Skip to main content

Raids, arrest of India's top activists, writers: Will political parties, international rights bodies speak up?

Sudha Bharadwaj
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*
The morning news on August 28, of raids and arrest of five activists from different parts of the country by the Pune police, was a chilling reminder that talks of political dissent and human rights are a crime, and those who are lynching people in the public, threatening people that they would be sent to Pakistan, or openly threatening writers and journalists, are roaming about free and are being awarded by the political leadership of the ruling party, even following them on social media.
In a democracy, people have the right to differ and have their opinion on various issues. Most of those arrested are well-known writers and activists. Many of them are known through their work with the marginalised communities. While some are known as ideologues of the Left, some of them are as old as to be termed as senior citizens.
Father Stan Swamy would be around 80, and so is Varavara Rao. One is a human rights defender who has devoted his life to empower the adivasis of Jharkhand, leaving all the comforts of his home state in Tamil Nadu for the last three decades, while the other is a literary figure based in Hyderabad and known as an ideologue of the Left.
Political thinker and public intellectual Anand Teltumbde's home too was raided. He is a vocal critic of current economic policies, and has been articulating his views on the class-caste issues, merging them with the fight for a bigger battle. He is a prolific writer, and his detailed analyses are available in the columns of the “Economic and Political Weekly”. Gautam Navlakha belongs to the People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) and has been fighting for the human rights of the marginalised for long.
Anand Teltumbde
All of them are ideologues and believe in countering an argument through an argument. All believe in the rule of law and the Constitution of India. It is, therefore, surprising what kind of 'clinching' evidence the Pune police has got to arrest them. Good, the Delhi High Court stayed the arrest of Gautam Navlakha till it hears the petition on an urgency basis on August 29.
Sudha Bharadwaj is a well-known activist, who has dedicated her life for the rights of trade unions and fights their cases free of cost. She has also been active for the rights of the adivasis. That a lawyer, who is fighting cases of the marginalised and the poor can be arrested by the police, sends the message that they can reach to anyone and criminalise them. It is a direct assault on our democracy.
There are serious issues emerging from these arrests, which is why the Pune police not able to finish the case. Rather than arresting the goons who resorted to violence in the aftermath of the rally at Bhima-Koregaon, it arrested the Ambedkarite activists on a very large scale in the entire Maharastra state, while completely leaving the goons of the Elgar Parishad to roam around and threaten. On the other hand, so many cases were filed against Dalit activists, that they are busy fighting them.
Unfortunately, it did not stop with that. Several activists who might have participated in the event at Bhima-Koregaon were arrested earlier, and perhaps based on extraction of statement from them, there were raids on these five people. This is a difficult time for all who believe in human rights and political dissent. It is time to be together.
As elections draw nearer, such stories would be cooked. Many more will get intimidated by the goons in the street, threatened with dire consequences, and on social media there will be character assassination. More than that, on what are described as North Korean channels and newspapers, one will get 'breaking news' through 'selective' leakages of stories about the people who are arrested. These dalals or agents will shout loud and bring out stories, while the police will intimidate, assault and silently leak stories to obliging journalists.
Varavara Rao
The modus operandi of the power-that-be is clear: To get activists physically assaulted, like what they did to Umar Khalid or Swami Agnivesh, then file cases against victims even as allowing goons and accused to go scot free, lynch victims in TV trials through their 'spokespersons', plant stories in media, drag cases as long as possible, and build up the narrative of threat to the supreme leader.
And this is not alone. One side is the Maoist narrative, on the other is the Muslim, Pakistan, terrorism narrative. With a helping hand coming from the corporate media, completely exposing itself now, one can only fight the battle through legal means by joining hands together. The most unfortunate part in this narrative is the silence of political people and parties, who are unable to speak and condemn such assaults on our freedom.
This is a dark hour. During the Emergency, the work of political parties, activists, media and judiciary was complimentary. When Jai Prakash Narain gave a call, Ramnath Goenka and others joined hand, though a majority of papers surrendered. But what is most threatening and intimidating today is, the state apparatus is providing ammunition to spokespersons in the North Korean channels, who are cooking up new stories. One often blames social media, but it is the electronic media and print media whose integrity and credibility are now under threat, those who are openly criminals are supporting them.
Democracy is under stress. Our human liberties and values are assaulted. Political freedom is endangered. The message is clear for all of us: That you will be targeted for your views. Don’t speak of people's right over resources. Don’t talk about land rights. Seal your lips and stay silent, because the greedy corporates want to make an entry into your region to suck your resources.
Will the political leadership of different parties stand up and speak up against this intimidation? Will our courts speak up and send an unambiguous message to those in power not to cross the line and not to intimidate activists? Will the international rights bodies speak up?
The space for civil society is shrinking in the country. It is these forces, which can create an atmosphere for peace and harmony. It is these people, who talk of democracy and constitution, to get people their rights, and not those who burn the constitution and yet roam free.
We sincerely hope that the courts will take cognizance of the matter and restore confidence of the people in our judiciary and political system. There is a credibility crisis now, and only courts can save them by their quick intervention. Let us wait for the verdict of Delhi High court on August 29.
---
Well-known human rights defender. Source: Facebook timeline of the author

Comments

Niranjan Dave said…
This is for the benefit of this generation which has not seen.and suffered emergency clamped by Smt Gandhi.
August 30, 2018
Post a Comment

TRENDING

Lata Mangeshkar, a Dalit from Devdasi family, 'refused to sing a song' about Ambedkar

By Pramod Ranjan*  An artist is known and respected for her art. But she is equally, or even more so known and respected for her social concerns. An artist's social concerns or in other words, her worldview, give a direction and purpose to her art. History remembers only such artists whose social concerns are deep, reasoned and of durable importance. Lata Mangeshkar (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) was a celebrated playback singer of the Hindi film industry. She was the uncrowned queen of Indian music for over seven decades. Her popularity was unmatched. Her songs were heard and admired not only in India but also in Pakistan, Bangladesh and many other South Asian countries. In this article, we will focus on her social concerns. Lata lived for 92 long years. Music ran in her blood. Her father also belonged to the world of music. Her two sisters, Asha Bhonsle and Usha Mangeshkar, are well-known singers. Lata might have been born in Indore but the blood of a famous Devdasi family...
2 comments
»

The soundtrack of resistance: How 'Sada Sada Ya Nabi' is fueling the Iran war

​ By Syed Ali Mujtaba*  ​The Persian track “ Sada Sada Ya Nabi ye ” by Hossein Sotoodeh has taken the world by storm. This viral media has cut across linguistic barriers to achieve cult status, reaching over 10 million views. The electrifying music and passionate rendition by the Iranian singer have resonated across the globe, particularly as the high-intensity military conflict involving Iran entered its second month in March 2026.
Post a Comment
»

'Batteries now cheap enough for solar to meet India's 90% demand': Expert quotes Ember study

By A Representative   Shankar Sharma, Power & Climate Policy Analyst, has urged India’s top policymakers to reconsider the financial and ecological implications of the country’s energy transition strategy in light of recent global developments. In a letter dated April 10, 2026, addressed to the Union Ministers of Finance, Power, New & Renewable Energy, Environment, Forest & Climate Change, and the Vice Chair of NITI Aayog, with a copy to the Prime Minister, Sharma highlighted concerns over India’s ambitious plans for coal gasification and the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR).
Post a Comment
»

Manufacturing, services: India's low-skill, middle-skill labour remains underemployed

By Francis Kuriakose* The Indian economy was in a state of deceleration well before Covid-19 made its impact in early 2020. This can be inferred from the declining trends of four important macroeconomic variables that indicate the health of the economy in the last quarter of 2019.
Post a Comment
»

Incarceration of Prof Saibaba 'revives' the question: What is crime, who is criminal?

By Kunal Pant* In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”
Post a Comment
»

Food security? Gujarat govt puts more than 5 lakh ration cards in the 'silent' category

By Pankti Jog* A new statistical report uploaded by the Gujarat government on the national food security portal shows that ensuring food security for the marginalized community is still not a priority of the state. The statistical report, uploaded on December 24, highlights many weaknesses in implementing the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in state.
Post a Comment
»

Why Indo-Pak relations have been on 'knife’s edge' , hostilities may remain for long

By Utkarsh Bajpai*  The past few decades have seen strides being made in all aspects of life – from sticks and stones to weaponry. The extreme case of this phenomenon has been nuclear weapons. The menace caused by nuclear weapons in the past is unforgettable. Images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from 1945 come to mind, after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the cities.
Post a Comment
»

Subaltern voices go digital: Three Indian projects rewriting history from the ground up

By A Representative   A new wave of digital humanities (DH) work in India is shifting the focus away from university classrooms and English-language scholarship, instead prioritizing multilingual, community-driven archives that amplify subaltern voices . According to a review published in the Journal of Asian Studies , projects such as the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), the Oral History Narmada archive , and the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre are redefining how the country remembers its past — often without government funding or institutional support.
Post a Comment
»

Beyond Lata: How Asha Bhosle redefined the female voice with her underrated versatility

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  The news of iconic Asha Bhosle’s ‘untimely’ demise has shocked music lovers across the country. Asha Tai was 92 years young. Normally, people celebrate a passing at this age, but Asha Bhosle—much like another legend, Dev Anand—never made us feel she was growing old. She was perhaps the most versatile artist in Bombay cinema. Hailing from a family devoted to music, Asha’s journey to success and fame was not easy. Her elder sister, Lata Mangeshkar, had already become the voice of women in cinema, and most contemporaries like Shamshad Begum, Suraiya, and Noor Jehan had slowly faded into oblivion. Frankly, there was no second or third to Lata Mangeshkar; she became the first—and perhaps the only—choice for music directors and all those who mattered in filmmaking. Asha started her musical journey at age 10 with a Marathi film, but her first break in Hindustani cinema came with the film "Chunariya" (1948). Though she was not the first choice of ...
Post a Comment
»