Reconsider, withdraw 'false' cases on peaceful anti-CAA protesters: Letter to UP CM

SR Darapuri, former IPS

Counterview Desk
Magsaysay awardee Sandeep Pandey, in an open letter, has warned Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, "If you'll send social activists, who have faith in the Constitution, to jail because your police in unable to identify the anarchist elements then the space for peaceful means of expressing dissent with the government in a democracy will be eliminated and anarchist elements will be easily able to mislead the common people."
Offering the names of a large number of well-known social activists who are being "victimised" by the state police, Pandey, who is a well-known social activist and academic, and vice-president, Socialist Party (India), says, "It is the anarchist elements which are responsible for violence but action is being taken against people who, all along their lives, have adopted peaceful means of protests and have faith in the Constitution of the country."

Text:

I had sought your appointment on December 21, 2019. However, as I didn't get a response I thought of writing my thoughts to you through this open letter. I want to make some comments on the approach of government-administration on protests against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) held in Lucknow and Uttar Pradesh.
A pertinent question which needs to be asked is when lakhs of people assembled at other places in the country without any untoward incident why did violence break out in UP? The vengeance with which UP government-administration is acting in response to the violence by anarchist elements which took place during protests is condemnable as more maturity and restraint is expected of any government-administration.
It is the anarchist elements which are responsible for violence but action is being taken against people who, all along their lives, have adopted peaceful means of protests and have faith in the Constitution of the country. My friends Advocate Mohammad Shoaib and retired Indian Police Services officer SR Darapuri have been arrested, who like me were under house arrest in Lucknow on December 19, 2019, the day on which maximum violence took place.
Mohammad Shoaib was secretary of city unit of Socialist Party when he was a student of LLB at Lucknow University in 1972 and at present is the state president of Socialist Party (India).

He has been successful in getting 14 innocent youth, who were falsely implicated in terrorism related cases, acquitted from the Court after contesting their cases. He was attacked inside Court by advocates who didn't want him to take up cases of the abovementioned youth but has not used violence against anybody in his life.
SR Darapuri is a human rights and Ambedkarite activist and has contested Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections from UP. In 2008, he and I were part of a fact finding team which had produced a report declaring Shahbaz from Lucknow innocent when he was picked up by Rajasthan police in the Jaipur bomb blast case, in which Shahbaz was recently acquitted by the Court too.

Sadaf Jafar

Robin Verma, a University teacher and a volunteer of Rihai Manch, of which Mohammad Shoaib is the President, has been beaten up badly by police before being sent to jail. Congress Party spokesperson Sadaf Jafar was till the last moment before her arrest trying to pacify the youth who were indulging in violence of which there is proof. Similarly, Deepak Mishra is a creative cultural activist and Dr Pawan Rao Ambedkar is a lecturer at Rae Bareli.
In Varanasi among the activists and students who have been arrested I personally know Anoop Shramik, Dhananjay Tripathi, Diwakar Singh, Ram Janam, Shivraj Yadav, Ekta, Ravi Kumar, Sanya Khan, Sriprakash Rai, Prashant Rai, Satish Singh, Raj Abhishek, Deepak Rajguru, Manish Kumar, Sanjeev Singh, Arpit Giri, Narendra Mani Tripathi, Gaurav Mani Tripathi, Shahid Jamal and Chedilal Nirala about whom I can say with confidence that they can only be involved in peaceful protests.
I've myself demonstrated peacefully against CAA-NRC outside Banaras Hindu University main gate on December 14 and outside my house under detention on 19 December.
If you'll send social activists, who have faith in the Constitution, to jail because your police in unable to identify the anarchist elements then the space for peaceful means of expressing dissent with the government in a democracy will be eliminated and anarchist elements will be easily able to mislead the common people.

One of those arrested is Mohd Shoaib, who got 14 innocent youth, falsely implicated in terrorism related cases, acquitted

Social activists have a useful role of providing creative options to people of expressing their opposition to the government on any issue. It is certain that if social activists will be able to influence the protests they will remain peaceful and in their absence there is danger of these protests turning anarchist.
I'll leave it to your wisdom. If you think it proper please reconsider your decision and withdraw the cases against abovementioned activists and release all innocent people.
I've an additional comment. After the nationwide protests against CAA-NRC now the Bhartiya Janata Party leaders are asking the Muslim citizens of country not to worry. But in the FIRs registered in response to violence during protests most of the names of accused are Muslims.
For example, in FIR No 600/2019 registered at Police Station, Hazratganj, Lucknow out of 39 accused, 36 names are those of Muslims whereas non-Muslims participated in the protests in large numbers and out of 16 youth killed in UP due to bullet injuries all are Muslims. If there will be a bias against Muslims in taking action then how can they be expected to have confidence in the government-administration?
I hope you'll deliberate over my letter.

Comments

Australia least prepared to fight Hindu 'extremism', admits diaspora NGO group

Tiranga rally in Sydney: Cause of stir among diaspora By Our Representative The Australian Alliance Against Hate and Violence (AAAHAV) has said that Australia is “least prepared” to counter the allegedly “rising threat of Hindu far right extremism”. Calling upon politicians, federal and state governments to “urgently recognise the threat far-right Hindu extremism”, it asks “to take concrete steps to address this threat.”

Young environmentalist's arrest 'sinister', even parents not told of her whereabouts

By Our Representative The Coalition for Environmental Justice in India (CEJI), a civil society network, has said that it is “highly disturbing” that Disha Ravi, a young woman climate activist from Bengaluru was “picked up” in what is referred to as a “closely guarded operation” of the Delhi police. Disha, 21, has been remanded to police custody for five days after she was taken from Bengaluru to Delhi.

Mukesh Ambani's earnings during Covid 'can lift' 40% informal workers out of poverty

By Dr Gian Singh* The Inequality Virus Report released by Oxfam, a non-profit organization, on January 25, 2021 on the growing inequalities in different parts of the world, sheds light on the growing economic, educational, healthcare and gender inequalities in India. The report has revealed that the wealth of billionaires has increased by 35 per cent during the lockdown period in the country.

US forensic revelation enough evidence to release Sudha Bharadwaj, others: Civicus

Counterview Desk Civicus, a Johannesburg-based global alliance of civil society organisations and activists claiming to have presence in 175 countries with 9,000 members and working for strengthening citizen action, has sought immediate release of Sudha Bharadwaj, arrested in 2018 under the anti-terror Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and accused of having links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Golwalkar's views on tricolour, martyrs, minorities, caste as per RSS archives

By Shamsul Islam* First time in the history of independent India, the in-charge minister of the Cultural Ministry in the current Modi government, Prahlad Singh Patel, has glorified MS Golwalkar, second supremo of the RSS and the most prominent ideologue of the RSS till date, on his birth anniversary, February 19. In a tweet he wrote : “Remembering a great thinker, scholar, and remarkable leader #MSGolwalkar on his birth anniversary. His thoughts will remain a source of inspiration & continue to guide generations.”

'Bird, take me flying with you too!' Being Devangana Kalita

By Ashley Tellis* I first met Devangana Kalita in a first year English Honours classroom in which I entered to teach Charles Dickens’ Hard Times in Miranda House, Delhi University, in 2008. She was one of the smartest students in the class – Devangana smiled the most and had the brightest twinkle in her eyes of the girls in the class. A middle class girl – Kalita comes from a family in upper Assam, the Kalitas along with the Brahmins dominate Assam (the Bamon-Kolita nexus as it is called) – in an elite all women’s institution known for a feminist, rebellious history. Like all institutions, it was repressive; like all all-women institutions, particularly so. But Miranda House had met its match in Devangana. She organised, protested, all within the democratic tradition resisted. The seeds of Pinjra Tod, the group Devangana was to eventually co-found, and which now finds her jailed for as absurd a reason as inciting a ‘riot’ were already sown in that first year. By the third year, they

20% of FIRs against journalists in 2020 alone, targeted attacks in 2021 'too many to count'

Counterview Desk Condemning what it calls “alarming rise in state repression and clampdown on news outlets and journalists” that “expose” the anti-people nature of the establishment, India's top civil society network, National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has demanded “immediate release of arrested journalists, withdrawal of arbitrary charges and protection of media persons facing threats.”

Whither right to food? Social security scheme allocation for woman, child 'reduced'

Counterview Desk Pointing out that women and children have been ignored in the Union Budget 2021-22, the advocacy group Right to Food Campaign (RtFC) has said that the Government of India should have taken into account the fact that even after the lockdown was lifted, distress among marginalized communities continues, with people having lower incomes and reduced food consumption.

NAPM extends support to Indian, Aussie citizen groups 'opposing' Adani ventures

#StopAdani action in Australia Counterview Desk The civil rights network, National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), extending solidarity to the global campaign by the Youth Action to Stop Adani (YAStA), held in recently in Australia and India, has said that the effort was to bring more attention to the struggle aboriginal, indigenous peoples, farmers, working class and other oppressed communities against allegedly anti-people multinational corporate conglomerates.

Counterview

Search This Blog