Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and rights activist Soni Sori and JNU Students’ Union vice-president Shehla Rashid are likely to attend a public meeting in the city on April 30, to be organised by the Civil Liberties Committee (CLC), Telangana on the topic ‘Civil democratic rights — State oppression’.
Radhika Vemula, mother of the deceased scholar from University of Hyderabad (UoH), Rohith Vemula, apart from UoH faculty members K.Y. Ratnam and Tathagat Sen Gupta, will be among the speakers at the meeting divided into two sessions. The first session will be about ‘State violence against Adivasis, and rights activists’, while the second will be on ‘Hindutva attack on right to life’.
Sharing the details about the meeting, CLC State executive member G. Haragopal questioned the government’s intentions in attacking its own citizens in the name of ‘Operation Green Hunt’. The paramilitary offensive by the government of India is aimed towards putting on sale the rich mineral resources in the Adivasi areas of five States, including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar. Schedule V of the Constitution, Forest Rights Act, and PESA Act are being violated blatantly in the process, which should be questioned by the people. Journalists and lawyers who support the Adivasis are being threatened and thrown out.
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Prof. Haragopal also alleged that the most prestigious universities are being targeted by the Central government with an agenda to muzzle the voices of those raising questions.