| @project_polis published the report
new report Manufacturing Evidence: How the Police framed and arrested Constitutional
Rights Defenders in India documenting police bias in investigations aimed at targeting
peaceful activists. #FreedomFromFascism#FreePoliticalPrisoners
On the eve of the country's 73rd year of Independence,
scores of rights activists and government critics will be in jail for bravely defending the Constitution of India. Numerous other human rights defenders are at risk of arrest in the coming days, weeks & months.
In Delhi, BJP leader, Kapil Mishra threatened violence against the Muslim protesters who
had blocked roads at a sit-in protest site in North-East Delhi. Shortly thereafter, on February
23, 2020, violence broke out, lasting three days, leaving 53 dead, over 200 injured +
+ and extensive damage to property, including shops, businesses, homes, and mosques, with Muslims overwhelmingly on the receiving end.
Video footage and eyewitness testimonies suggest that some police officers were complicit in the violence, and even joined Hindu mobs in their attacks on Muslims.
The report published by @project_polis also finds that police are coercing young working-class Muslim men to give false testimonies to implicate prominent activists.
The aim is to criminalize dissent altogether.
Link to the report here:
If you are a writer or journalist hoping to cover this, please reach out to @kiccovich or me.
Finally sat down to read India’s recent telecommunication Bill— this law ushers in an era of absolute authoritarian control of Internet in India, a kind of licence regime to the internet. It's broad and applies to all social media applications from WhatsApp to X to Instagram.
commentary and framing about this law uses “decolonial language”— it replaces colonial-era laws that gave the British absolute control over communications and surveillance of its colonial subjects.
What is interesting is that these laws today, promulgated by the Modi government, have far more control over an Indian citizen than the British had over its colonial subjects.
Earlier today Delhi police raided the homes of several journalists associated with the news outlet #Newsclick and are interrogating them in matters “related to terror links” under UAPA.
So far 17 people questioned
Some of them taken to police station.
Raids so far 30 locations
Journalist Urmilesh, Anindyo, Abhisar, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Subodh being interrogated by Delhi police special cell in FIR 224/23, dt
17/08/2023 U/S 13, 16, 17, 18, 22 C UAPA & 153 (A) & 120 (b) IPC
Houses of Newsclick editor Prabir Purkayastha, journalist Bhasha Singh, writer Geeta Hariharan, cultural historian and activists Sohail Hashmi and D Raghunandan, Standup comedian Sanjay Rajoura, and Tricontinental India Office, raided in Delhi & Teesta Setalavad in Mumbai
New thread alert #Uttrakhand #hatespeechIn an interview yesterday, Darshan Bharati (actual name Devendra Pawar), one of the 5 people inciting violence across #Uttrakhand, said that he does not believe in the Constitution. When asked, don't you think your speeches incite people?
"I don't believe in the Constitution", "I wish people actually got incited by my words, then so many Muslims would have had their hands and legs chopped off" - Uttarakhand extremist Darshan Bharati, in an interview on Sept 24 facebook.com/vijayrawat84/v…
Bharati's organisation, Devbhoomi Raksha Abhiyaan, was on the posters calling for Muslims to not return after dozens of families fled in June 2023. While he denied putting up posters, he pressured families in the area not to rent Muslim homes or shops.hindustantimes.com/india-news/pos…
In 9 States during Ram Navami & Hanuman Jayanti celebrations in April'22, there was widespread violence. During these processions, in 3 States: Gujarat, Jharkhand, & MP, at least 100 persons from the minority community were injured, and two were killed. scribd.com/document/63361…
"In April 2022, India witnessed violence breaking out in as many as nine states, along with incidents of provocation and low-grade violence in three others. "
"In all of them, the catalyst for the violence was the same: religious processions celebrating the Hindu festivals of RamNavami and Hanuman Jayanti, followed by targeted attacks on Muslim-owned properties, businesses, and places of worship."
"Keep weapons (knives) at home. Keep them sharp. If veggies can be cut well, so can the enemy's head," BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur follows the now-established patterns of calling for violence against Muslims in India. This is not the first time she has publicly invited violence.
Pragya was involved in the 2008 Malegaon bombings where 6 people were killed and 101 injured. She was arrested on terror charges under UAPA and currently under trial. She has been out on medical bail since 2017 after NIA dropped some of the charges against her.
Atwood, in Second Words narrates the incident when she asked a friend why men felt threatened by women. He replied, “They are afraid women will laugh at them and undercut their worldview.” She then asked her female students. They answered, “We’re afraid of being killed.”
I don’t think anyone can articulate the precarity women experience just going through life. It’s not her fault, and it doesn’t matter what she was wearing or if she had chosen to live with a man before she got married.
It doesn’t matter what boundaries you believe she transgressed.