Continuing with its notorious tactics of intimidating anyone who does not sing paeans to the ruling party and the Modi-Shah user manual of life, India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) today raided well known social activist and communal harmony advocate Harsh Mander’s offices and residence. The ED teams also raided the offices of the Centre of Equity Studies (CES) Delhi, besides his Vasant Kunj home. Mander is currently in Berlin, Germany and is to join a fellowship. WSN reports.

THE INCOME TAX (IT) DEPARTMENT OF INDIA, in a coordinated swoop, raided the residence, offices of human rights activist Harsh Mander across Delhi and also one of the children’s shelter homes run by an allied institution – Ummeed Aman Ghar – in Mehrauli. The raids were on at the time of filing of this report.

Mander is in Berlin at the invitation of the Robert Bosch Academy to join them for the prestigious Richard Von Weizsacker Fellowship. The Robert Bosch Academy, founded in 2014 as an institution of the Robert Bosch Stiftung, offers international decision-makers, opinion leaders, and experts the opportunity for solution-oriented cooperation on issues of global relevance.

Some of India’s leading public intellectuals, advocates, opinion leaders, community builders, academicians and civil liberties activists have condemned the raids, terming these as tactics aimed at harassing and intimidating leading human rights and peace activist “who has done nothing but work for peace and harmony, consistently upholding the highest moral standards of honesty and probity.”

Harsh Mander and the CES have remained the target of ire of the incumbent regime at the Centre and have faced what they called “harassment by multiple state agencies.”

“Harsh Mander has done nothing but work for peace and harmony, consistently upholding the highest moral standards of honesty and probity.”

India's leading public intellectuals and activists in a joint statement condemning the raids by the government of India

“The false and malicious allegations by the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) were definitively countered by the Delhi Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR), a statutory body, which has filed a strong affidavit in the Delhi High Court, putting an end to the false allegations against CES,” activists Aruna Roy (MKSS), Dr Syeda Hameed (former member, Planning Commission), Prof Jean Dreze and Prof. Apoorvanand, among others, said in a signed statement.

They claimed that the CES has also been subjected to harassment by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), and the IT department. “All these vindictive efforts combined, have shown neither diversion of money nor any violation of the law. The current raids by the ED and IT department are to be viewed in this context, as part of a continuing chain of abuse of state institutions to threaten, intimidate and try to silence every critic of the present government,” they added.

Others who signed the statement, included Indira Jaising, Senior Advocate, Dr V Suresh, PUCL, General Secretary, Ravi Kiran Jain, President PUCL, Henri Tiphagne, People’s Watch, Kavita Krishnan, AIPWA General Secretary, Mihir Desai, Senior Advocate and PUCL, Teesta Setalvad, CJP, Nav Sharan Singh, Independent Researcher, Anuradha Talwar, PBKMS, Shabnam Hashmi, Anhad, Annie Raja, General Secretary, NFIW, Farah Naqvi, Writer, Avinash, Human Rights Worker, Nikhil Dey, MKSS, Shanker Singh, MKSS, Purwa Bharadwaj, Writer and trainer, Gauhar Raza, Film Maker, Kavita Srivastava, PUCL, National Secretary, Lara Jesani, PUCL, Maharashtra, Mohammed Nadeem, UAH, Brinelle D’Souza, Teacher, Father Cedric Prakash, Human Rights Worker, Ashlin Mathew, Journalist, Sarojini, SAMA and Anand Grover, Senior Advocate.