Five human rights activists detained by the Indian state get temporary reprieve from the Supreme Court of India, as the country and human rights defenders worldwide are outraged at this blatant violation of the right to dissent and disagree. India seems to be liking its tag of being a banana republic. It is time to stand up in solidarity with these activists and prepare more effectively to ward off any such move against others in future.

Giving a damn about what the world would think, in a coordinated plan to give a body blow to all peoples who oppose the “world’s largest democracy”, Maharashtra police, bypassing all norms of arrest went across to country to detain a poet, lawyers and human rights activists, who were espousing the Dalit cause, nine months after “the criminal conspiracy”.

Noted author Arundhati Roy called the move “worse than emergency”.   In an email response to the newspaper The Hindu, Ms. Roy has said, “The simultaneous state-wide arrests are a dangerous sign of a government that fears it is losing its mandate and is falling into panic. While killers are being garlanded and protected by people in high places, anybody who speaks up for justice or against Hindu majoritarianism is being made into a criminal. What is happening is absolutely perilous. In the run-up to elections, this is an attempted coup against the Indian Constitution and all the freedoms that we cherish,” she noted.

““Worse than emergency””

Arundhati Roy

The Supreme Court of India, in a quick response, directed the state agencies to place all the activists under house arrest till 6 September. Calling dissent as the “safety valve of democracy” the court directed the Maharashtra government to come up with credible evidence at the next hearing. Eminent lawyers Prashant Bhushan led the arguments from the front on a petition by noted activist Romila Thapar and others. But for this reprieve, the Indian state had done everything to qualify as a banana republic.

The Maharashtra Police arrested Vernon Gonsalves, Executive Member of CRPP,  activists and lawyers Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Arun Ferreira, revolutionary poet Varavara Rao, and Kranti Teluka. Raids were also conducted across Goa, Jharkhand, Delhi, and Telangana in the houses of Anand Teltumbde, Father Stan Swamy, Anala, Kumaranth and Prof. Satyanarayana.

“This is government-sponsored terror and height of misuse of government agencies.””

Mayawati, Bahujan Samaj Party chief

So far no charge-sheet has been filed for the five activists -Professor Shoma Sen, Advocate Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawale, and Rona Wilson detained earlier in June this year. The two Mumbai based lawyers who were engaged in debunking the state theory and protecting these five accused of terrorism, have been detained, effectively scuttling legal assistance to them.

Working on the well-tested Indian theory of “call the dog mad and shoot him”,  various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the anti-people UAPA -Unlawful Activities Prevention Act have been foisted.

It all started a year ago, when so-called upper caste people unleashed violence on Dalits in Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra. The Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners activists Prof. SAR Geelani, Amit Bhattacharya, Sujato Bhadra, Sukhendu Bhattacharjee, MN Ravunni, P. Koya, Malem and Hanybabu MT condemning the arrests, in a statement to the media nailed the design of the state saying, “These arrests and raids are a blatant attempt at stifling dissenting voices revealing a sinister, premeditated and politically motivated effort to malign the arrested and discredit them through branding instead of evidence. All arrested persons are well regarded human rights activists who have publicly worked for the rights of dalits, adivasis, minority communities, women’s rights, workers’ rights and spoken and written extensively about the policies of the state.” “The callous disregard for the rule of law and the fundamental rights of people by the institutions of the state reveals a stark image of a fascist Indian State.” said CRPP.  

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati slammed Narendra Modi government in the Centre saying, “This is government-sponsored terror and height of misuse of government agencies.” The violence that followed the Bhima-Koregaon celebration was a conspiracy to instil fear among Dalits and supporters of Dalit activists. “Bhima-Koregaon celebration exhibits Dalit pride,” she said.

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Dal Khalsa chief Harpal Singh Cheema said “this was clearly a continuation of the trend of the Indian state to suppress dissent and crush the voice of human rights defenders who stand up for Dalits and their cause. The Modi dispensation is trying to raise the bogey of ‘Urban Naxal’ to stem political dissent”.  He appealed to the international community to rise to the occasion and not allow India to wage a battle against its own peoples.