August 29, 2018
Emergency-like conditions prevail in India
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Former Indian Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha Wednesday alleged “emergency-line” conditions are prevailing in the country under the present regime and the arrest of five activists on suspicion of Maoist links shows that any voice of dissent is not safe.
“What happened yesterday is the prime example of assault on freedom of speech and freedom of the press,” he told reporters in Bengaluru.
The Pune police Tuesday raided residences of several prominent activists in several states and arrested at least five of them for suspected Maoist links, according to Press Trust of India.
The raids were carried out as part of the probe into the violence between Dalits and upper caste Peshwas at Koregaon-Bhima village near Pune after the ‘Elgar Parishad’ event on December 31 last year.
Yashwant Sinha alleged that there was a ‘conspiracy’ to silence criticism and suppress voices of dissent.
He said the arrests showed that people who voice dissent were not safe and there were many ways to suppress dissenting voices. “The arrest of the five activists clearly shows the emergency like conditions prevailing in India under the present regime at the centre,” he said.
Searches were carried out at homes of activist and poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha in Delhi, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, human rights lawyer and trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad and Chhattisgarh, among others, according to the PTI.
Subsequently, Rao, Bhardwaj, Farreira, Gonzalves and Navalakha were arrested under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 153(A), which relates to promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place or birth, residence, language and committing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony.
PUCL, Amnesty, Oxfam condemn crackdown
Describing the sweeping raids and arrests of human rights activists as “systematic and pre-meditated crackdown”, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has slammed the government for it’s “concerted attempt” to crush human rights interventions and silence voices of dissent in the country.
The PUCL said that it believes that the intention of the government and the police in targeting the activists, by foisting false and fabricated cases against them, is clear and apparent from their profiles of work.
“All the human rights activists targeted in this multi-city operation by the police have been tirelessly involved in advocating the cause, and fighting for the rights, of the most poor and marginalised sections of society against serious State violations and unscrupulous corporates,” PUCL said in a statement, adding that the “systematic and pre-meditated crackdown” signals the imposition of an “unofficial Emergency and is a direct attack on democracy”.
“This is a deliberate strategy of the State to target human rights activists in a clear act of reprisals against them for calling out the human rights violations by the State and the police, and to intimidate those who are fighting for justice,” it added.
The nationwide crackdown on activists, advocates and human rights defenders is disturbing and threatens core human-rights values, Amnesty International India and Oxfam India said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
The response came hours after the Maharashtra police raided the homes of prominent left wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them for suspected Maoist links. It sparked a chorus of outraged protests from several lawyers, academics and authors, some of whom termed the move "absolutely chilling" and others saying it amounted to a "virtual declaration of emergency".
"Today's arrests is the second of such crackdowns on rights activists, advocates and journalists who have been critical of the state. All these people have history of working to protect the rights of some of India's most poor and marginalised people. Their arrests raise disturbing questions about whether they are being targeted for their activism," said Aakar Patel, executive director, Amnesty International India.
National Human Rights Commission
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Wednesday issued notice to the Maharashtra chief secretary and director general of police on the arrests of five human rights activists – Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha and Arun Ferreira – from different cities on Tuesday (August 28).
The FIR on the basis of which the arrests were made relates to the violence which followed the Bhima-Koregaon commemorative event held in Maharashtra on January 1 this year.
Taking suo motu cognisance of the arrests, the NHRC has said in a statement that media reports suggest the Maharashtra police did not follow standard operating procedure, “which may amount to violation of their human rights”.
While explaining why the commission is issuing notice to the chief secretary and DGP, the release says that the Delhi high court, while staying the transit remand for civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha, has said that “police have not been able to satisfactorily explain the offence he had been arrested for”. “…the court has questioned how Pune police managed to get a transit remand from a Delhi court without any local witness. The court has also directed translation of the police documents into English which are in vernacular language,” the NHRC has said.
The commission has also brought up the arrest of Sudha Bharadwaj. “The activist has told the court that she had nothing to do with the incident for which she has been arrested. According to her, the FIR did not even name her and she is being harassed and arrested only because of her ideology,” the NHRC has said.
Those already arrested for the Bhima Koregaon violence include human rights lawyer from Nagpur Surendra Gadling, Dalit rights activist and journalist Sudhir Dhawale, former Prime Minister Rural Development fellow Mahesh Raut, prisoners’ rights activist Rona Wilson and associate professor from Nagpur University Shoma Sen. According to the NHRC, it had received a complaint from an NGO in Geneva calling these arrests (made in June) illegal, and issued notice to the Maharashtra DGP then asking for a report on the matter. While the notice was sent on June 29, the commission is yet to receive the police’s report, the NHRC’s statement said.
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Chief Editor of the Journal of America.
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