INDIA: CASR Statement against of human rights defenders and students

We hereby share a statement from Campaign Against State Repression.

CASR Strongly Condemns intimidation of, human rights defenders and students by NIA in Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh

The intelligence agencies of the Indian state have been plotting ways to bring down dissent in the Northern states of India, through the same model that has been used in the Bhima Koregaon case. Student Activists, human rights defenders, and student leaders have been linked in a conspiracy case, similar to the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case. The NIA claims that all of these unrelated activists across the different states of India are activists working for the banned CPI(Maoist) party, and have been working towards the construction of a ‘Northern Regional Bureau’. Last year several activists who have been working on the issues of farmers, of the marginalized sections, and against displacement were arrested by the Indian state. On 30th August 2024, another assault was launched against the civil society in North India by claiming that these activists are again working towards the construction of Northern Regional Bureau for the Maoist party. In reality, these are activists who worked against the oppression and exploitation of the masses of this country. The NIA intimidated democratic rights activists from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, based on this cooked up conspiracy of activists attempting to build a Northern Regional Bureau. In Punjab, Sukhwinder Kaur’s house in Bathinda was raided by the NIA. Sukhwinder Kaur is a peasant leader who was a major face in the farmers protest. She is a major leader in the farmers’ protest that is going on near the Shambhu border in Delhi. The NIA raided her house for multiple hours and went through her books and seized her electronic devices. The farmers have staged a protest outside her house against the NIA, demanding an end to this intimidation and also an answer to why this activist was intimidated. Simultaneously, in Chandigarh, the NIA raided the house of human rights defenders Advocate Aarti, Mandeep Singh and Ajay Kumar. These Advocates have been working for the release of multiple political prisoners across the country and especially Punjab. These political prisoners include individuals who have been red tagged as members of the banned Maoist party. They are activists who defend the rights of human rights defenders, and peasant leaders who have been wrongly put behind the bars. By intimidating them, and red tagging them, the state is ensuring that political prisoners do not have lawyers who represent them, since it’s a clear message to the lawyers threatening them with trumped up cases if they defend the activists, and also thereby, denying them the right to a just and fair judicial trial.

The NIA has also targeted a student organization in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, known as the Inquillabi Chatra Morcha. They have raided the house of a student activist from Inquillabi Chatra Morcha called Devendra Azad. He is from Agra in Uttar Pradesh and is completing his MA in Political Science, and is also a Executive member of , Allahabad Nagrik Samaj. The NIA raided his room where he was living with his three roommates. Student organizations working towards the democratization of society have been continuously intimidated by the Indian state, especially in UP, using investigative agencies like NIA. Earlier, members of Bhagat Singh Student Morcha(BSM) in Varanasi, UP, were continuously intimidated by the NIA. Then, Bhagat Singh Chatr Ekta Manch, an organization working in Delhi faced intimidation by NIA, and now the members of Inqilabi Chatra Morcha have faced the same treatment. Devendra Azad and the entire organization has been red-tagged by the state. The Indian state has criminalized the ideology of Maoism as such, which is against the democratic right to freedom of thought, then any organization or individual that dissents against the state is red tagged as Maoist even if they don’t profess or propagate the ideology. This is what has been done to Devendra Azad too. He is being mentally harassed for working towards the democratization of society. The books that have been seized from him include a copy of the magazine Dastak, in which the activist had written on the movement by Sonam Wangchuk in Ladakh, apart from this a newspaper, “Mashaal”, was seized from his place. Along with this, they also seized a copy of a booklet critiquing the activities of Adani. The state is now tagging any literature that voices its opinion against the state as Maoist. Even a booklet critiquing the activities of Adaani is now Maoist literature.

In Sonipat Haryana, Advocate Pankaj Tyagi, who is a human rights defender faced the same treatment by the Indian state. His house was raided by the NIA from 5 am in the morning, for three hours, and he was abducted and then taken to the Sonipat police station. He was later released by the NIA, but he along with Devendra Azad has been called for further questioning, revealing that the NIA plans to continue intimidating these individuals.

These activists have been tagged as over-ground workers of the Maoist party or OGW’s. A tag that is used on any activist that works towards the democratization of the society. This has been linked to the earlier crackdown done by the Indian state on democratic rights activists in Uttar Pradesh. They claim that these activists who have not even seen each other are plotting together to make an NRB. The NIA has created a fictitious story linking all of these activists and has left space for more activists in North India to be arrested, by claiming that Over Ground workers of the Maoist party exist in Delhi, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. This means that any activist who dissents against the state in these areas can be tagged as overground workers of the Maoist party and then arrested. The Indian state had earlier linked activists and student organizations across Uttar Pradesh to this NRB case. They claim that democratic rights activists working in PUCL like Seema Azad and Manish Azad are linked to Pramod Mishra, who has been tagged as a central committee member of the Maoist party. It is impossible for these democratic rights activists and anti-caste activists like Binda and anti displacement activists like Rohit to be linked together. They all work on completely different issues in unrelated organizations.

Campaign Against State Repression, condemns this red tagging and intimidation of activists by the Indian state. We demand that the FIR with the cooked up stories be expunged and also demand that the state stops harassing these activists any further in the name of questioning. We also demand an end to the arrest and intimidation of activists based on fever dreams like Northern Regional Bureau, and myths that have been conjured out of thin air like, over ground workers of the Maoist party.

CAMPAIGN AGAINST STATE REPRESSION

Organizing Team

(AIRSO,AISA, AISF, APCR,ASA,BAPSA BBAU,BASF, BSM, Bhim Army, bsCEM, CEM,COLLECTIVE,CRPP, CSM CTF, , DISSC, DSU, DTF, Forum Against Repression Telangana, Fraternity ,IAPL, Innocence Network, Karnataka Janashakti, LAA,Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan, Mazdoor Patrika, , NAPM, NAZARIYA , Nishant Natya Manch, Nowruz, NTUI, People’s Watch, Rihai Manch, Samajwadi Janparishad,Smajwadi lok manch, Bahujan Samjavadi Mnach, SFI, United Peace Alliance, WSS,Y4S)