PUCL meet cites NIA notice to farmer protesters, demands repeal of UAPA

By A Representative
Senior activists from the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), along with around 100 organisations, which began a three day virtual consultation on human rights issues, have demanded repeal of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act, stating that these laws are being used as a tool to finish democracy and silence dissent.
V Suresh, PUCL general secretary, stated that UAPA has reversed every element of the principle of natural justice. The accused has to prove his or her innocence, illegal detention is justified for more than six months, bail grounds are not what the same as in other criminal laws, and even prima facie involvement in a case leads to denial of bail.
Suresh noted, UAPA has become a tool to silence dissenters and as a means to throw them in prison and deny them their civil liberties indefinitely. If earlier the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) was brazenly used on Muslims and tribals, mainly to persecute activists, dubbing them as terrorists and Maoists, ever since 2004, a more stringent UAPA seeks to target not only Muslim, tribals and Dalits, but also intellectuals, political critics, trade unionists, lawyers and activists who are do constitutional work.
PUCL vice president Mihir Desai, an eminent human rights lawyer, pointed towards how the NIA Act and the National Intelligence Grid or NATGRID are being used to further persecute those targeted, asserting, there was a complete invasion of the privacy of those who came under the radar of these agencies. NATGRID collects information from 12 agencies and people are subjected to constant surveillance.
Activists from the Human Rights Forum and the Civil Liberties Committee, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, made a presentation on what is happening in the two states which are non-BJP. Even the most basic tool of human rights work, like fact finding, is being criminalised.
Advocate Madhava Rao, citing various FIRs, explained how the targeting of activists has become a norm. Random statements from anyone are used in order to pick up anyone and blame human rights activists for distributing seditious materials or being associated with a Maoist organisation.
Advocates Kranti Chaitanya and V Raghunath said, even those working for simple developmental issues like education, health, food security etc. are being targeted. Those fighting against caste violence are under constant threat of being booked under UAPA. People are thrown into jail for years together before bail is granted, and those facing persecution include students, Dalits, tribals, women, civil liberty activists and environmentalists.
N Ravi Sharma, who earlier spent seven years in jail, and more recently was behind bars for eight months for forming an anti-Hindutva front with several organisation, said, the police operates with instructions from above. Holding different views is enough for you to be incarcerated.
Swechata Prabhakar, referring to her father D Prabhakar of the Kula Unmulan Pareta Samiti, said he found himself in jail as he challenged caste violence and was dubbed Maoist.

National Intelligence Grid is being used to persecute activists, invade into privacy of those who come under its radar

A presentation by activists from Delhi pointed towards the violence in the national capital following demonstrations against the Citizenship Amendment Act, Nation Register of Citizens and National Population Register (CAA, NRC and NPR), stating, the Government of India is criminalising protests, much against the core principles of the Indian Constitution relating to the freedom of speech and expression.
Advocate Shahrukh Alam compared various judgements on the right to protest, including the judgement on the Shaheen Bagh road block, with the American jurisprudence on protest. He said, the comparison makes is crystal clear that a road block due to protest is equivalent to traffic block, and the offense is no greater than that. It is not a criminal act, even though in Delhi those participating in protests have been branded as terrorists.
Nadeem Khan of the United Against Hate, detailing the profiles of the 23 arrested persons under UAPA, most of them aged under 35, said, more than 400 people have been summoned by the Special Cell of the Delhi police in order to fix confessions. Those refusing to consent are threatened that they would face jail sentence, thus creating a culture of fear.
Well-known academic Apoorvanand said that any person who agrees with anti-CAA protesters and criticises Delhi police, such as Yogendra Yadav, Rahul Roy, Harsh Mander, are harassed. Lawyer Mehmood Pracha, who was representing many clients of the Delhi riots, is harassed by Delhi police in a most tyrannical manner.
Speaking about how those involved in farmers’ struggle are being harassed, advocate Guneet Kaur said that at least 100 protesters have been sent NIA notices. The nature of interrogation consists of people being called to Delhi and asked to submit their bank account details.
A massive intelligence exercise has been undertaken to target farmer-activists. The FIRs are vague, claiming that the farmers’ protesters are getting money from banned organisations like Sikhs for Justice and Babar Khalsa to promote terrorism, she added.

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

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.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

India’s green energy push faces talent crunch amidst record growth at 16% CAGR

By Jag Jivan* A new study by a top consulting firm has found that India’s cleantech sector is entering a decisive growth phase, with strong policy backing, record capacity additions and surging investor interest, but facing mounting pressure on talent supply and rising compensation costs .

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Beyond sattvik: Purity, caste and the politics of the Indian kitchen

By Rajiv Shah A few week ago, I was forwarded an article that appeared in the British weekly The Economist . Titled “Caste and cuisine: From honeycomb curry to blood fry: India’s ‘untouchable’ cooking”, it took me back to what I had blogged about what was called a “ sattvik food festival”, an annual event organised by former Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad professor Anil Gupta.

Search This Blog