Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer

ICWI – Newswire 1

In this inaugural issue:

  1. The Real Anand Teltumbde – a new initiative to build international support for Dr. Anand Teltumbde
  2. ICW-I/LAMAKAAN COVID-19 Special Series
  3. Delhi Repression and the targeting of Muslim communities – under the cover of the COVID-19 pandemic the Delhi police under the direction of the home ministry has intensified its already ongoing assault on Muslims, and expanding the use of UAPA.
  4. ICW-I pulse on the Bhima Koregaon case – keeping the focus on the 12 human rights activists targeted with false accusations in the infamous Bhima-Koregaon case.

ICWI-Newswire 1

 

1.The Real Anand Teltumbde
A Facebook Page ( https://www.facebook.com/RealDrAnandTeltumbde/) and Twitter Handle (https://twitter.com/TeltumbdeA) have been created to keep us all updated on Anand Teltumbde’s fight for freedom.

As you may have heard, despite all our efforts to prevent it, Anand Teltumbde has been sent to jail. As a result, the resolve among his friends to fight for justice has only grown stronger. As someone who cares about him and the broader issue of suppression of dissent in India, we are sure you would want to know what is happening with his case and to get to know him even better through his writings and public speeches.

With this mission, we have created the Facebook page titled “The Real Anand Teltumbde”. Please like, follow and share this page among those who may want to join the fight or are simply interested in keeping abreast of one of the most contentious cases of civil rights suppression in modern India. This is a platform where all his friends can come together and stand in solidarity with Anand.
See you there!!
Friends of Anand

  • Urgent Call for Release of Arbitrarily Detained Human Rights Defenders Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic https://www.americanbar.org/ April 24, 2010
  • Free The Bhima Koregaon 11: Government Of India, Stop The Clampdown On Dissent!
    https://amnesty.org.in/take- April 20, 2020
  • India: Activists Detained for Peaceful Dissent: Counterterrorism Law Politicized in Bhima Koregaon Case https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/ April 15, 2020
  • I can’t counter state propaganda’: Anand Teltumbde’s open letter a day before he is to be arrested. https://scroll.in/article/ April 13, 2020
  • Dalit Leaders Condemn Anand Teltumbde Arrest on Ambedkar Jayanti
    https://caravanmagazine.in/ April 12, 2020
  • ‘Especially Inhuman’: Romila Thapar, Others Write to CJI Bobde On Teltumbde, Navlakha
    https://thewire.in/rights/ April 12, 2020
  • All India Forum for Right To Education Statement Condemning Imminent Arrest of Teltumbde and Navlakha https://indiacivilwatch.org/ April 6, 2020
  • IITs and IIM Ahmedabad Fraternity Stand with ‘Role Model’ Anand Teltumbde – Caravan
    https://caravanmagazine.in/ April 6, 2020
  • Don’t jail Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha amid Covid-19 crisis,’ global scholars urge India https://scroll.in/latest/ April 2, 2020

2. ICW-I/LAMAKAAN COVID-19 Special Series: Kerala’s Fight With COVID-19 – Saturday May 2nd, 2020, 8:30 PM IST / 11 AM ET (US) / 8 AM PT (US).

Join Lamakaan, Hyderabad and India Civil Watch, USA for: Kerala’s Fight with the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Kerala was one of the early hubs of India’s COVID-19 crisis. As far back as in February, Keralas Minister for Health ordered screening at all four of the States airports and a few days later the Chief Minister announced a lockdown — one that was seemingly more effective than the national lockdown – in some part because it was more humane. How did Kerala find the capacity to respond to an emergent pandemic even before the WHO had declared it as one? What marks the state’s health infrastructure that allows for such agility? What about the interface between government, medical teams and citizens allowed for such a response? These and other important questions will be taken up by three eminent scientists / doctors speaking on this panel.

  • Dr. Ekbal B: He chairs the Epidemic Response Committee, and is a past President of the KSSP
  • Dr. Antony Kollannur: Former Director, State Health Resource Centre, Chhattisgarh
  • Dr. Jayakrishnan: Professor of Community Medicine in Kozhikode Medical Collage.
  • Dr. Saleema Razvi (Chair): works with the Copenhagen Consensus Centre on economic evaluation of health interventions.

Join this panel discussion via live-stream at https://www.facebook.com/lamakaan.khabar. For more info or troubleshooting queries email: lamakaan@gmail.com

(COMING SOON IN THE SAME SERIES: COVID-19 in India: What the Numbers Tell Us (on Friday May 8th) and Workers, Minorities and Women in India: What COVID-19 Has Meant for Them (on Saturday May 9th). Watch our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/lamakaan/ for more details).

3. COVID-19 as cover: BJP/RSS moves to attack Delhi’s Muslim communities and expand the use of UAPA.

While the Delhi carnage perpetrated by the BJP/RSS during the Trump visit in late February targeted Muslims, the narrative currently being spun by the Modi regime and its machinery now casts Muslims as perpetrators, aiming once again to spread confusion and drive further polarization across the country. The BJP/RSS attacks – with full protection and support from the Delhi police – were aimed at muzzling massive protests exploding across the country against the blatantly discriminatory CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) being forced into law by the Modi regime, and followed the same pattern from preceding months when RSS gangs – again with full police protection – attacked students and faculty in various universities across Delhi and UP to try and crush vociferous student opposition to the repressive CAA/NRC. Despite the violent brutality of the police and their allied armed BJP/RSS gangs, Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh became the epicenter of mass protests, led by hundreds of ordinary women from the city’s Muslim communities. Inspired by protesters in Delhi and UP, millions of people joined massive protests across the country, signaling the emergence of a mass movement that brought people of all religious persuasions together to defend the nation’s constitutional democracy against the Hindutva agenda of the Modi regime. Now as the Delhi police is helping falsify the narrative of the Delhi carnage, a much wider dragnet has been unleashed from Kashmir to Delhi and beyond with a fresh spate of cases being filed using the draconian UAPA, targeting journalists, administrators, student leaders, and civil society actors. It is critical to note that the UAPA is an integral part of the BJP/RSS toolkit to intensify repression, using the COVID-19 pandemic as cover for the rapid expansion of its use. What we are seeing therefore is a simultaneous attack on the Muslim communities from which emerged the leadership of the anti-CAA/NRC battle, and a rapid expansion in the use of UAPA to take down a variety of independent voices and leadership, all under the cover of COVID-19. We must note this as a new phase in the Modi regime’s escalation of repression, and prepare for a new reality once the COVID-19 lockdown ends.

4. ICW-I: Tracking the Bhima Koregaon Cases

Stay informed about the latest developments as well as ICW-I’s ongoing efforts to mobilize international support against the arrests and persecution of twelve human rights and civil liberties defenders in India. Of the 12 people who are the focus of this campaign, 11 have been arrested, falsely accused of being associated with what has come to be known as the Bhima-Koregaon related case. Please stay tuned to updates on the Bhima Koregaon case at https://indiacivilwatch.org/issues-b12/. Please follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/indiacivilwatch/ and Twitter @indiacivilwatch for regular updates.

 

 

Leave a comment

Indian Civil Watch International (ICWI) is a non-sectarian left diasporic membership-based organization that represents the diversity of India’s people and anchors a transnational network to building radical democracy in India.