A group of public intellectuals addressed a press conference in Delhi on Thursday, condemning the Pune Police for arresting five human rights activists two days ago in connection with the violence that broke out on January 1 in Maharashtra’s Bhima Koregaon.
The police have claimed that the five are members of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) and had set up an “anti-fascist front” with the aim of overthrowing the government. The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the activists’ transit remand and ordered them to remain under house arrest till the next hearing on September 6.
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, social activists Aruna Roy and Bezwada Wilson, Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani and writer Arundhati Roy were among those who spoke to the media.
“Whenever there is a Dalit assertion the state itself is opposing,” said Wilson, the national convenor of the Safai Karmachari Andolan. “We want to celebrate the victory symbol in Bhima Koregaon, what is the wrong? For the first time Dalits have something to celebrate, instead of that you oppose. This is a question of freedom.”
Every New Year’s Day, Bhima Koregaon witnesses a celebration by Dalits of the 1818 victory of Mahar soldiers of the British Army over the Brahmin Peshwa forces of the Maratha Empire. This year’s event saw clashes between Dalits and Marathas.
Aruna Roy, the founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, said critical voices were being suppressed, and pointed out that the arrests marked a constitutional breakdown.
“It is a combination of an undeclared emergency, fascism and the Gujarat model,” said Jignesh Mevani. “They want to do two things – they want to terrorise all who speak against the BJP and the RSS. They also want to discredit Dalit ascension. They want to use Naxals to discredit any Dalit movement.”
“The so-called Maoist plot to assassinate Modi is nothing but a plot designed and articulated by the Maharashtra police, upon the instruction of Modi and Amit Shah only to generate sympathy for Modi before 2019,” Mevnai added.
The independent legislator said Dalits would hit the streets in protest against these arrests on September 5. “The murder of democracy by fascists happens slowly, by attacking human rights bit by bit,” said lawyer Prashant Bhushan. “We need to understand this. When the escalation of fascism happens slowly, people do not realise what is happening.”
Mevani sought to know why First Information Reports were filed against the activists when Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ramdas Athwale clarified that those in the Elgaar Parishad [a public meeting held ahead of the event in Bhima Koregaon] were not involved in the Naxal movement. “So the question is, why are they named in the FIR?” Mevani said.
Writer Arundhati Roy, who on Tuesday said these arrests were “as close to a declaration of an Emergency as we will ever get”, claimed in India it was a crime to belong to a minority community and to be poor. “From now till the election it will be a continuous circus of arrests...,” she added. “We will not know from where, whom and how the fireball will fall on us. We must not allow our attention to stray even when it rains fire.”
In a joint statement, the group demanded appropriate action against the Maharashtra Police for “launching a vicious and malafide attack against activists”, an immediate end to “such political acts of vendetta” and the repeal of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
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