<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">On September 9, 2022 the Supreme Court granted bail to Siddique Kappan, a Malayali journalist who has been in jail for more than two years in a case filed against him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA, in Uttar Pradesh.&nbsp; The bail has indeed brought a great relief to the journalist , his family and friends . However, if the signals emanating from the Uttar Pradesh government is anything to go by, there are some concerted moves to trap the journalist once again and push him back into prison .&nbsp;&nbsp;<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">On June 10, 2020, the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested Siddique Kapan while he was traveling to Hathras to report a case of rape and murder.<figure class="image"><img alt="kappaan.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/kappaan_601763cd1c.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_kappaan_601763cd1c.jpg 234w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_kappaan_601763cd1c.jpg 500w" sizes="100vw" width="500"></figure><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">A clear indication of these moves had come up during&nbsp; the hearing on the bail petition itself, when the prosecution informed the Supreme Court that efforts are still progressing to find an approver against Siddique Kappan. Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, who appeared for the prosecution, told the Supreme Court that this would be possible and a fresh trial would begin within two months. Beyond this blatant statement, the information The AIDEM gathered from administrative and legal sources in the Uttar Pradesh government points to continuing sly attempts to fix an ‘approver’ . The identity of this person is not yet clear.&nbsp;<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">A significant number of&nbsp; observers point out that the very fact that the prosecution is looking for an approver is proof of&nbsp; the failure of the nearly two-year investigation&nbsp; against Kappan.&nbsp; It goes to prove that the Uttar Pradesh police couldn’t find any solid evidence against Kappan. Supreme Court Chief Justice U.U. Lalit also had pointed out this failure of the police while hearing the bail plea.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Commenting on this case, Thulasi K. Raj, a practising Supreme Court lawyer, said: “No court has convicted Kappan. It is doubtful how much evidence has been found in the investigation. That is why when the Chief Justice asked how far the investigation had progressed while considering the bail plea, the prosecution said they are still trying for an approver. Many questions have been raised against the police investigation. It is clear that despite investigating the case for almost two years, no evidence has been collected against Kappan. The charges against Kappan are hard to believe. The charge-sheet alleges that Kappan wrote in such a way that portrayed Muslims as victims and provoked them to violently protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act. It is highly doubtful how true these allegations are.”<figure class="image"><img alt="WhatsApp-Image-2022-09-10-at-17.52.31-768x572.jpeg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Whats_App_Image_2022_09_10_at_17_52_31_768x572_7ea8830c87.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Whats_App_Image_2022_09_10_at_17_52_31_768x572_7ea8830c87.jpeg 209w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_Whats_App_Image_2022_09_10_at_17_52_31_768x572_7ea8830c87.jpeg 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_Whats_App_Image_2022_09_10_at_17_52_31_768x572_7ea8830c87.jpeg 750w" sizes="100vw" width="750"></figure><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:center;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Adv. Thulasi K Raj<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:justify;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Section 306 of the Code of Criminal Procedure allows the prosecution to produce an approver in cases. The approver must be a direct or an indirect participant in the crime or should have knowledge of the crime. The information provided by him should also help in the investigation of the case. Section 306 provides that at any stage of the inquiry or the trial, the magistrate may pardon the person who shares vital information and willfully turns approver. Only the court of a First-Class Judicial Magistrate has the power to admit a person as approver. The approver shall be kept in custody until the end of the trial, unless he is already on bail.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Despite the submission of&nbsp; charge-sheet that runs into over 5000 pages, the trial has not yet started. Siddique Kappan approached the Supreme Court after bail was denied earlier by the Mathura Trial Court and the Allahabad High Court.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:justify;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">NCRB data<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) , 7,714 cases had been registered in the country in the last eight years under the UAPA, which came into force in 1967. It was amended in 2019.&nbsp; In the same year, 1226 cases were registered under the Act, the highest number in any year. The NCRB report says that 814 cases were registered in 2021. The highest number of cases under the UAPA is in Jammu and Kashmir. The number was 289 last year: the figure for Kerala is 18. The NCRB data shows that, even though many cases were registered, only 523 of them reached the trial stage. If one includes the 2,384 pending cases of the previous year, a total of 2,907 case had reached the trial stage in 2021. Among them, the trial was completed only in 68 cases; of them 27 had been initiated in the previous years.&nbsp; As many as 39 cases had been disposed without trial. The court acquitted the accused in 39 cases. As of end-2021, 2,800 UAPA cases are still pending in the courts. The conviction rate in UAPA cases is 39.7 per cent and the pendency rate is 96.7 percent. That means, a large number of accused persons remain in detention without trial or as undertrials.<figure class="image"><img alt="WhatsApp-Image-2022-09-13-at-11.22.24-768x768.jpeg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Whats_App_Image_2022_09_13_at_11_22_24_768x768_0dcafaca24.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Whats_App_Image_2022_09_13_at_11_22_24_768x768_0dcafaca24.jpeg 156w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_Whats_App_Image_2022_09_13_at_11_22_24_768x768_0dcafaca24.jpeg 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_Whats_App_Image_2022_09_13_at_11_22_24_768x768_0dcafaca24.jpeg 750w" sizes="100vw" width="750"></figure><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Says Thulasi K. Raj:&nbsp; “Trials getting delayed is a problem. The trial in Kappan’s case has not even started. That is one common problem with our criminal justice system, especially when it comes to cases filed under laws like&nbsp; the UAPA. There is no problem for the police or special investigation agencies even if the investigation or the trial get delayed. It’s a fact that even the courts have not been able to put an end to the problem.”<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The figures show that more number of cases have been filed under the UAPA after the Narendra Modi government assumed office. The number of UAPA cases filed in the States are also increasing. Journalists, social activists and people from the Muslim community are the most haunted sections under the draconian law.<figure class="image"><img alt="SK-768x454.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/SK_768x454_55515dc265.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_SK_768x454_55515dc265.jpg 245w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_SK_768x454_55515dc265.jpg 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_SK_768x454_55515dc265.jpg 750w" sizes="100vw" width="750"></figure><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Endless prolongation of the cases and the trials violates the fundamental rights of those accused and detained. Siddique Kappan has been granted bail in the UAPA case, but he can be released only if he is granted bail in the money laundering&nbsp; case filed against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act by the Enforcement Directorate, which comes under the Union Ministry of Finance&nbsp;

WhatsApp-Image-2022-09-11-at-15.34.32.jpeg

On September 9, 2022 the Supreme Court granted bail to Siddique Kappan, a Malayali journalist who has been in jail for more than two years in a case filed against him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA, in Uttar Pradesh.  

Relief is elusive for Siddique Kappan as attempts are under way to ‘fix’ an approver to fix him

<h2 style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:25px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.2;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Raids on Journalists in Delhi: A Combination of Media Repression and Politics of Distraction</h2><hr><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">New Delhi woke up to a rather oppressive morning today. Homes of several journalists and commentators associated with the news outlet NewsClick were raided and Delhi police has started interrogations in matters it terms as “related to terror links” in a case involving the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">In a move which is reminiscent of the 1975-77 Emergency period, a number of senior journalists and writers including Abhisar Sharma, Bhasha Singh, Urmilesh, Prabir Purkayastha, writer Githa Hariharan, Aunindyo Chakravarty, activist and historian Sohail Hashmi and satirist and stand-up comic Sanjay Rajaura were ‘raided’ early this morning. Prabir Purkayastha is also the Editor of the portal NewsClick. The homes of activist Teesta Setalvad and veteran journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta were also raided.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">It is assumed that the raids are in connection with FIR number 224/2023. This case was filed on August 17, 2023, and invokes several sections (13, 16, 17, 18, and 22) of the draconian UAPA, along with 153(a) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 120 (b) (party to a criminal conspiracy other than a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence) of the Indian Penal Code.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Setalvad, who lives in Mumbai, was questioned by Delhi police officers. Setalvad is the director of the think tank ‘Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research’, which has contributed articles to NewsClick. Journalist Subodh Verma, earlier with Times of India and now associated with NewsClick, was also raided. <img alt="raid-768x240.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/raid_768x240_949ace6679.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_raid_768x240_949ace6679.jpg 245w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_raid_768x240_949ace6679.jpg 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_raid_768x240_949ace6679.jpg 750w" sizes="100vw" width="750"><figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);display:block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;height:auto;letter-spacing:normal;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;vertical-align:middle;white-space:normal;widows:2;width:640px;word-spacing:0px;" id="attachment_24128" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24128"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-24128">(From L-R) Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Prabir Purkayastha,Sohail Hashmi, Githa Hariharan, Abhisar Sharma</figcaption></figure><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Reliable sources confirm that police visited the houses of NewsClick employees across roles and levels and seized their devices. Employees were asked about whether they had reported on events like the farmers protest and the COVID pandemic in India. More people have put out word about their devices, laptops and telephones being seized.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The current FIR purportedly has its roots in an August report by the New York Times. Earlier in the year, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had cited the New York Times report in the Lok Sabha to claim that Congress leaders and NewsClick had received funds from China to create an “anti-India” atmosphere.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The Press Club of India has registered concern at the raids and noted that it will be releasing a detailed statement. The Delhi Union of Journalists and National Alliance of Journalists also condemned the repressive action. (See full statement attached below)<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">During the raid, cops seized electronic evidence including laptops and mobile phones and took data dumps of hard disks. The searches were apparently based on inputs shared by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), indicating alleged unlawful activities by the suspects. According to sources, Delhi Police’s Special Cell has posed a list of 25 questions to some of the NewsClick journalists they interrogated. The questions pertained to Shaheen Bagh protests, farmers protest, North-east protests and details of their foreign travel.<figure class="image"><img alt="image-1-768x432.png" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_1_768x432_c9b4c1aab4.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_image_1_768x432_c9b4c1aab4.png 245w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_image_1_768x432_c9b4c1aab4.png 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_image_1_768x432_c9b4c1aab4.png 750w" sizes="100vw" width="750"></figure><figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);display:block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;height:auto;letter-spacing:normal;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;vertical-align:middle;white-space:normal;widows:2;width:640px;word-spacing:0px;" id="attachment_24129" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24129"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-24129">Delhi Police Special Cell officials leave NewsClick office with Founder and Editor-in-Chief of NewsClick Prabir Purkayastha. Source: ANI</figcaption></figure><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The Delhi police also conducted a search at CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury’s official residence in connection with NewsClick. The raid was conducted on an employee of CPIM, Shree Narayan. Narayan’s son works at NewsClick. Yechury reacted to the raids at his residence and said, “Police came to my residence because one of my companions who lives with me there, his son works for NewsClick. Police came to question him. They took his laptop and phone. What are they investigating, nobody knows. If this is an attempt to try and muzzle the media, the country must know the reason behind this.”<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">On being asked about the raids, Union Minister Anurag Thakur said, “I don’t need to justify it… If anyone has committed anything wrong, search agencies are free to carry out investigations against them under set guidelines.” An investigation by the Enforcement Directorate revealed an alleged fraudulent infusion of foreign funds to the tune of Rs 38.05 crore during a short span of three years. The scrutiny of the evidence by the probe agency revealed questionable infusion of foreign inward remittance of Rs 9.59 crore by way of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Rs 28.46 crore by way of export of services.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">India has been falling sharply and by a huge number of ranks down the World Press freedom Index and is currently in the bottom 20 countries. It is among the lowest ranked in the G20 countries too as far as Press Freedom is concerned. Democratic backsliding has been recorded by all global indices, Freedom House, V-Dem, the Economist index regularly since 2015. <img alt="NAJ-DUJ-Press-release-Oct.3.docx_page-0001-1583x2048.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/NAJ_DUJ_Press_release_Oct_3_docx_page_0001_1583x2048_d030b1df2d.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_NAJ_DUJ_Press_release_Oct_3_docx_page_0001_1583x2048_d030b1df2d.jpg 120w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_NAJ_DUJ_Press_release_Oct_3_docx_page_0001_1583x2048_d030b1df2d.jpg 386w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_NAJ_DUJ_Press_release_Oct_3_docx_page_0001_1583x2048_d030b1df2d.jpg 580w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_NAJ_DUJ_Press_release_Oct_3_docx_page_0001_1583x2048_d030b1df2d.jpg 773w" sizes="100vw" width="773">&nbsp;

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New Delhi woke up to a rather oppressive morning today. Homes of several journalists and commentators associated with the news outlet NewsClick were raided and Delhi police has started interrogations in matters it terms as “related to terror links” in a case involving the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

Raids on Journalists in Delhi: A Combination of Media Repression and Politics of Distraction

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_20240515_WA_0008_770x470_8351d27881.jpg" alt="IMG-20240515-WA0008-770x470.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_IMG_20240515_WA_0008_770x470_8351d27881.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_IMG_20240515_WA_0008_770x470_8351d27881.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_IMG_20240515_WA_0008_770x470_8351d27881.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;">On May 15, the Supreme Court bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta declared the <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/in-solidarity-with-prabir-purkayastha/">arrest</a> and remand of NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha as illegal. The order that was proclaimed after approximately 7 months after Purkayastha’s arrest was welcomed widely, especially in the media as well as social activists championing the cause of freedom of expression.The order of the court was based on the reasoning that the copy of the remand application was not provided to the appellant or his counsel before passing the remand order on October 4, 2023. Therefore, the Court held that the arrest and the remand are vitiated.While pronouncing the judgement, the bench noted that “There is no hesitation in the mind of the Court to reach to a conclusion that a copy of the remand application, in the purported exercise of the communication of the grounds of arrest in writing, was not provided to the accused-appellant or his counsel before the passing of the remand order dated 4th October, 2023, which vitiates the arrest and the subsequent remand of the appellant. As a result, the appellant is entitled to a direction for release from custody by applying the ration of the judgment rendered by this court in Pankaj Bansal.”<figure class="wp-caption alignright" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline;float:right;height:auto;margin:5px 0px 20px 20px;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:1920px;" id="attachment_24129" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24129"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_1_1536x864_116a94e2de.png" alt="image-1-1536x864.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_image_1_1536x864_116a94e2de.png 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_image_1_1536x864_116a94e2de.png 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_image_1_1536x864_116a94e2de.png 750w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_image_1_1536x864_116a94e2de.png 1000w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-24129">Delhi Police Special Cell officials leave NewsClick office with Founder and Editor-in-Chief of NewsClick Prabir Purkayastha (October 2023)</figcaption></figure>Pursuant to Prabir’s arrest and remand being declared invalid and being set aside, the bench ordered for the release of Prabir. However, release will be subject to Prabir furnishing bail and bonds set by the trial Court since chargesheet has been filed in the said case. The chargesheet had been filed in the court on March 30, 2024.Directing for his release, the bench stated “Appellant shall be released from custody on satisfaction of trial court. Appeal allowed.”It is to be noted that as the bench was pronouncing the judgment, ASG Raju had sought a clarification from the bench regarding the authorities being precluded being exercising their “correct powers of arrest”, to which Justice Gavai replied by stating that the bench has not said anything on that and that the authorities are permitted to take such action that is permitted under law.Notably, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for Purkayastha and Additional Solicitor General SV Raju appeared for the Delhi Police. Prabir will be released based on the present order after spending 7 months in jail.&nbsp;Arguments on illegality of remand:It is essential to note that the present verdict pursuant to the conclusion of arguments in the case on April 30. During the hearing, the bench had questioned the hastiness in which Prabir was arrested and then presented in the Magistrate’s court, without supplying the necessary remand application and documents to the counsel of the accused.Justice Mehta had asked ASG Raju “First please answer this, why did you not inform his lawyer? What was the hot haste in producing him at 6 AM? You arrested him at 5.45 PM previous day. You had the whole day before you. Why the haste?”The bench had also questioned why the accused was not allowed to have his own lawyer and a state provided legal aid counsel was present at the time of magistrate’s hearing by reminding ASG Raju that “Principles of natural justice required that his lawyer was there. You could have produced him at 10 AM or 11 AM.”<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_08_31_151521466_c870691040.png" alt="image_2023-08-31_151521466.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_image_2023_08_31_151521466_c870691040.png 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_image_2023_08_31_151521466_c870691040.png 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_image_2023_08_31_151521466_c870691040.png 750w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_image_2023_08_31_151521466_c870691040.png 1000w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">As per LiveLaw’s live coverage of the hearing, Justice Gavai had further stated that “What was the need to produce him without his lawyer? If you could give him the remand application on WhatsApp, you could have given him at least one hour notice.”When ASG Raju had raised the contention that the remand application had been sent to lawyer at around 7.07 am (the accused had been presented before the Magistrate at 6 am) and he had later sent the objections, the bench had objected to the same by holding the said argument to be redundant as by that time the remand order had been passed. On this, Justice Gavai had remarked “It is like giving an opportunity of hearing after the order was passed”.Justice Mehta had also observed that “Without any reason, the whole process was done in hot haste.” He had further stated “Mr. Raju, at least before the remand application, the grounds of arrest must be communicated.”It is also essential to note that the Court had also rejected the argument raised by the Delhi police, that the time recorded in the remand order (6 AM) was wrong and that it was passed after serving the counsel of the accused. However, the Court had asserted that it will go only by the time recorded in the judicial order.Senior advocate Kapil Sibal had also responded to the arguments raised by ASG by bringing to focus the constitutional and fundamental safeguards provided to the citizens against arbitrary arrests as well as the precedents set by law. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal had stated that “What is the point of saying that I have the grounds at the time of arrest but I will not show it to you? What is the constitution reason for not informing me? The whole premise of the argument is wrong.”<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:1019px;" id="attachment_26527" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-26527"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/kapil_sibbil_3f32404729.jpg" alt="kapil-sibbil.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_kapil_sibbil_3f32404729.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_kapil_sibbil_3f32404729.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_kapil_sibbil_3f32404729.jpg 750w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_kapil_sibbil_3f32404729.jpg 1000w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-26527">Kapil Sibal</figcaption></figure>He had also argued upon the differences that exist between UAPA and The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 by highlighting that “When you are taking the liberty of the people, the discretion must have some basis…UAPA, to that extent is different from PMLA because under UAPA you would have that kind of information that you would not under PMLA.”&nbsp;Brief background of the case:Prabir Purkayastha has been in custody since October 2, 2023 after being booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Prabir had approached the Constitutional Courts challenging the legality of his arrest by contending that the grounds of arrest were not supplied to him in writing as mandated by the Supreme Court’s judgment in Pankaj Bansal v. Union of India.On October 16, 2023, Prabir had moved the Supreme Court against the October 5 order of the Delhi High Court, through which the Delhi HC bench of Justice Tushar Rao Gedela had upheld the said remand order by stating that Purkayastha was indeed informed of the grounds within the “as soon as maybe” requirement. Prabir had then moved the Supreme Court assailing said decision of the Delhi High Court. Notably, in today’s verdict, the Supreme Court set aside the Delhi High Court’s judgment as well.Co-accused and NewsClick human resources head Amit Chakraborty had also approached the top court challenging his arrest, but he was allowed to withdraw his plea after he turned approver for the Enforcement Directorate and was granted a pardon by the Delhi High Court.While the case was pending, the court had directed the constitution of a board by the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) for Purkayastha’s independent medical evaluation. This report was received by the Supreme Court on March 20. The Court had directed that a copy of the same be supplied to Prabir’s counsels.<hr>This article was originally published in <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.sabrangindia.in/">SabrangIndia</a> and can be read <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://sabrangindia.in/after-spending-7-months-behind-bars-supreme-court-declares-the-arrest-and-remand-of-newsclick-founder-prabir-purkayastha-illegal/">here</a>.</div></div>

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After spending 7 months behind bars, Supreme Court declares the arrest and remand of NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha illegal!

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Prabir Purkayastha Case: Legal mandate for disclosing arrest grounds to PMLA/UAPA accused strengthened

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What Surging Criticism of 3 New Criminal Laws is All About

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_2024_10_14_T191603_840_5f978dd8f3.jpeg" alt="images-2024-10-14T191603.840.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_2024_10_14_T191603_840_5f978dd8f3.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_2024_10_14_T191603_840_5f978dd8f3.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;">“I will be back from Hyderabad in three to four days. Then we can speak on the topics that you have suggested. I am certain that the insidious games of the larger Indian “Deep State” in their persistent attacks on people’s movements need to be exposed to the best of our knowledge and understanding. Yes, let us pick up this thread of conversations when I am back.” – it was with these words that Dr. GN Saibaba said goodbye to me on August 15, 2024 at his residence in New Delhi.But GNS, as many of his friends and comrades in life and human rights struggles used to call him, did not come back to carry on with our conversation and address the topics that we had wanted to take up. From 16 to 27 August, he was intermittently in touch with me on the phone, informing me about some of the extended functions he was attending in Hyderabad.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_2024_10_14_T191537_758_7c61182a40.jpeg" alt="images-2024-10-14T191537.758.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_2024_10_14_T191537_758_7c61182a40.jpeg 234w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_2024_10_14_T191537_758_7c61182a40.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">By August 29 his own messages stopped, but I came to know first that his return would take longer than expected and later that his health issues have gotten complicated. And at the end of a series of messages from friends and associates that iterated the situation, the news came on October 12 that the fighter with an indomitable spirit had succumbed to post-operative complications after undergoing surgery for gallbladder stones. The wheelchair-bound Saibaba was on treatment at different hospitals in Hyderabad, including at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, since early September.The August 15 meeting with him was the first after his release from jail, which had happened following the Nagpur High Court’s order of March 5, 2024. I had gone with a couple of friends who wanted to meet the person whom they valued both as a substantive academic and a committed social activist. They were keen to know more about his heroic endurance of prison life for more than a decade. We talked at length about the different forms of intense persecution that he had to face in the infamous Anda cell of Nagpur jail. During the conversation, he also remembered that I was one of the few journalists in Delhi to have met him days before he was arrested in May 2014 for suspected links with Maoist Left Extreme Wing (LWE) outfits.Since then he had got bail for brief periods in 2015 and 2016, but had spent most of the decade in jail as the Maharashtra government kept on foisting one case after another on this substantive academic and social activist. Even his overwhelming 90 percent physical disabilities caused by a polio affliction he had in childhood did not deter the State and central governments from persecuting him in diverse ways, both physically and mentally. The physical attacks themselves took multiple forms, including denial of timely and adequate treatment for his lasting disabilities. The mental torture also had many manifestations, including the restrictions imposed on meeting his relatives, including his ailing mother. And ultimately,when she passed away, Saibaba was not even allowed to attend the funeral or perform her last rites.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:1200px;" id="attachment_30193" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-30193"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_GN_Saibaba_addresses_2_1_44_DERGL_6_1024x684_867ed744ce.jpg" alt="IMG_GN_Saibaba_addresses_2_1_44DERGL6-1024x684.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_IMG_GN_Saibaba_addresses_2_1_44_DERGL_6_1024x684_867ed744ce.jpg 234w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_IMG_GN_Saibaba_addresses_2_1_44_DERGL_6_1024x684_867ed744ce.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_IMG_GN_Saibaba_addresses_2_1_44_DERGL_6_1024x684_867ed744ce.jpg 750w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_IMG_GN_Saibaba_addresses_2_1_44_DERGL_6_1024x684_867ed744ce.jpg 1000w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-30193">GN Saibaba with his wife Vasantha</figcaption></figure>Many of my friends had heard Saibaba in the first public meeting he addressed after his release in Delhi and they had told me how he broke down while recounting his experiences in jail, especially the pain of not being able to meet his mother before her death. On August 15 too, he repeated to us how the infamous Anda cell of Nagpur jail had completely broken him. He also talked about the manner in which sections of the academia and the judiciary had denied him justice repeatedly.As soon as he was jailed in 2014, Ramlal Anand College terminated his service as an English teacher. Saibaba’s wife Vasantha and daughter Manjeera were forced to face economic hardships too along with the state’s persecution of the family. But both the mother and daughter were spirited fighters too and they took up the various social and human rights issues advanced by Saibaba in diverse public platforms.Parallelly, Vasantha and Saibaba’s lawyers kept on appealing the courts for the release of Saibaba. At every level, Saibaba and his family faced immense and unjust neglect and oppression. It is on account of these cumulative attacks and assaults against a human being with immense physical disabilities that Saibaba’s death gets to be qualified as institutional murder.In his passage at the relatively young age of 57, India has lost one of its boldest voices for human rights and social justice as well as one of the country’s sharpest academic thinkers. One of Saibaba’s unique and prominent qualities was that he was an incisive academic, adept at advancing scholarly discourses, and at the same time he was also one of the most courageous crusaders against fascist tyranny of which he himself was a victim.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/newslaundry_2024_03_244bce6d_7e4b_4f2f_9f98_c78d51ad66c9_1000178197_1024x576_e77447a9cf.jpg" alt="newslaundry_2024-03_244bce6d-7e4b-4f2f-9f98-c78d51ad66c9_1000178197-1024x576.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_newslaundry_2024_03_244bce6d_7e4b_4f2f_9f98_c78d51ad66c9_1000178197_1024x576_e77447a9cf.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_newslaundry_2024_03_244bce6d_7e4b_4f2f_9f98_c78d51ad66c9_1000178197_1024x576_e77447a9cf.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_newslaundry_2024_03_244bce6d_7e4b_4f2f_9f98_c78d51ad66c9_1000178197_1024x576_e77447a9cf.jpg 750w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_newslaundry_2024_03_244bce6d_7e4b_4f2f_9f98_c78d51ad66c9_1000178197_1024x576_e77447a9cf.jpg 1000w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">The manner in which multiple cases were foisted on him one after another, including by invoking the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, (UAPA) was just one of the manifestations of the tyrannical targeting. During the August 15 interaction, Saibaba had reflected on the reasons behind this sort of targeting. He was of the view that the larger Indian “Deep State”, which evidently went beyond political party considerations deeply resented people’s struggles that were making decisive impacts both at the national and international levels.He pointed out that the national and international dimensions were important because there was a direct linkage between sectarian ideologies that seek to steamroll an oppressive, communal fascist regime and economic objectives of globalisation. He added that several specific instances that expose and highlight this significant linkage could be brought out through a series of conversations. A case in point, according to him was the connection between the “Operation Greenhunt”, a para-military operation ostensibly targeted against LWE, but was actually a coverup for wanton promotion of crony capitalism and globalisation causing displacement of hundreds of thousands of indigenous people in the States of Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.<hr>In this radio interview with <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/author/gurpreetsingh/">Gurpreet Singh</a>, an independent journalist based in Vancouver, Canada, academic and social activist GN Saibaba, who passed away recently, talks about his mother, elucidating how determined she was to give him education despite her own status as an illiterate villager.&nbsp;<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:233px;" id="attachment_30206" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-30206"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_2024_10_14_T193403_990_233x300_292f88dd89.jpeg" alt="images-2024-10-14T193403.990-233x300.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_2024_10_14_T193403_990_233x300_292f88dd89.jpeg 121w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-30206">Gurpreet Singh</figcaption></figure>Saibaba himself was part of many of these people’s struggles that had made decisive impacts at diverse levels over the last couple of decades. There were struggles amongst the tribal communities, Dalits, peasantry, minority communities and more importantly among the Kashmiri people. The central theme of these struggles was social justice and it opposed all manifestations of oppression including caste based discrimination.Indeed, the specific cases and linkages between fascism, crony capitalist globalization and the Indian “Deep State” that Saibaba wished to highlight through a series of conversations and later through a book would not materialise in exactly the same way as he had planned. But there is little doubt that the life and the indomitable spirit of Gorakonda Naga Saibaba, who hailed from Amalapuram in Andhra Pradesh’s Konaseema district and was spurred by his mother to become a Master of English Literature as well as a fierce academic-activist would continue to inspire many more in the days to come.<div class="mdp-liker-box after-content two-buttons style-border-fill row-right" style="--mdp-liker-bg-color-active:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color-hover:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-border:1px;--mdp-liker-radius:50px;--mdp-liker-text-color-active:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color-hover:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);box-sizing:border-box;font-size:initial;font-weight:initial;margin:0px;padding:0px;" id="mdp-liker-30191" data-memory="on"><div style="align-items:center;box-sizing:border-box;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><div class="mdp-liker-description" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:medium;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;max-width:60%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;</div></div></div> &nbsp;</div></div>

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Gorakonda Naga Saibaba’s Institutional Murder And the Permanence of His Indomitable Spirit

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A Canadian Journalist Remembers GN Saibaba 

Malayalam (ml)

Tamil (ta)

English (en)

Hindi (hi)

Telugu (te)

Kannada (kn)

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Dancing To Her Tune

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An Unwritten National Autobiography

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_1_6258d15665.jpeg" alt="images-1.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_1_6258d15665.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_1_6258d15665.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;">People who read literature in India knew him, MT Vasudevan Nair. Language was no hurdle for his works to reach out beyond the state borders of Kerala. While Malayali diaspora took a handful of nostalgia along to the places they went, a little bit of MT was also in that.Today, the big business of literature finds translators to translate anything that moves. All tetrapods of literature are given awards that stink of corporate imperialistic nexus. But MT belonged to a different era when blood recognised blood, genius recognised genius. He got translated not once but several times.Basheer, Takazhi and MT were the triumvirate that could transcend the borders and stand tall among the Indian modernist literature. Yes, MT’s literature also had a fair amount of auto-fiction but he hoodwinked it with the magic of text. He was a persuasive minimalist both in writing and in person.An unsmiling MT could generate generations of readers who could smile through tears. MT wrote about a collapsing social structure that divested the old feudal class with their ill-gotten properties. But their social capital remained intact and could exert a lot of influence among the readers by becoming the surrogate emotional ethos of a transition time of Kerala’s socio-political history.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:1196px;" id="attachment_31084" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31084"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg" alt="mt-1024x575.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 750w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 1000w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-31084">MT during his Interview with Sabha TV (Watch <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NttnjeaVqn0">Here</a>)</figcaption></figure>When society evolved into a different being altogether, MT turned to the treasure trove of myths and itihasas to eke out allegories that explained the pain of loss, of class, roots and love. His literature spat on the face of bigotry, whether it was religious or familial. He was so stoically poised in his literature that none could have challenged him and expelled him from the world of literature.MT’s literature spoke of love and separation as vehemently as he wrote about the changing social complexions. But he was not sentimental. There was something in his writing that touched some chord in every reader. Before initiating themselves into Ambedkarite politics, the Dalit ideologues also, in their torturous nights of youth, pined for MT’s characters.Those who call the modernists, Dad Vibes, have really lost the sight of the forest while focusing on shrubs and thicket. MT was a forest that moved, as in the great tragedies. He remained a serious writer while the post modernists fell in the trap of publishers and wrote lightning stories and became laughing stokes.MT remains, so is the MT critique. That’s the beauty of a great writer’s life and of course, death.</div></div>

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MT: A Forest that Moved

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An ‘Overture’ Stringing The Pope, Yesudas and the ‘Songster Chaplain’

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/1_cc9df0fe47.png" alt="വലതുപക്ഷവുമായുള്ള-സംവാദത്തിൻ്റെ-വ്യർത്ഥത-1.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_1_cc9df0fe47.png 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_1_cc9df0fe47.png 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;">When old age shall this generation waste,Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woeThan ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is allYe know on earth, and all ye need to know.” (John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn)<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/6_904b2e9f2a.jpg" alt="6.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_6_904b2e9f2a.jpg 147w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_6_904b2e9f2a.jpg 470w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">Siddharth Tagore, Founder Director of Delhi’s <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.facebook.com/artkonsultindia/photos">Art Konsult</a> Gallery is no more. He cannot be contained in such a cold statement, so matter of fact like death itself. Besides the gallery, he founded magazines such as Art and Deal, Travel and Deal and many other publications. Even when he knew that he wouldn’t make any profit out of the publications, he invested money in them because he knew art wouldn’t survive without the literature surrounding it.&nbsp;Yet another venture of Tagore’s was an auction house, namely Art Bull. The name was perfect for a bullish art market of the 2000s. But the glitch was this: Siddharth Tagore was not bullish. Nor was he bearish. He was cherubic, complete with a benign smile on his face and a burning cigarette between his fingers. Whenever I came out after having a meeting with him, I would ask myself, was he cut for this business?&nbsp;Tagore could have been a poet and dreamer like his internationally renowned namesake of yesteryears.. After the pandemic period I met Tagore after a gap of four years at the Visual Art Gallery, India Habitat Centre where Art Konsult had organized a group exhibition. After the inaugural function, I shook hands with him and I realized that his hands had lost the firm grip though the warmth remained. “I have not been keeping well,” he told me.&nbsp;<div class="gallery galleryid-31051 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-full" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:30px -8.96875px 0px;padding:0px;" id="gallery-1"><figure class="gallery-item" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;height:auto;margin:0px 0px 1rem;max-width:33.33%;padding:0px 8.96875px 17.9531px;text-align:center;vertical-align:top;width:262.609px;"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/c_768x993_a7cec9742c.jpg" alt="c-768x993.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_c_768x993_a7cec9742c.jpg 121w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_c_768x993_a7cec9742c.jpg 387w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_c_768x993_a7cec9742c.jpg 580w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></figure><figure class="gallery-item" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;height:auto;margin:0px 0px 1rem;max-width:33.33%;padding:0px 8.96875px 17.9531px;text-align:center;vertical-align:top;width:262.609px;"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/b_768x985_3f8fb449e6.jpg" alt="b-768x985.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_b_768x985_3f8fb449e6.jpg 122w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_b_768x985_3f8fb449e6.jpg 390w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_b_768x985_3f8fb449e6.jpg 585w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></figure><figure class="gallery-item" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;height:auto;margin:0px 0px 1rem;max-width:33.33%;padding:0px 8.96875px 17.9531px;text-align:center;vertical-align:top;width:262.609px;"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/a_7888f94e4b.jpg" alt="a.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_a_7888f94e4b.jpg 121w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_a_7888f94e4b.jpg 385w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_a_7888f94e4b.jpg 577w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></figure></div>Then on another occasion, at the same gallery, I met him again, this time without the crowd. He preferred to wear a pair of fading blue jeans and white shirt, a reminder of those romantic 1970s when every youth in West Bengal dreamt of poetry, love and revolution. Jeans and Shirt were the uniform of love and revolution. I think, when Tagore came to Delhi as a young man, he carried those qualities along, plus his sense of dressing. Lovers in those days smoked rather constantly and drank Old Monk Rum.&nbsp;On that day when I met him, Tagore told me that he had quit smoking, which was news to me. I couldn’t have imagined the man without a cigarette between his fingers or at least a packet of cigarettes to fuss with. I understood the gravity of the situation.&nbsp;Then again, we met when Praveen Upadhyay of the Progressive Gallery at Laddo Sarai organized a talk session with art professionals that included Tagore, Prayag Shukla, Vinod Bharadwaj and myself. Tagore was supposed to talk about the art market. When the mike was handed over to him, he fussed with it for a while and said that he always wanted to make it big by promoting young artists, but somehow, he never made huge business.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:689px;" id="attachment_31054" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31054"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/7_768x511_149563fe01.jpg" alt="7-768x511.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_7_768x511_149563fe01.jpg 235w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_7_768x511_149563fe01.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_7_768x511_149563fe01.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-31054">Siddharth speaking to the media at Art Konsult</figcaption></figure>Then I remembered Tagore telling the same during the market boom years that lasted in India for around ten years starting from 2005 to 2015. In 2008, the world market had collapsed, but the Indian art market using its cunning and reserve withstood the pressures and dragged the impending failure for a few more years only to revive itself by the beginning of the third decade of the new millennium.&nbsp;Had Tagore acquired a penchant for failure despite his resilience in running a gallery, publications and an auction house for over three and a half decades ? Did he enjoy calling himself a failure in the art market? Was he romantically involved with the idea of failure even when he kept others who were with him in the business, floating? I don’t know for sure. But Tagore remained grounded and rooted; he tried his best to keep himself away from the nefarious market practices.&nbsp;There were a few people who stood with Tagore in his highs and lows (lows that lasted for not some months but for years together), never deserting him, following his orders. Prashant Seal and Rajula Bisht are two people I remember. These two people have been so close to his heart and even after his twin daughters joining him in the business, both Seal and Bisht never lost their position as the confidantes of Tagore. He loved them like family.&nbsp;I met Siddharth Tagore in 1995. He had started Art Konsult in Hauz Khas Village. Meena Tagore (now Meena Varma) was with him then. Late Vijayan Kannanpally was the editor of Art and Deal. With the growth of art scene, Tagore’s gallery also grew in stature. Art Konsult was one of the few A listed galleries in the city. Tagore took it to South Delhi’s art district, Laddo Sarai during the boom years and later relocated it to Hauz Khas again.&nbsp;<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:562px;" id="attachment_31055" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31055"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/0_768x512_88eabd3bbc.jpg" alt="0-768x512.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_0_768x512_88eabd3bbc.jpg 234w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_0_768x512_88eabd3bbc.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_0_768x512_88eabd3bbc.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-31055">Siddharth Tagore with art critic and curator Jyoti A Kathpalia at the Art Konsult, New Delhi</figcaption></figure>It was in his Laddo Sarai phase that I joined him as the Editor of Art and Deal. It was the same when he decided to start Art Bull and Travel and Deal. I brought out around ten issues of Art and Deal between 2010 and 2013, with a gap in 2012 when I joined the United Art Logistics to establish the United Art Fair. Tagore literally lent me to the other organization with a promise that I could walk into the editor’s office at any time that I wanted. And I did go back.&nbsp;As a part of Tagore’s team, he gave me full freedom to edit the magazine and curate exhibitions. I curated a few shows and introduced a few new artists of which some are very reckonable names in today’s art scene. The exhibition ‘Merging/Submerging’ was a showcasing of contemporary photography art and ‘R.A.P.E’ (Rare Acts of Political Engagement), an all-woman show responding to the brutal murder of Nirbhaya in Delhi. This exhibition was a super hit and was discussed in all the print and television media. Art Bull did do a couple of exhibitions and auctions. I did not take much interest in it though Tagore hoped that his auction house could change the scenario and also break certain monopolies. Tagore also initiated an Art History Lecture series which I conducted on his behalf.&nbsp;Siddharth Tagore remained true to his calling. With a kind of detachment, he sponsored exhibitions that he knew well, would not bring any business. He was an avid collector of folk and tribal art and together with Meena Varma, he initiated an organization called ‘Art of the Earth’ for promoting the folk and tribal art of India, much before the ‘folkploitation’ of today’s art market became rampant. Tagore helped whoever came to him with a request for an exhibition or an immediate financial relief. &nbsp;<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:640px;" id="attachment_31053" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31053"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg" alt="3-e1734762508660-669x1024.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg 102w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg 327w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg 490w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg 653w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-31053">Siddharth Tagore signing the <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://amzn.in/d/4TijcgO">book</a> “Ganika- In the visual culture of the 19th-20th Century India” at the Art Konsult</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg" alt="4-560x1024.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg 85w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg 273w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg 410w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg 547w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">When artists in Calcutta packed their wares and set out for Delhi, they knew Siddharth Tagore was there if nothing else worked (perhaps he was their primary destination), along with cigarettes and Old Monk Rum. He never discouraged the people who came to him with a clear intention to exploit. He was not cautious about relationships that brought him a fair amount of heartburn. As I said elsewhere, Tagore was a poet in his heart, with a heart ready to bleed for love and art.</div></div>

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