Activists from civil rights outfits including the Nari Samata Manch and People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) on Thursday held a public meeting to protest the “undeclared Emergency” in the country’, and to create awareness on the arrests of noted activists and intellectuals in connection with the Elgaar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case.
The event, organised under the banner of Lokshahi Utsav Samiti, witnessed the participation of Professor Anjali Maydeo Ambedkar of the Nari Samata Manch, Kavita Srivastava, national secretary of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Dr. Manisha Gupte, coordinator of the Lokshahi Utsav Samiti.
In their addresses, the speakers said suppression of dissent and the climate of undeclared Emergency prevailing in the country was due to the authoritarian policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
“If Emergency means creating an environment that ensures that no other voices than your own are heard, then such an atmosphere has always existed in India and was dictated by the rigid caste system,” said Ms. Maydeo.
A faculty member at the city-based Karve Institute of Social Sciences, Prof. Maydeo said that a thread of intolerance linked the murders of IT professional Mohsin Shaikh in Pune with the killing of Dr. Narendra Dabholkar and the arrests of Surendra Gadling, Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen and others by the Pune police in connection with the Elgaar Parishad case.
Prof. Maydeo, the wife of Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM) chief Prakash Ambedkar, further said that the “illegal arrests” of civil rights activists in connection with the Elgaar Parishad case was a “terror tactic” on part of the BJP government to create terror so as to stifle independent thinkers from the youth
The Elgaar Parishad- Bhima Koregaon arrests resemble a script that has been written earlier and is now being played out with some expert suddenly emerging to comment on ‘urban naxalism’,” she said, commenting that the arrests were “a travesty of justice”.
“When Indira Gandhi declared Emergency in 1975, it was characterised by media censorship. But today, this is not even required as a majority of the media houses are spokespersons of the ruling BJP,” Prof. Maydeo said.
Remarking that the struggles of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was against the denial of one’s freedom of choice, she said that citizens were again experiencing that denial today as ‘cultural terrorists’ were increasingly dictating what one ought to read, speak and publish.
Dr. Gupte said that the toxic climate of “ideological intolerance” in Pune was destroying the city’s social and cultural fabric.
“Pune was a city which once took pride on its progressiveness and reformist attitude. But today, dissent against the powers that be is being stifled in establishments including educational institutes,” she said.
The city has witnessed the shocking murder of Dr. Dabholkar, which was followed by those Govind Pansare, Prof. M.M. Kalburg and journalist Gauri Lankesh) in the country, she said.
“Yet, there is a thunderous silence by the law agencies on these killings. Now, the State and the police have concocted this ludicrous theory connecting the ‘Elgaar Parishad’ with the Maoists,” Dr. Gupte said.
