Skip to main content

Andhra, Telangana 'collaborate' with Centre to target human rights defenders: NAPM

Counterview Desk 

India’s civil rights organisation, National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), while condemning a spate of “fabricated” FIRs and “arbitrary raids” on activists’ homes in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, has regretted that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Unlawful Activities Prohibition Act (UAPA) “have become tools of stifling all democratic assertion and dissent by the current regime”.
Citing specific instances, in a statement, NAPM said, “In line with its anti-federal approach towards all areas of governance, the Union Government has also sought to ‘centralize’ investigation further by roping in the NIA, even in matters where the state government can undertake investigation.”
It regretted, “As is known, most state governments (across parties) which in any case have a history of clamp-down on rights activists, are only quick to ‘hand over matters’ to the NIA, especially when they themselves are likely to face the ‘ire of the Centre’.”

Text:

National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) condemns in the strongest possible terms the high-handed manner of ‘raids’ by the National Investigative Agency (NIA) at the homes of over 16 activists of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, acting on dubious FIRs registered a couple of months back. We express our solidarity with all these activists and advocates who are long standing members of human rights, civil liberties and mass organizations and have been striving to work for the welfare and rights of the most disenfranchised peoples including adivasis, dalits, workers, farmers, minorities and women.
The raids on 31st March – 1st April, took place in the context of two FIRs filed by the AP police:
  • FIR No: 47/2020: Dated 23rd November 2020 registered against 65 persons, including many rights activists, at the Munchingput Police Station, Vishakhapatnam Dist, under Sec 120 (B), 121, 121(A), 143, 144, 124 (A) r/w 149 IPC; Sec 10, 13 and 18 of UAPA; Sec 8 (1) and 8 (2) of the AP Public Security Act and Sec 25 of the Arms Act. Reportedly, the said FIR was registered based on an alleged ‘confession’ of an arrested ‘Maoist sympathiser’ vide Crime No. 47/2020 of the same police station.
  • FIR No: 606/2020: Dated 24th November, 2020, registered at Piduguralla town police station in Guntur Dist, under Sec 120 (B), 121, 121(A), 143, 144, 124 (A) r/w 149 IPC; Sec 16,17,18, 18(A), 18 (B), 20,21,38,39, 40 of UAPA.
It is learnt that, in all, 92 persons have been accused in the aforesaid FIRs, with 27 names appearing commonly in both. Of them, 10 persons have been arrested by the AP police and have been in jail since Nov- Dec, 2020. According to information available, some of the activists, named in the two FIRs, at whose residences raids have taken place include:
  • V. Raghunath, Hyderabad, Chilika Chandrasekhar (Guntur District), V. Chitti Babu, East Godavari – Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (CLC)
  • Devendra, Shilpa, Swapna, Rajeswari (Guntur), Padma (Vishakhapatnam) - Chaitanya Mahila Sangam
  • VS Krishna (Vishakhapatnam) - Human Rights Forum (HRF)
  • Varalakshmi (Kadapa District), Arun (Kurnool District), Paani, (Kurnool district) - Revolutionary Writers association (Virasam)
  • Dappu Ramesh (Hyderabad) - Prajakala Mandali
  • Anjamma (Prakasham District), Sirisha, (Prakasham district) - Amaraveerula Bandhumitrula Sangham (Association of Friends and Relatives of Martyrs)
  • Adv. KS Chelam (Vishakhapatnam)
  • Reportedly houses of some activists associated with Patriotic Democratic Movement (PDM), Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP), Kula Nirmoolana Porata Samiti (KNPS), Praja Kala Mandali (People's Art Collective) are also under the radar of NIA.
After the search and seizure, which lasted for many hours and continued late into early hours of 1st April, the NIA issued notices to all of them u/s. 160 Cr.P.C. to attend its offices at Vijayawada / Hyderabad.
There are also multiple FIRs against activists and adivasis in Telangana, wherein people have been falsely implicated under draconian provisions such as UAPA. The FIR lodged at Tadvai police station in Mulug district of Telangana on 2nd November, 2020 names a long list of activists including adivasi teachers and rights defenders. 
In both Telugu states, human rights workers, civil liberties activists, women's rights activists, writers, academics and lawyers have been targeted for a while now. It is clear that anyone who has the capacity to highlight issues, raise public consciousness against the excesses of the State and build solidarity is facing the wrath of the Governments – both Central and state.
In line with its anti-federal approach towards all areas of governance, the Union Government has also sought to ‘centralize’ investigation further by roping in the NIA, even in matters where the state government can undertake investigation. As is known, most state governments (across parties) which in any case have a history of clamp-down on rights activists, are only quick to ‘hand over matters’ to the NIA, especially when they themselves are likely to face the ‘ire of the Centre’. 
 Thus, even in the current context, the NIA Hyderabad took over the investigation of the Vishakapatnam FIR on 7th March and began inquiries at its level, based on its re-registered FIR RC-1/2021/ NIA/HYD and also obtained search warrants from the NIA Special Court.
Anyone who has capacity raise public consciousness against excesses of the State is facing the wrath of Governments – Central and State
It may also be noted that the NIA has conducted these raids, even as writ petitions are pending before the Andhra Pradesh, seeking quashing of the FIRs. Reportedly, the High Court has also granted interim protection orders to the petitioners (accused whose names appear in both FIRs) by directing the police not to arrest them, until further orders.
It is indeed a cruel irony that while the 11 adivasi women of Vakapalli (agency area in Vishakapatnam) who were reportedly subject to gang rape by the Greyhounds police in Aug, 2007 are yet to see any semblance of justice, 13 years after the incident, activists like VS Krishna who, along with many others have been at the forefront of supporting the rape survivors and ensuring state accountability are now outrageously being alleged to be ‘influencing the Vakapalli rape survivors to depose falsely against the policemen’ !
The past few years have seen a series of mass FIRs and arrests, all parroting the same narrative of certain individuals ‘conspiring against the State to de-stabilize the Government’! Numerous activists, students, teachers, lawyers, poets have been behind bars for years now. 
Human rights defenders across states are being targeted, sought to be silenced by trumped up charges and FIRs. In all these matters, draconian laws like the UAPA and sedition are invoked, thereby making possible long-term incarcerations and repeated denial of bails, even to the ill and elderly persons. In effect, the ‘trial, or rather the mere allegation, becomes the punishment’.
We also wish to point out the absurdity and illegality in these FIRs of criminalizing mere possession of some literature, which is anyways in public circulation. Another ploy that the State has been resorting to is ‘confession statements’ from those in custody or arrested, to incriminate others. There is a vicious, deliberate and consistent ploy across the country today, to defame the valuable work of rights activists and groups through such sensational FIRs, raids and arrests.
By criminalizing activists, the State in effect is trying to crack down on the political work of activist organizations, be it resisting rising Hindutva and communalism, violations of adivasi and forest rights, displacement, land grab, corporate resource loot and environmental violations, caste and gender-based atrocities, exposing corrupt deals etc.
Despite limited hope from the higher judiciary in these times, we still think it is the obligation of the Apex Court to squarely address the constitutionality of institutions like the NIA and laws like UAPA and sedition that have become political tools of harassment, intimidation and incarceration of voices that stand in defence of human rights.
It needs no emphasis that human rights activists and organizations are often performing the duty that the state agencies must, by safeguarding constitutional rights. Instead, the State, by choosing to silence and pin down the very people and groups striving to defend democratic rights is making it amply clear that its only priority is serving the powerful sections, (political and corporate) violating and disenfranchising the vulnerable and marginalized.
As citizens, we need to stand up to our right to organize, dissent and question the State, without being subject to intimidation, false cases and arrests for the same.
We demand that:
  • The Government of AP immediately withdraw all fabricated FIRs against the activists including FIR Nos 47/2020 (Vishakhapatnam) and FIR No: 606/2020 (Guntur) and NIA revokes its FIR RC-1/2021/ NIA/HYD.
  • Telangana Govt must also withdraw FIRs registered by it against rights activists, including FIRs filed at Mulugu against adivasi youth and teachers in Adilabad.
  • All activists arrested in these FIRs since Nov-Dec, be released immediately.
  • The NIA return all the seized materials to the activists including phones, computers, laptops, hard disks, pen drives and literature.
  • Central Govt as well as Andhra and Telangana Government must stop hounding democratic rights activists and end repression on human rights defenders and people’s organizations.
  • A draconian law like UAPA must have no place in a free democracy. UAPA and Sedition law must be repealed. A united citizens movement against UAPA and anti-people laws is the need of the hour.
---
Click here for NAPM signatories

Comments

TRENDING

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Central pollution watchdog sees red in Union ministry labelling waste to energy green

By Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran*  “Destructors”, “incinerators” and “waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration” all mean the same thing – indiscriminate burning of garbage! Having a history of about one and a half centuries, WTE incinerators have seen several reboots over the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. 

First-of-its-kind? 'Eco-friendly, low cost' sewage treatment system installed in Gujarat

Counterview Desk Following the installation of the Unconventional Decentralized Multi-Stage Reactor (UDMSR) for sewage treatment, a note on what is claimed to be the  first-of-its-kind technology said, the treated sewage from this system “can be directly utilized for agricultural purposes”, even as proving to be a “saviour in the times of water crisis.”

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Indo-Bangla border: Farmers facing 'illegal obstacles' in harvesting, transporting yields

  Counterview Desk  In a representation to the chairperson, National Human Rights Commission, human rights defender Kirity Roy, who is secretary, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), has said that Border Security Force (BSF) personnel are creating "illegal obstacles" for farmers seeking to harvest their ripened yields and transport them to the market in village Jhaukuthi of Cooch Behar district.

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview  story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded  reaction  in the form of a  link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

Wasteland, a colonial legacy, being used to 'give away' vast tracts to Ratnagiri refinery

By Fouziya Tehzeeb* William D’Souza, a 55-year old farmer from Kuthethur, Mangalore, was busy mixing cattle feed when we arrived at his doorsteps. Around 25 km from the bustling city of Mangalore, Kuthethur is a lush green village with thick vegetation. On the way to William’s house the idyllic view gets blocked by the flares and smoke arising from the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL).

CAA disregards India's inclusive plural ethos, 'betrays' ideals of freedom struggle: PUCL

Counterview Desk    "Outraged" at the move of the Central government to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA 2019) weeks before the election, the top rights group, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has demanded that the law be repealed. 

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

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative 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".

Invincible, Modi 'taller' than BJP, RSS: An opportunity for Congress beyond 2024?

By NS Venkataraman*  With the announcement of poll schedule for the 2024 parliamentary election, there is palpable excitement and expectation amongst the countrymen  about the shape of things to happen in India after the  results of the election would be announced. There is also speculation abroad about the future course of developments in India.