P. Sahaja

‘Attack on Varavara Rao Is an Attack on All of Us’: Young Poets Urge Release of Activist

“It is clear that Rao is only being kept in jail by virtue of him being a poet who questions the powers-that-be.”

New Delhi: A group of contemporary Indian poets have written a public statement urging the release of poet and activist Varavara Rao, who was recently shifted to a hospital from a Mumbai jail following a pitched campaign to ensure treatment for him.

“We…state categorically that as young poets of this nation, we see the attack on Rao as an attack on all of us, our minds, our pens and our views,” the statement reads.

In 2018, Varavara Rao was arrested for his alleged role in the Elgar Parishad case. The poets have alleged that first the Pune Police’s and then the NIA’s charges of him ‘trying to incite violence in Bhima Koregaon’ are false.

Also read: As Varavara Rao’s Health Worsens in Jail, Family Alleges Severe Negligence by Authorities

Rao, 81, had fallen ill in jail a few months ago and has reportedly not recovered. According to his family, his speech is slurred and he is hallucinating, and he is unable to take care of himself.

Stressing on how important Rao’s contributions to literature and especially Telangana’s literary landscape is, the poets highlighted the current situation in which he is in, drawing attention to the number of times he has been arrested under flimsy charges and then acquitted.

The full text of the statement, along with the names of the signatories, is below:

“We the undersigned express our solidarity with people’s poet Varavara Rao, condemn his arbitrary arrest under draconian charges like UAPA and urge the authorities to release him immediately.

“Varavara Rao is a world-renowned poet, journalist and literary critic from Telangana who founded the Revolutionary Writers Association popularly known as Virasam. Throughout history, he has been hounded and arrested in various false charges by various governments and later been acquitted in all the cases. This only goes on to suggest that his revolutionary writings have always made the ones in power uncomfortable and they have always been threatened by the power of his verses. Ideally, a poet names the nameless without actually taking their name and for the ones in power to arrest or implicate poets, they need to accept that they are the ones being talked about in those poems.

Also read: Chained Muse: Notes from Prison by Varavara Rao

“In 2018, Varavara Rao was arrested for his alleged role in the ‘Elgar Parishad case’, on false charges of ‘trying to incite violence in Bhima Koregaon’. He has not been offered a fair trial in the last two years and has been imprisoned for an unjust length of time, along with other public-spirited activists, writers and advocates.

“He is 80 years old and according to the press note issued by his family under the title “Don’t kill Varavara Rao in jail”, he is seriously ill and has been in poor health ever since he was shifted to JJ Hospital in an unconscious state earlier in May. His co-prisoner also said he needed immediate help for his physical and neurological issues.

“It is clear that Rao is only being kept in jail by virtue of him being a poet who questions the powers-that-be. While we as young poets not only understand the value and importance of speaking for the people and questioning the ones in power, we take it as a responsibility, to uphold. It is because of public poets like Varavara Rao that we, the young poets are able to write and speak for the society and on other matters.

Also read: ‘No Reason in Law or Conscience to Hold Varavara Rao’, Say Academics in Appeal

“We would also like to state categorically that as young poets of this nation, we see the attack on Rao as an attack on all of us, our minds, our pens and our views. If this suppression of our voices continues, all of us would be left with no voice at all, and there would be only two voices, the voice of the ‘King’ and the voice of the ‘poet employed in the court of the King’! That is the last thing we can afford in our democracy and we must keep alive the spirit of struggle for free thinking to bloom.

“While after enormous outrage by citizens, the news of Varavara Rao being moved to JJ hospital provides some succor, we demand that the appropriate government and judicial authorities immediately attend to all his medical needs, allow his family to be with him and enlarge him on bail. It is only then that we as young poets would rest assured that the current regime would not muzzle our voices when we speak out fearlessly.

“We call upon young fellow poets across the country to stand up for poet Varavara Rao because of who we are able to stretch the reach of our imagination and ideas and write poetry.”

Aseem Sundan
Aamir Aziz
Nabiya Khan
Hussain Haidry
Kaushik Raj
Iqra Khilji
Taikhum Sadiq
Abhijit Khandkar
Rachneet Kaur
Naveen Chourey
Daaniyal
Poojan Sahil
Meghna Prakash
Nandini Gautam
Mandvi Mishra
Yashi Verma
Simran Banga
Sabika Abbas Naqvi
Ankur Sharma
Ridhi Bhutani
Pallavi Mahajan
Nausheen khan
Ghazal Khanna
Megha Rao
Bikram Bumrah
Faisal Khan
Amina Arif
Amy Singh
Smriti Bhoker
Foram Ashish Shah
Kavya Sharma
Sahila
Priya Malik
Puneet Sharma
Nosheen Kapoor
Roshan Abbas
Rajat Thakur
Bappadittya Sarkar
Ramneek Singh
Simar Singh
Soumya Thakur
Nidhie Saini
Ajmal Khan
Vasvi Kejriwal
Devanshi Khetarpal
Suhit Kelkar
Aswin Vijayan
Prashant Parvataneni
Arjun Rajendran
Smita Sahay
Arathy Asok

‘No Reason in Law or Conscience to Hold Varavara Rao’, Say Academics in Appeal

The poet and activist, who is being held at the Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai, is in very poor health according to his family.

New Delhi: Appealing to the government of Maharashtra and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to facilitate the release of poet and activist Varavara Rao to JJ Hospital in view of his reported ill health, academics Romila Thapar and Prabhat Patnaik and others have said ‘there is no reason in law or conscience” to hold him in these circumstances.

Varavara Rao is at the Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai as an accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case. On Saturday, his family said that the poet’s health had deteriorated and he was delirious. His daughter Pavana told The Wire that Rao has not been provided adequate care in the jail and has started losing coherence.

The signatories of the appeal demanded the immediate transfer of Varavara Rao to JJ Hospital, where he can receive proper treatment. “Rao poses no flight risk and has voluntarily submitted to all investigations for the past 22 months. There is no reason in law or conscience to hold him in circumstances that increase risk to his fragile health,” the appeal says.

Also Read: As Varavara Rao’s Health Worsens in Jail, Family Alleges Severe Negligence by Authorities

They said that even before Rao was arrested, they had been arguing that the investigation should be “impartial, speedy and supervised by the judiciary”. “We have now reached a stage where his life is at stake. To knowingly risk the life of a person in state custody by refusing proper medical treatment would amount to a form of the ‘encounter’, an extra-legal punishment which the State institutions are duty-bound to forego,” the appeal says.

Appealing to the authorities to assure the nation that the Indian state “respects the rule of law and the Constitution”, they should ensure that Varavara Rao receives “immediate and proper treatment” and that his “family is allowed to look after him during his illness”.

The complete statement has been reproduced below.

According to press reports and the statement of his family, the renowned Telugu poet and writer, P. Varavara Rao is extremely ill in Taloja jail. He is suffering from low levels of sodium and potassium as diagnosed by the JJ Hospital, Mumbai, where his treatment was abruptly terminated and he was taken back to Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai. This is a life threatening situation for someone who is 81 years of age, and already suffers from high blood pressure and heart conditions.

We appeal to the Government of Maharashtra and the National Investigation Agency to facilitate the immediate transfer of Mr. Varavara Rao to JJ Hospital where he can receive proper treatment. Mr Rao poses no flight risk and has voluntarily submitted to all investigations for the past 22 months. There is no reason in law or conscience to hold him in circumstances that increase risk to his fragile health.

Even before Mr. Rao was arrested, we had been arguing that the investigation should be impartial, speedy and supervised by the judiciary. We have now reached a stage where his life is at stake. To knowingly risk the life of a person in state custody by refusing proper medical treatment would amount to a form of the “encounter”, an extra-legal punishment which the State institutions are duty-bound to forego.

We appeal to the authorities to assure the nation that the Indian State respects the rule of law and the Constitution, by ensuring that P.Varavara Rao receives immediate and proper treatment and that his family is allowed to look after him during his illness.

[Appeal issued by the following five petitioners who had approached the Supreme Court on the matter of the Bhima Koregaon arrests ((Romila Thapar & Ors. Vs. Union of India & Ors., Writ Petition 32319 of 2018).]

Romila Thapar (romila.thapar@gmail.com)
Prabhat Patnaik (prabhatptnk@yahoo.co.in)
Devaki Jain (devakijain@gmail.com)
Maja Daruwala (maja.daruwala@gmail.com)
Satish Deshpande (sdeshpande7@gmail.com)

As Varavara Rao’s Health Worsens in Jail, Family Alleges Severe Negligence by Authorities

Rao, who has been in jail for close to two years, has been unwell since the lockdown and his family claim that he is suffering from memory loss.

Note: This article was originally published on July 11 and was republished on July 12 with details of a press note issued by Varavara Rao’s family.

Mumbai: The health of 78-year-old political activist, poet and writer Varavara Rao, who has been in jail for close to two years, has worsened. His family has alleged that the prison department has been blocking information on his condition from reaching them.

Rao began to deteriorate after he had a fall on May 28 inside the prison. He was in an unconscious state when he was moved to the state-run J.J. hospital for a few days before being moved back to the prison.

His daughter Pavana told The Wire that Rao has not been provided adequate care in the jail and has started losing coherence.

“We got a call from him today and he barely spoke for a minute. He was incoherent and sounded unstable. One of his co-accused who has been assigned duty to take care of him had to step in and inform us that he needs to be urgently moved to a hospital for better treatment,” Pavana said.

Also read: ‘Save His Life’: 40 Poets Write to PM Modi Asking For Varavara Rao’s Release

She mentioned that he has barely been able to move and has been speaking incoherently about incidents from his childhood.

Soon after his health first worsened in May, the family had moved court seeking urgent bail. The family claim that in order to oppose their bail application, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had moved him back to the prison, abruptly stopping his medication in the process.

Also read: Poet, Activist Varavara Rao Shifted to Hospital After He Faints in Mumbai Jail

“We have consulted specialists here and have found that his sodium and creatinine level was below normal and that there needed to have been a proper investigation into his health condition,” Pavana said. His family said Rao has age-related and other persistent health issues.

The family and Rao’s lawyers have also alleged that the prisons department has not been divulging information on his health. Information on Rao’s health condition first began to trickle in early this month when advocate Susan Abraham spoke to Vernon Gonsalves, her husband and an accused in the case. “Vernon told me that he has been moved in with Rao in the hospital to take care of him. Rao’s condition was deteriorating and that a co-accused has been kept with him in jail hospital,” she informed.

“When he fell sick in May, the police hastily moved him back. And since then, he has been at the jail hospital. However, the family got to know the seriousness of his health condition only today,” his daughter said.

Also read: Bombay High Court Orders a COVID-19 Patient to Return to Prison

Rao, who has been in the jail since his arrest in June 2018, for his alleged role in the Elgar Parishad- Koregaon Bhima case of Maharashtra, was, along with other accused, moved from Pune’s Yerwada prisons to Taloja central jail in the outskirts of Mumbai earlier this year. This was just a few days before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in India. Since then, the condition, especially in Mumbai, has been worrisome.

Close to 500 persons have been infected with coronavirus and four persons have already died across prisons. Rao’s bail application filed on health grounds is at present pending before the Bombay high court.

On Saturday, on receiving the phone call, his lawyer Nihalsing Rathod sent an email to the jail authorities asking for urgent access to his latest medical report. “Provide us the precise descriptions of his health condition,” Rathod wrote in the email. He has also sought for a video call to be arranged between Rao and his family members.

On Sunday, the family held a live press conference, demanding that the poet’s life is in danger. They later issued a press note which is signed by Rao’s wife, Hemalatha Rao, and his daughters Sahaja, Anala and Pavana.

The family raised concerns about Varavara Rao’s health. “As an eloquent and articulate public speaker and writer in Telugu for over five decades, a Telugu teacher for four decades and known for his meticulous memory, this fumbling, incoherence and loss of memory were in themselves strange and frightening,” the note reads.

“His life is the top most concern for us right now,” the letter says.

The complete press note, signed by Rao’s family, has been reproduced below.

Press Note – July 12, 2020

Don’t Kill Varavara Rao in Jail!

We, the family members of Varavara Rao, world-renowned Telugu revolutionary poet and public intellectual, who is incarcerated in Navi Mumbai’s Taloja Jail, are very much worried about his deteriorating health. His health condition has been scary for over six weeks now, ever since he was shifted in an unconscious state to JJ hospital from Taloja Jail on May 28, 2020. Even as he was discharged from the hospital and sent back to his jail three days later; there has been no improvement in his health and he is still in need of emergency healthcare.

The immediate cause of concern now is that we are very much perturbed at the routine phone call we received from him on Saturday evening. Though the earlier two calls on June 24 and July 2 were also worrying with his weak and muffled voice, incoherent speech and abruptly jumping into Hindi. As an eloquent and articulate public speaker and writer in Telugu for over five decades, a Telugu teacher for four decades and known for his meticulous memory, this fumbling, incoherence and loss of memory were in themselves strange and frightening.

But the latest call, on July 11 is much more worrisome as he did not answer straight questions on his health and went into a kind of delirious and hallucinated talk about the funeral of his father and mother, the events that happened seven decades and four decades ago respectively. Then his co-accused companion took the phone from him and informed us that he is not able to walk, go to toilet [sic] and brush his teeth on his own. We were also told that he is always hallucinating that we, family members, were waiting at the jail gate to receive him as he was getting released. His co-prisoner also said he needs immediate medical care for not only physical but also neurological issues. The confusion, loss of memory and incoherence are the results of electrolyte imbalance and fall of Sodium and Potassium levels leading to brain damage. The electrolyte imbalance may be fatal also. Taloja Jail Hospital is not at all equipped to handle this kind of serious ailment either in medical expertise or equipment. Thus it is highly required that he be shifted to a fully equipped super specialty [sic] hospital to save his life and prevent possible brain damage and risk to life due to electrolyte imbalance.

At the present juncture we are leaving aside the pertinent facts like, that the case against him is fabricated; he had to spend 22 months in jails as an undertrial with the process turned into punishment; his bail petitions got rejected at least five times now and even the bail petitions with his age, ill-health and Covid vulnerability as grounds were ignored. His life is the top most concern for us right now. Our present demand is to save his life. We demand the government to shift him to a better hospital or allow us to provide required medical care. We want to remind the government that it has no right to deny the right to life of any person, much less an undertrial prisoner.

P Hemalatha, wife

P Sahaja, P Anala, P Pavana, daughters

Poet, Activist Varavara Rao Shifted to Hospital After He Faints in Mumbai Jail

The doctors have said that Rao’s health is stable and that his COVID- 19 test report is awaited.

Mumbai: Seventy nine-year-old political activist, writer and poet P. Varavara Rao was shifted out of Taloja jail and hospitalised in the state- run JJ Hospital on the evening of May 28 after he fainted. Doctors at the hospital said that Rao had complained of dizziness and suffered a brief episode of syncope, or fainting.

According to JJ hospital, Rao is stable and is responding to medication. “He stabilised soon after he was brought in. His chest X-ray was taken and it is normal. His nasal swabs have been sent for the COVID- 19 test and the result will be out tomorrow (May 30),” a senior doctor told The Wire.

Rao was moved out of Taloja prisons on May 28, but his family members, who lives in Hyderabad, were only informed a day later. A family member told The Wire that around 8:30 pm, “A policeman from the local Chikkadpally police station called to say that they had received a call from Maharashtra police about his health. The call was brief and we were only told that he had been shifted to the hospital. They said they didn’t have any more information,” a family member said.

The member added that Rao’s wife Hemalatha has been inconsolable since the news.

Rao, who has been in the jail since his arrest in June 2018, for his alleged role in the Elgar Parishad- Koregaon Bhima case of Maharashtra, was, along with other accused, moved from Pune’s Yerwada prisons to Taloja central jail in the outskirts of Mumbai earlier this year. This was just a few days before the COVID- 19 pandemic broke out in India. Since then, the condition, especially in Mumbai, has been worrisome.

While prison authorities had claimed that they have been taking complete care to ensure those incarcerated do not catch the virus, early this month, nearly 170 arrested persons have tested positive in prisons across the state. In Taloja, one undertrial prisoner died on May 9. Two deaths have been registered at Yerwada central prisons and Dhule district jail.

Since the pandemic outbreak, over 17,000 prisoners have been released in Maharashtra. The high-power committee set up to decongest the prisons have recommended a long list of prisoners, who can be released on bail or parole. Those arrested or convicted under special laws like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), among others, are not released.

The case, earlier handled by the Pune police, alleges that Rao was a part of the Elgar Parishad conclave that was organised at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017 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.

Also read: ‘He’s Almost 80, How Will He Be in Jail?’ V.V. Rao’s Family Condemns Arrest

The case was eventually given a new turn with the police claiming that Rao, along with several other activists and lawyers had plotted to assassin prime minister Narendra Modi. There have been several inconsistencies in the investigation and the case has now been handed over to the National Investigation Agency, which has vociferously opposed the bail applications of all accused even though many have complained of severe health complications.

Rao’s lawyers have moved for his bail citing his age and medical condition. His daughters P. Sahaja, P. Anala and P. Pavana have written to the state chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to release him on temporary bail.

Also read: 103 Test COVID-19 Positive in Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail, Authorities Say Worst Yet to Come

This is not the first time Rao has been imprisoned. Between 1973 and 1988, Rao was sent to prison thrice, each time for his literary and political activities that had irked the state dispensation. But in recent times, Rao had mostly maintained a low profile.

Meanwhile, a special court in Mumbai rejected the interim bail application of activist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, another person arrested in the case. Bharadwaj, a 58-year-old lawyer, is presently lodged in Byculla women’s prison.

In her interim bail plea filed on medical grounds, Bharadwaj had said that she is at a high risk of contracting the virus in prison and in her present medical condition, it would be ‘life-threatening’. At least one person has tested positive at Byculla prison.