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Statement from the Indian Cultural Forum

28 Aug 2018

In a dangerous move for Indian democracy, several human rights activists have been taken into police custody.

Who are some of these alleged “conspirators” who have either been taken into custody or had their homes searched? Sudha Bhardwaj is an advocate and the national secretary for People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). Father Stan Swamy is an active campaigner against communalism in Jharkhand. Arun Ferreira is an activist who has also written on issues such as casteism, communalism and economic inequality. Varavara Rao is a Marxist writer and teacher of Telugu literature. Gautam Navlakha is a civil rights activist, journalist and writer. Anand Teltumbde is a respected writer, civil rights activist and political analyst. K. Sathyanarayana is a professor a dalit studies scholar.

Their crimes? Insisting on human rights, writing, analysing, teaching, giving voice to dissent against injustice and inequality.

This too at a time when the investigation into the assassination of Gauri Lankesh, MM Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar has revealed bombs, guns, camps for arms training, hit lists and plans for what can rightly be called “criminal conspiracy” to use violence to kill, crush diversity and dissent, undo the Constitution, and the India it promises all of us.

We condemn this attempt to distract the public from this real conspiracy with a fabricated one. We condemn the crushing of dissent. We stand in solidarity with all those who speak for our fellow citizens’ rights.

For the Indian Cultural Forum

Nayantara Sahgal

Romila Thapar

Arundhati Roy

K Satchidanandan

Githa Hariharan

Bezwada Wilson

Damodar Mauzo

Ashok Vajpeyi

Shashi Deshpande

Ganesh Devy

Keki Daruwalla