The old Indian State attacks Democratic Rights Organizations
Featured image: Professor G Haragopal, source: S Senbagapandiyan, EPS
On Monday 1st of October the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of the old Indian State carried out a massive repressive operation against democratic organizations, and raids were carried out in 62 locations. The attacks targeted two States: Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. This repressive operation joins others that have been carried out in recent months. We earlier reported on the arrests of several activists in Uttar Pradesh, as well as the massive investigation of activists in Jharkhand.
The organizations that suffered raids and are being harassed are: Civil Liberties Committee (CLC), Amarula Bandhu Mitrula Sangham (ABMS), Chaitanya Mahila Sangham (CMS), Kula Nirmulana Porata Samithi (KNPS), Patriotic Democratic Movement (PDM), Pragathiseela Karmika Samakhya (PKS), Praja Kala Mandali (PKM), Revolutionary Writers Association (RWA) or Viplava Rachaitala Sangam (VIRASAM), Human Rights Forum (HRF), Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) and Indian Association of Peoples Lawyers (IAPL). The reactionary press has not hesitated to point out these organizations and label them as “frontal organizations” of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). Of these 62 raids, 53 were conducted in Andhra Pradesh and 9 in Telangana.
Some people who have been searched are prominent people in the field of defending democratic rights, such as IAPL lawyer Durba Suresh Kumar, who also represents many other activists who have been registered in this case in court. Another activist who has been searched is a senior HFR official, K. Sudha, whose phone has been seized. Another of those who have suffered harrassment, V.S. Krishna, secretary of the HFR, was already accused in another repressive case of the same nature in 2021. The NIA, in addition to seizing telephones, has seized many books and documentation in general, which was not even politically or ideologically related to the Maoist guerrillas. In fact, in the face of all these records, the HFR declared that this operation is “Seeking to criminalize our human rights activity, and will never succeed.”
The whole case has been make up only with evidence and the testimony of one person, which has been enough to make this amount of raids and arrest one person. Attempts had already been made to prosecute several people from the same organizations in 2021. Such arbitrary repressive actions by the old Indian State are not unusual. In fact, this has even been denounced by the UN. We earlier reported on the UN denounce labeling the detention of Dr. G.N. Saibaba as an inhumane and senseless act.
Telangana has recently suffered another huge repressive case affecting its capital, Hayderabad, where university professor Haragopal was the most visible accused in a case involving 152 accused of having links to Maoism. Professor Haragopal himself stated that all the accused are people who are recognized activists. He also stated that the police are well known for their fiction when it comes to constructing this type of accusations.
A repressive law that supposedly can only be applied against terrorism has been used again to harass and detain activists, journalists, intellectuals and others who defend democratic rights. The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), a law that has already been criticized even by Indian media, has been used as a political weapon that serves to silence critical voices in India. The main profile of detainees is being opponents of the Indian State in general, and in particular activists who denounce the repression of the Indian State, struggling for democratic and people’s rights. There are also a large number of arrests in regions in where there is a struggle against the Indian State such as Kashmir.
Again it has been shown another case of the old Indian State unleashing repression against its own people and those who struggle for democratic rights. Again a reactionary law as the UAPA is being used to arbitrarily attack anyone who confronts with the interests of the Indian ruling classes, who serve the interests of imperialism. When then Indian State does this, shows the hypocrisy of those imperialist media claiming that India is “the world largest democracy”, revealing the truth it being a “prison of the peoples”.
