people to be anti-caste?” and “Take anything and it is in disarray. What has caused this?”

In response to his own question he said it was a “low hanging fruit” to blame this disarray on ruling parties. “But there are some intrinsic things also that brought this about.”

Teltumbde also questioned the allegiances which the anti-caste movement has been making: “Can there be a Dalit politics? If things are so divided, then how do we unite?”

He asked if it was always necessary to see a “caste-certificate” to check if someone is a friend: “Today’s caste certificate holders may be the greatest enemies. Whereas, maybe others, maybe Brahmins, could be friends.”

This February, Teltumbde along with a number of political thinkers, writers and activists, were arrested from around India, in what became known as the ‘Elgaar Parishad case.’

Also read: ‘Vilest Post-Independence Plot by the State’, Writes Anand Teltumbde

The government alleged in court that these well-known public intellectuals were actually urban fronts for Maoist activities and that they were linked to “inflammatory” speeches which led to the Bhima Koregaon clash in December 2017. About 22 people were named in the case, including Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Shoma Sen, Sudha Bharadwaj, P, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonzales, Arun Fereira, Gautam Navlakha and Stan Swamy. Several were arrested and are pursuing bail.

Teltumbde was briefly arrested in February by the Pune police.

The Supreme Court rejected his plea to quash the FIR against him but also granted him protection for arrest for four weeks, in January, so that he could seek bail from the trial court. Then a Pune sessions court rejected his plea for anticipatory bail. The same Pune court later ruled that his arrest was “illegal.” The Bombay High Court denied him protection but said he could be released on a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh.

Teltumbde is the author of 26 books, including a number of books on caste in India such as Republic of Caste: Thinking Equality in the Time of Neoliberal Hindutva, The Persistence of Caste: India’s Hidden Apartheid and the Khairlanji Murders and Dalits: Past, Present and Future.

He is currently a professor at the Goa Institute of Management, previously a professor at IIT and is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedab

Bombay High Court Grants Anand Teltumbde Protection From Arrest Till February 22

Teltumbde has also been directed to appear before the investigating officer of the case on February 14 and 18.

New Delhi: The Bombay high court on Monday extended the interim protection granted to scholar Anand Teltumbde from February 11 to February 22 – the date it has set for the next hearing.

In case of arrest, the high court added, Teltumbde could be released on bail upon providing a bond of Rs 1 lakh. According to reports, Teltumbde has also been directed to appear before the investigating officer of the case on February 14 and 18.


Pune police had arrested Teltumbde on February 2 despite the Supreme Court granting him protection from arrest for four weeks. He was eventually released the same day after a Pune sessions court intervened.

On January 14, the Supreme Court of India had refused to quash the FIR filed against Teltumbde, a leading civil rights activist and an Indian Institute of Management-alumnus, for his alleged role as an “urban Naxal”.

On February 1, a Pune court declined Teltumbde’s request for anticipatory bail. Though his lawyers said they would be moving the high court, the arresting officers cited the Pune court’s denial of bail as the reason they were taking him into custody.

Also read: Despite Supreme Court’s Protection, Pune Police Arrests Scholar Anand Teltumbde

Teltumbde, along with nine other rights activists and lawyers currently in prison, has been booked under two charges – for allegedly plotting to assassinate prime minister Narendra Modi, and for allegedly inciting mob violence on the Dalits who had visited Bhima Koregaon on January 1 last year.

Speaking to The Wire last month, Teltumbde had said, “They (the police) have presented concocted theories since day one. These theories have not an iota of truth in them and will never be proved.”

Also read: ‘Vilest Post-Independence Plot by the State’, Writes Anand Teltumbde

On the case against him and 14 others named in the FIR in the Bhima Koregaon case, Teltumbde, an IIM alumnus and an anti-caste scholar, had said, “One can see it in the way the police have gone on with a witch-hunt against other activists and me. A multi-state police action was launched against us. Our houses were raided, frenzy was whipped across the nation. And all this was done without bringing on record a single piece of substantive evidence against me or anyone.”

‘Anand Teltumbde’s Arrest Makes a Mockery of Due Process’: Petitioners

“Professor Teltumbde’s arrest demonstrates that the procedure of arresting people without proven evidence is now government policy.”

New Delhi: Anand Teltumbde, along with nine other human rights activists and lawyers, was accused of plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and for allegedly inciting mob violence on Dalits who had gathered in Bhima Koregaon on January 1 last year.

On January 14, the Supreme Court refused to quash an FIR filed against Teltumbde, a leading civil rights activist and alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, for his alleged role as an “urban Naxal” in the Bhima Koregaon massacre. However, the court granted him protection from arrest for four weeks – till at least February 11 – enabling him to acquire regular/pre-emptive bail from a lower court in Pune.

Despite the Supreme Court’s directive, the Maharashtra police on February 2 arrested the renowned scholar at 3:30 am. It was reported that he was taken into custody at Mumbai airport. Later the same day, a Pune sessions court ordered his immediate release, saying that in arresting Teltumbde, the Maharashtra police was in contempt of the Supreme Court’s directives.

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

The petitioners who had approached the Supreme Court against the arrest of five civil rights activists in the Bhima Koregaon case in August 2018, have issued the following press statement:

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“While the illegal arrest of Professor Anand Teltumbde by the Maharashtra Police in defiance of the Supreme Court has been set aside for the time being, the fact that it occurred at all points to the break-down of rule of law within a government agency whose duty it is to uphold the law. It makes a mockery of our constitutional guarantees, of due process and of democracy itself. The motivation behind these arrests and the abuse of process they highlight has been strongly questioned by many, but these serious doubts and even the reservations of the higher judiciary have been ignored by government.

Professor Teltumbde’s arrest demonstrates that the procedure of arresting people without proven evidence, is now government policy. That academics, intellectuals, writers, lawyers and others are arrested at will without due process or reasonable cause is a frontal attack on the right to think freely and express and discuss an opinion in public.

Those that have been arrested will be incarcerated for years to come, judging by the fact that even the five “activists” arrested last year, spend month after month in jail without a proper judicial hearing. This is a well known way of silencing citizens who express dissent or work towards establishing basic human rights, and suggests that the state is willing to subvert the Constitution.

It is time, therefore, for concerned citizens to build a broad-based, peaceful and constitutional resistance to such subversion of due process and abuse of authority. We also appeal to the judiciary to arrest this regressive trend that threatens to destroy India’s hard-won democratic traditions.”

Romila Thapar

Devaki Jain

Maja Daruwala

Prabhat Patnaik

Satish Deshpande

Court Rules Anand Teltumbde’s Arrest Illegal, Orders Immediate Release

Despite the Supreme Court granting him protection from arrest till February 11, Teltumbde was picked up by the Pune police on Saturday morning.

Pune: Holding that academic Anand Teltumbde’s early morning arrest by the Maharashtra police was “illegal” and amounted to contempt of the Supreme Court, a Pune sessions court on Saturday ordered his immediate release.

Despite the Supreme Court declaring last month that Teltumbde could not be arrested for four weeks – till at least February 11 – the scholar was taken into custody by the Pune police at 3:30 am on Saturday (February 2) for his alleged role in the Bhima Koregaon violence of January 1, 2018.

Following Teltumbde’s sudden arrest from Mumbai airport, his lawyer Rohan Nahar moved an application before the sessions court seeking action against the Pune police. “The Supreme Court has clearly granted my client time till February 11 to approach the competent authorities. The police have gone against the apex court’s order and arrested him. This arrest is illegal,” Nahar argued before the court.

Anand Teltumbde outside Pune court soon after his release. Credit: Nitin Brahme

Special public prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar, opposing the application, argued that the arrest was made only after the trial court had rejected Teltumbde’s anticipatory bail application on Friday (February 1). She further argued that the sessions court is a competent authority to grant bail to an accused and that its failure to do so had “extinguished” the apex court’s protection.

On February 1, additional sessions judge K.D. Vadane had rejected Teltumbde’s anticipatory bail (pre-arrest) application. The court had observed that the allegations made against Teltumbde are of a “serious nature” and as the police had conveyed, his physical custody might be crucial in the case.

However, when Nahar moved a contempt petition before Vadane’s court on Saturday afternoon, the judge was compelled to refer to the Supreme Court’s order of January 14. Judge Vadane accepted Nahar’s argument and said. “it [the apex court’s order] is an umbrella protection for four weeks and Teltumbde can avail all options available to him within this period.”

Also read: Despite Supreme Court’s Protection, Pune Police Arrests Scholar Anand Teltumbde

Teltumbde is the tenth person to be arrested in this case. Earlier, the Pune police had arrested human rights lawyers and activists from across the country and branded them as “urban naxals.” All ten have been booked under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, whose stringent provisions make the grant of bail extremely difficult.

The police allege that Teltumbde and the others arrested were plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and had incited mob violence on the Dalits who had visited Bhima Koregaon on January 1 last year.

Some of those arrested were involved in organising Elgar Parishad, an event by over 240 human rights organisation, at Pune’s Shaniwarwada on December 31, 2017. According to the police, the speeches given at the event were provocative and had led to the violence at Bhima Koregaon on January 1.

Also read: Teltumbde’s Arrest is an Insult to the Law, and Intelligence of Ordinary Indians

Although he has been named as an accused in the case, Teltumbde had not attended Elgar Parishad.

Soon after the court’s order, Teltumbde spoke to The Wire. “The state is making it very clear. They are not going to allow any opposing voice. Anyone challenging them would be thrown behind bars. There is no rule of law anymore in this country,” he said.

While the Pune city police have levelled serious charges, its rural counterpart has virtually absolved two Hindutva leaders – Manohar alias Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote – of all charges stemming from their alleged involvement in the violence. The victims of the violence had named the duo as the prime accused. While Ekbote was arrested for a brief period and later released on bail, the police never questioned or arrested Bhide.

Release order of Anand Teltumbde

Despite Supreme Court’s Protection, Pune Police Arrests Scholar Anand Teltumbde

The apex court had granted him four weeks of protection from arrest to enable him to secure regular/pre-arrest bail.

Mumbai: Despite the Supreme Court granting Anand Teltumbde four weeks protection from arrest to enable him to seek regular/pre-arrest bail from a lower court, the Pune Police arrested the renowned scholar at 3:30 am on Saturday.

According to his colleagues, Teltumdbe was taken into custody at Mumbai airport by a police contingent led by Inspector Indulkar. He will be produced in court later in the day.

On January 14, the Supreme Court of India had refused to quash the FIR filed against Teltumbde, a leading civil rights activist and an Indian Institute of Management-alumnus, for his alleged role as an “urban Naxal”. On February 1, a Pune court declined Teltumbde’s request for anticipatory bail. Though his lawyers said they would be moving the high court,  the arresting officers cited the Pune court’s denial of bail as the reason they were taking him into custody.

Teltumbde, along with nine other rights activists and lawyers currently in prison, has been booked under two charges – for allegedly plotting to assassinate prime minister Narendra Modi, and for allegedly inciting mob violence on the Dalits who had visited Bhima Koregaon on January 1 last year.

Also read: ‘Vilest Post-Independence Plot by the State’, Writes Anand Teltumbde

Teltumbde’s lawyer Rohan Nahar told The Wire that a contempt application would be moved before the sessions court today against the Pune police. “Teltumbde has been illegally taken into custody right now. We are seeking restraint against the police’s move,” Nahar said.

A team of lawyers is also readying to approach the Bombay high court in case the Pune court does not grant him relief, Nahar added.

“The Supreme Court order is very clear. It had provided him (Teltumbde) four weeks protection against arrest. During this period, he was to approach the competent authorities which includes both lower and high court. What the Pune police did last night is illegal and completely violates the apex court’s order,” said Prakash Ambedkar, BHARIP Bahujan Mahasangh leader and Teltumbde’s brother- in-law.

‘Wild insinuations’

Speaking to The Wire last month, Teltumbde, an anti-caste scholar, said that though he has been having sleepless nights for the past months since his name came up in the controversy, the bizarreness of the charges the state has levelled has both amused and shaken him.

“They (the police) have presented concocted theories since day one. These theories have not an iota of truth in them and will never be proved,” he says.

But the intention was never to prove a case against me or any of the 14 others named in the FIR by the police, he says. “One can see it in the way the police have gone on with a witch-hunt against other activists and me. A multi-state police action was launched against us. Our houses were raided, frenzy was whipped across the nation. And all this was done without bringing on record a single piece of substantive evidence against me or anyone,” he says.

Teltumbde isn’t wrong when he says that the police have failed to put together evidence against the accused. The police filed a chargesheet that runs to over 5,000 pages against the first five arrested persons – lawyer Surendra Gadling, Dalit rights activist Sudhir Dhawale, prisoners’ rights activist Rona Wilson, tribal rights activist and TISS alumnus Mahesh Raut and retired Nagpur professor Soma Sen.

(From left) Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut and Rona Wilson.

Other arrested, but yet to be chargesheeted, include senior lawyer and academic Sudha Bharadwaj, prison rights activist Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Feriera and Telegu poet and activist Vara Vara Rao. Each of the arrested persons have been active in the public life, have decades of human rights work to their credit and have been critical of the present dispensation.

Also Read: JNU Sedition Case: A Forgetful Nation Enables the State’s Brutality

While the chargesheet mentions sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and accuses the five persons of hatching a conspiracy to target Prime Minister Modi and of inciting violence at Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018, it falls short of elaborating the nature of crime the accused were involved in in order to execute the conspiracy. Instead, the focus appears to be on proving that the arrested persons and others are members of the banned CPI- Maoist group. This too has been done through letters of a questionable nature which the police claimed to have discovered at the time of the investigations. 

The police rely on the alleged letters and trails of emails allegedly exchanged between the arrested accused and some “fugitive Naxal leaders”. But these letters also do not mention Teltumbde as someone involved in the conspiracy. Teltumbde says one of these exchanges has a mention of someone called “Comrade Anand”.

“Either the police are too naïve or thinks it will get away with something so flimsy to prove its case,” he said.

Lawyer Nihalsingh Rathod, who has been defending the accused persons, both in the trial court and the higher courts, too feels, the police have only made wild insinuations and have not brought a single piece of evidence to back its claims. The Pune police is soon expected to file a supplementary chargesheet in the case.

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

Speaking about the charges against Teltumbde two weeks ago, Shivaji Pawar, assistant commissioner of police and the chief investigating officer in the case, had said that the police were waiting for the four weeks’ time to get over to decide on Teltumbde’s arrest. “Right now, we are waiting for the four weeks protection period to get over. We will proceed only after that,” Pawar told The Wire.

Bizarrely, the police hve now taken Teltumbde into custody even before the court-mandated protection period has ended.

Besides the legal aspect, Teltumbde feels the state has underestimated the anti-caste movement in India. “But the support I have garnered since past few days both within and outside the country is overwhelming. I am sure the common public too knows of the unfair means used to implicate critical anti- government voices in false cases,” he adds.

A flawed premise

Teltumbde is a known academic and considered an important voice in the anti-caste discourse. Last year, soon after the violence broke out at Bhima Koregaon and thousands of Ambedkarites, mostly belonging to the Dalit community, were injured in the violence, Teltumbde authored an article for The Wire where he called the battle of Bhima Koregaon and the celebrations around it “a myth”.

Prakash Ambedkar, a senior political leader and founder of the BHARIP Bahujan Mahasangh, says it is ironical how the police have not bothered to look into something so basic.

“If the police were really investigating the crime, and their (Teltumbde and others who are accused) roles in the violence, they would have first tried to understand what Naxalism is. Even if one were to assume for a moment that Teltumbde is a part of the Maoist movement and has a role to play in the alleged crime, would not his writings and public stand be considered an affront to the party ideology?” asks Ambedkar. Ambedkar, who is related to Teltumbde (Teltumbde is married to Ambedkar’s sister), says the two have always differed in their political views.

Ambedkar points at the desperate attempt made by the police to instil a “fear of the naxals”. “The government has failed miserably and as the elections are nearing, they are looking to create an atmosphere of fear in the state. But what they don’t understand is the anger that is brimming in the minds of the oppressed across the country.” Teltumbde said that if the police were to arrest him, it would lead to a backlash both nationally and internationally.

Also Read: The Myth of Bhima Koregaon Reinforces the Identities It Seeks to Transcend

“And all this is happening just a few months before the general elections. Whoever is advising the government has clearly underestimated the voters,” he feels.

Priyadarshi Telang, a senior social activist and lawyer from Maharashtra compared this case and the state’s move to the 2006 caste murder in Khairlanji. “An entire family was wiped off by caste Hindus in the village in Bhandara district of the state. It led to mass mobilisation and several thousands poured to street demanding justice. The UPA government, instead, branded them all as Naxals, and booked several hundred under false charges. They were all accused of trying to destabilise the government. Every time the Dalit community has fought for justice, the state has responded violently,” Telang said.

After the violence at Bhima Koregaon in 2018 and the subsequent protests across Maharashtra, the state government had booked several youth under the charges of rioting and unlawful assembly. Those cases, despite chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ assurances, are yet to be withdrawn. Telang says the state is intentionally keeping those who were booked in a state of constant fear.

Ambedkar concurs with Telang’s views. Ambedkar’s BHARIP, along with the Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), has been actively campaigning across the state and is seen to be emerging as a formidable force.

“(Narendra) Modi is afraid that a strong anti-government voice is organising itself across the country and the oppressed community is at the forefront. In Maharashtra, he and the CM (Devendra Fadnavis) are having sleepless nights seeing the support that BHARIP has garnered. It is a clear conspiracy to defame anti-caste political leaders,” Ambedkar says.

“But the Bahujans and the Muslims have come together this time against this regime. Any step taken against the oppressed community is going to only going to harm the government,” he further adds.

This is an updated version of a story published originally on January 19, 2019.

‘Bizarre, Concocted Theories’: The Many Holes in the Case Against Anand Teltumbde

Facing imminent arrest, Teltumbde and his defenders say the case against him and nine other activists and lawyers stands on ‘flimsy’ grounds and is a ‘clear conspiracy to defame anti-caste political leaders’.

Update, February 2, 2019:  Despite Supreme Court’s Protection, Pune Police Arrest Scholar Anand Teltumbde

Mumbai: On January 14, the Supreme Court of India refused to quash the FIR filed against civil rights activist and an Indian Institute of Management-alumnus Anand Teltumbde for his alleged role as an “urban Naxal”. This decision of the apex court has made Teltumbde susceptible to arrest, clubbing him together with nine other human rights activists and lawyers who are presently in prison.

Teltumbde, along with other accused, is booked under two charges – for allegedly plotting to assassinate prime minister Narendra Modi, and for allegedly inciting mob violence on the Dalits who had visited Bhima Koregaon on January 1 last year.

If Teltumbde does not manage to secure anticipatory bail from the court over the next four weeks – the protection provided to him by the SC against the police action – going by what the Pune police indicated, his arrest is inevitable.

Also read: ‘Vilest Post-Independence Plot by the State’, Writes Anand Teltumbde

‘Wild insinuations’

Teltumbde, an IIM alumnus and an anti-caste scholar, says although he has been having sleepless nights for the past months since his name came up in the controversy. The bizarreness of the charges the state has levelled against him have both amused and shaken him.

“They (the police) have presented concocted theories since day one. These theories have not an iota of truth in them and will never be proved,” he says.

But the intention was never to prove a case against me or any of the 14 others named in the FIR by the police, he says. “One can see it in the way the police have gone on with a witch-hunt against other activists and me. A multi-state police action was launched against us. Our houses were raided, frenzy was whipped across the nation. And all this was done without bringing on record a single piece of substantive evidence against me or anyone,” he says.

Teltumbde isn’t wrong when he says that the police have failed to put together evidence against the accused. The police filed an over 5,000- page chargesheet against the first five arrested persons – lawyer Surendra Gadling, Dalit rights activist Sudhir Dhawale, prisoners’ rights activist Rona Wilson, tribal rights activist and TISS alumnus Mahesh Raut and retired Nagpur professor Soma Sen.

(From left) Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut and Rona Wilson.

Other arrested, but yet to be chargesheeted, include senior lawyer and academic Sudha Bharadwaj, prison rights activist Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Feriera and Telegu poet and activist Vara Vara Rao. Each of the arrested persons have been active in the public life, have decades of human rights work to their credit and have been critical of the present dispensation.

Also Read: JNU Sedition Case: A Forgetful Nation Enables the State’s Brutality

While the chargesheet mentions sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and accuses the five persons of hatching a conspiracy to target Prime Minister Modi and of inciting violence at Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018, it falls short of elaborating the nature of crime the accused were involved in in order to execute the conspiracy. Instead, the focus appears to be on proving that the arrested persons and others are members of the banned CPI- Maoist group. This too has been done through letters of a questionable nature which the police claimed to have discovered at the time of the investigations. 

The police rely on the alleged letters and trails of emails allegedly exchanged between the arrested accused and some “fugitive Naxal leaders”. But these letters also do not mention Teltumbde as someone involved in the conspiracy. Teltumbde says one of these exchanges has a mention of someone called “Comrade Anand”.

“Either the police are too naïve or thinks it will get away with something so flimsy to prove its case,” he says.

Lawyer Nihalsingh Rathod, who has been defending the accused persons, both in the trial court and the higher courts, too feels, the police have only made wild insinuations and have not brought a single piece of evidence to back its claims. The Pune police is soon expected to file a supplementary chargesheet in the case.

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

Talking about the charges against Teltumbde, Shivaji Pawar, assistant commissioner of police and the chief investigating officer in the case said that they are waiting for the four weeks’ time to get over to decide on Teltumbde’s arrest. “Right now, we are waiting for the four weeks protection period to get over. We will proceed only after that,” Pawar told The Wire.

Besides the legal aspect, Teltumbde feels the state has underestimated the anti-caste movement in India. “But the support I have garnered since past few days both within and outside the country is overwhelming. I am sure the common public too knows of the unfair means used to implicate critical anti- government voices in false cases,” he adds.

A flawed premise

Teltumbde is a known academic and considered an important voice in the anti-caste discourse. Last year, soon after the violence broke out at Bhima Koregaon and thousands of Ambedkarites, mostly belonging to the Dalit community, were injured in the violence, Teltumbde authored an article for The Wire where he called the battle of Bhima Koregaon and the celebrations around it “a myth”.

Prakash Ambedkar, a senior political leader and founder of the BHARIP Bahujan Mahasangh, says it is ironical how the police have not bothered to look into something so basic.

“If the police were really investigating into the crime, and their (Teltumbde and others who are accused) roles in the violence, they would have first tried to understand what Naxalism is. Even if one were to assume for a moment that Teltumbde is a part of the Maoist movement and has a role to play in the alleged crime, would not his writings and public stand be considered affront to the party ideology?” asks Ambedkar. Ambedkar, who is related to Teltumbde (Teltumbde is married to Ambedkar’s sister), says the two have always differed in their political views.

Ambedkar points at the desperate attempt made by the state by instilling a “fear of the naxals” in the state. “The government has failed miserably and as the elections are nearing, they are looking to create an atmosphere of fear in the state. But what they don’t understand is the anger that is brimming in the minds of the oppressed across the country.” Teltumbde says if the police were to arrest him, it would lead to a backlash both nationally and internationally.

Also Read: The Myth of Bhima Koregaon Reinforces the Identities It Seeks to Transcend

“And all this is happening just a few months before the general elections. Whoever is advising the government has clearly underestimated the voters,” he feels.

Priyadarshi Telang, a senior social activist and lawyer from Maharashtra compared this case and the state’s move to the 2006 caste murder in Khairlanji. “An entire family was wiped off by caste Hindus in the village in Bhandara district of the state. It led to mass mobilisation and several thousands poured to street demanding justice. The UPA government, instead, branded them all as Naxals, and booked several hundred under false charges. They were all accused of trying to destabalise the government. Every time the Dalit community has fought for justice, the state has responded violently,” Telang said.

After the violence at Bhima Koregaon in 2018 and the subsequent protests across Maharashtra, the state government had booked several youth under the charges of rioting and unlawful assembly. Those cases, despite chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ assurances, are yet to be withdrawn. Telang says the state is intentionally keeping those who were booked in a state of constant fear.

Ambedkar concurs with Telang’s views. Ambedkar’s BHARIP, along with the Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), has been actively campaigning across the state and is seen to be emerging as a formidable force.

“(Narendra) Modi is afraid that a strong anti-government voice is organising itself across the country and the oppressed community is at the forefront. In Maharashtra, he and the CM (Devendra Fadnavis) are having sleepless nights seeing the support that BHARIP has garnered. It is a clear conspiracy to defame anti-caste political leaders,” Ambedkar says.

“But the Bahujans and the Muslims have come together this time against this regime. Any step taken against the oppressed community is going to only going to harm the government,” he further adds.