Insult to Ambedkar's legacy: Political activists on order to arrest Teltumbde, Navlakha

Dr Teltumbde, Navlakha

Counterview Desk
Several well-known Dalit rights leaders and politicians have taken strong exception to the March 16 Supreme Court bench comprising judges Arun Mishra and Mukeshkumar Rasikbhai Shah rejecting the anticipatory bail pleas of the civil-rights activist Gautam Navlakha and writer Dr Anand Teltumbde, stating their arrest on April 14, which happens to be Ambedkar Jayanti, would be “a national shame”.
Implicated in the violence at Bhima Koregaon in January 2018, Navlakha and Teltumbde were booked by the Pune Police under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for alleged Maoist links. The Supreme Court asked Navlakha and Dr Teltumbde to surrender on April 6. On April 8, the Supreme Court granted both of them a week to surrender in the Bhima Koregaon case, registered under the draconian UAPA.
Particularly condemning the Supreme Court order to arrest of Dr Teltumbde, who is married to Ambedkar’s granddaughter, the statement said, he is one of India’s “foremost public intellectuals and the strongest legatee of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s tradition of struggling for a truly democratic India”, declaring, he will “comply with the apex court order to surrender to the jail authorities.”
“He will be surrendering on the April 14, 2020, between 12 noon and 2 pm at the Sessions Court in Mumbai”, the statement said, adding, “This is both tragic and shameful for all Dalits, Adivasis, OBC, and minorities on many counts for all of India.”
The statement continues, “It marks a day on which this country will celebrate the 129th birth anniversary of one of its greatest minds and hearts, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, and on which the mighty nationalist machinery seeks to crush the spirit that kept the flame of democracy alive in our midst.”
The surrender would take place, says the statement, “when even very repressive regimes around the world are releasing political prisoners in the face of the corona virus”, adding, incarceration of great minds like Dr Teltumbde would take place allowing his Constitutional rights of such a person to be “sidelined.”

Dr Teltumbde will surrender on Babasaheb Ambedkar's birth anniversary, April 14, between 12 noon and 2 pm in Mumbai

Describing the arrest of Dr Teltumbde “an obnoxious warning of the casteist Manuvadi regime to Dalit, Adivasi, OBC and minority intellectuals not to raise their voices of protest”, the statement says, “This arrest reveals India’s deeply entrenched casteism for a ‘crime’ Dr Teltumbde has not committed and for which no proof has been produced.”

Asking Dalit, Adivasi, OBC, and minority leadership to “stand up and seek justice in the finest of traditions that Babasaheb”, the statement quotes Dr Teltumbde in his latest book ‘The Republic of Caste’, saying, “The wrath of the wretched scares the world."
“It becomes our duty to come together at this hour and demand that the Indian authorities allow Dr Teltumbde to live and write, to be a free spirit that enlivens our democratic selves, and remain the beacon that he is for educating, organizing, and agitating for a better India and a better world”, it adds.
---
Signatories: Dr Thol Thirumavalavan, MP, founder-president, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi; D Raja, MP (Rajya Sabha), general secretary, Communist Party of India, Gujarat Dalit rights leader Jignesh Mevani, Independent MLA; Dr Udit Raj, ex-MP, Indian National Congress; Prakash Ambedkar, ex-MP, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi; D Ravikumar, MP, general secretary, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi; Vinay Ratan Singh, national president, Bhim Army Bharat Ekta Mission; Gujarat Dalit MLA Nausad Solanki (Congress); Prof Dr Sujatha Surepally, convenor, Bahujan Resistance Forum, Telangana; and Dr Rajkumar Chabbewal, Congress MLA (Hoshiyarpur, Punjab)

Comments

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

Ahmedabad's Sabarmati riverfront under scrutiny after Subhash Bridge damage

By Rosamma Thomas* Large cracks have appeared on Subhash Bridge across the Sabarmati in Ahmedabad, close to the Gandhi Ashram . Built in 1973, this bridge, named after Subhash Chandra Bose , connects the eastern and western parts of the city and is located close to major commercial areas. The four-lane bridge has sidewalks for pedestrians, and is vital for access to Ashram Road , Ellis Bridge , Gandhinagar and the Sabarmati Railway Station .

The Vande Mataram debate and the politics of manufactured controversy

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* The recent Vande Mataram debate in Parliament was never meant to foster genuine dialogue. Each political party spoke past the other, addressing its own constituency, ensuring that clips went viral rather than contributing to meaningful deliberation. The objective was clear: to construct a Hindutva narrative ahead of the Bengal elections. Predictably, the Lok Sabha will likely expunge the opposition’s “controversial” remarks while retaining blatant inaccuracies voiced by ministers and ruling-party members. The BJP has mastered the art of inserting distortions into parliamentary records to provide them with a veneer of historical legitimacy.

No action yet on complaint over assault on lawyer during Tirunelveli public hearing

By A Representative A day after a detailed complaint was filed seeking disciplinary action against ten lawyers in Tirunelveli for allegedly assaulting human rights lawyer Dr. V. Suresh, no action has yet been taken by the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, according to the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL).

Farewell to Robin Smith, England’s Lionhearted Warrior Against Pace

By Harsh Thakor* Robin Smith, who has died at the age of 62, was among the most adept and convincing players of fast bowling during an era when English cricket was in decline and pace bowling was at its most lethal. Unwavering against the tormenting West Indies pace attack or the relentless Australians, Smith epitomised courage and stroke-making prowess. His trademark shot, an immensely powerful square cut, made him a scourge of opponents. Wearing a blue England helmet without a visor or grille, he relished pulling, hooking and cutting the quicks.

Latur’s quiet rebel: Dr Suryanarayan Ransubhe and his war on Manuvad

By Ravi Ranjan* In an India still fractured by caste, religion, and language, where narrow loyalties repeatedly threaten to tear the nation apart, Rammanohar Lohia once observed that the true leader of the bahujans is one under whose banner even non-bahujans feel proud to march. The remark applies far beyond politics. In the literary-cultural and social spheres as well, only a person armed with unflinching historical consciousness and the moral courage to refuse every form of personality worship—including worship of oneself—can hope to touch the weak pulse of the age and speak its bitter truths without fear or favour.

Differences in 2002 and 2025 SIR revision procedures spark alarm in Gujarat

By A Representative Civil rights groups and electoral reform activists have raised serious concerns over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Gujarat and 11 other states, alleging that the newly enforced requirements could lead to large-scale deletion of legitimate voters, particularly those unable to furnish documentation linking them to the 2002 electoral list.

Proposals for Babri Masjid, Ram Temple spark fears of polarisation before West Bengal polls

By A Representative A political debate has emerged in West Bengal following recent announcements about plans for new religious structures in Murshidabad district, including a proposed mosque to be named Babri Masjid and a separate announcement by a BJP leader regarding the construction of a Ram temple in another location within Behrampur.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

Search This Blog