INDIA: CASR – On the raids by the NIA
We publish a press release that we have received.
●STOP MAKING MORE CONSPIRACY CASES!
●WE DON’T WANT MORE ‘BHIMA KOREGOAN’ AND DELHI ‘RIOTS’ CONSPIRACY CASES!
●IN CURRENT REGIME NIA IS ACTING AS “NATIONAL IMPLICATING AGENCY’ WHICH IS IN FOREFRONT FOR CRUSH DOWN THE DISSENT VOICES!
On 8th February morning the National Investigation Agency (NIA) raided multiple locations across the four States of Telangana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. In Hyderabad the house of renowned writer and journalist N. Venugopal and N.Ravi Sharma were raided. In the last six months in Telangana, NIA raided various social and political activists many times and tried to implicate them in bogus FIRs. N.Ravi Sharma is a writer and rights activist, whose house was raided by NIA once and by State Police at another time recently. N.Ravi Sharma was also arrested in 2019 but they got bail because the State has no evidence to show this activist is member of outlawed CPI (Maoist) and are involved in violent activities. He has worked in Forum Against Hinduthva Fascist Offensive (FAHFO) to counter the rising tide of Brahmanical Hindutva Fascism and expose its anti-people nature. Due to this very reason, it was banned by Telangana Government in 2021 along with other 15 organizations. Later, after three months this ban was withdrawn by the Government itself since it was challenged in the High Court of Telangana.
On the same day, NIA raids the houses of rights activists Ismail and Rashid in Mallpuram and Palakkad in Kerala. It is also reported that two more raids are conducted in Thane, Maharashtra and Chennai, Tamilnadu on the same day.
Further, N.Venugopal is editor of vernacular Telugu Monthly “Veekshanam” and nephew of Varavara Rao, revolutionary Poet who was falsely implicated in infamous Bhima Koregoan case. N Venugopal has been targeted by Telangana police many times because of his political activism and dissenting opinions. In its press release, the NIA has alleged that, “frontline members of CPI (Maoist) were operating in the urban areas of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala to promote the activities of the outfit”. This clearly shows that Brahmanical Hindutva fascist State wants to tag the urban democratic rights movement as overground frontal activity of Maoists and crush all dissenting voices. This is a long practice of Indian State and these kind of raid must not be seen in isolation. These are part of Indian State’s propaganda to criminal all democratic voices critical of its exploitation and oppression of the people of the country.
Telangana has a brutal history of State Repression in dealing with democratic rights. In the past, the police along with the intelligence agencies have openly killed many democratic rights activists in fake encounters. In past six months, Telangana has surprisingly seen various FIRs in which more than 140 Civil Society and Mass Organization leaders were implicated in UAPA cases, even those who died two years before FIR was registered.
Like Bhima Koregaon case, where NIA cracked down on activists across the country using some letter allegedly containing conspiracy to kill Prime Minister of India. It is the modus operandi of NIA to build a narrative through media that before the raid, they arrested some Maoist leader and found a diary containing names of these activists. Across India, various Lawyers, Students, Journalists, Professors and democratic rights activist’s houses were raided and same story was repeated. NIA uses this kind of diary like a toolkit across India to implicate various activists in false cases.
In the colonial era the state used its arbitrary power to implicate revolutionaries in conspiracy cases like Meerut conspiracy case and Lahore conspiracy case to suppress people’s movement against colonial exploitation and oppression. In present times, we are observing that Brahmanical Hindutva Fascist BJP-RSS government is learning from its colonial masters and using similar tactics to suppress voices against exploitation and oppression of the people as well as those vocal against loot of country’s resources by foreign and domestic corporates.
Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) condemns this suppressive measure in the form of NIA. We believe that this act is to divert the question of democratic rights and people’s issues towards “red scare” by branding those who raise questions, as Maoists. We call upon all the democratic and progressive forces to oppose this raid and larger attack on democratic rights.
CAMPAIGN AGAINST STATE REPRESSION (CASR)
Constituents: AIRSO, AISA, AISF, APCR, BASF, BSM, Bhim Army, Bigul Mazdoor Dasta, bsCEM, CEM, CRPP, CTF, Disha, DISSC, DSU, DTF, Forum Against Repression Telangana, Fraternity, IAPL, Innocence Network, Karnataka Janashakti, Progressive Lawyers Association, Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan, Mazdoor Patrika, NAPM, NBS, Nishant Natya Manch, Nowruz, NTUI, People’s Watch, Rihai Manch, Samajwadi Janparishad, Smajwadi Lok Manch, Bahujan Samjavadi Manch, SFI, United Against Hate, United Peace Alliance, WSS, Y4S
