TCN News
Over 30 organizations under the Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) have released a statement demanding the immediate release of veteran poet Varavara Rao who has been in prison since 2018 without the start of a trial.
Varavara Rao, who was shifted to Mumbai’s JJ Hospital this week was found in “inhumane conditions” by his family who has been demanding medical attention to his deteriorating condition inside the prison for a couple of weeks. As news broke that Rao has tested positive for COVID-19, the organizations including AISA, AISF, Bhim Army, DISSC, DSU, Karnataka Janashakti, KYS, Lokpaksh, LSI, Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan, Mazdoor Patrika, Mehnatkash Mahila Sangathan, Morcha Patrika, People’s Watch, Rihai Manch, SFI, United Against Hate and others under CASR have sounded alarm to the “callous disregard for the health of the 80-year-old revolutionary poet” by the government.
The statement details that despite persistent requests by his family, Rao had been kept in jail when inmates reported his incoherent speech and decreasing physical abilities. Once moved out of the prison, his health “further worsened as hospital authorities failed to care for him,” says the CASR press release, stating that the hospital authorities even forcibly sent away his family for raising concerns about him “being abandoned on a dirty and unsanitary stretcher.”
“The deliberate role played by the State in Varavara Rao’s failing health in many ways captures the impact of the State’s actions in the country-wide surge in COVID-19 cases,” the press brief resonates. It further explains how instead of making arrangements for immediate medical care and treatment, the Taloja Jail authorities denied him medical care while the “National Investigation Agency (NIA) worked overtime to block all efforts for the release of those incarcerated under the Bhima Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad case despite the heightened threat of a COVID-19 infection in cramped jails.” It has also mentioned that several of the undertrials are persons above the age of 60, suffering from co-morbidities and hence particularly vulnerable to a COVID-19 infection and that academicians and activists like Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Akhil Gogoi, Manas Konwar and Shoma Sen are still languishing in jails under the “witch-hunt of activists in 2018 by the Maharashtra Police.”
The supporting organizations of this press statement in Varavara Rao’s case have stated that this is “custodial murder by the NIA, jail and hospital authorities” and “a barbaric extension of the policy of branding voices of dissent as urban-Naxals,” so that they can be incarcerated for long periods of time under fabricated charges facilitated by draconian laws. The statement also highlights the case of Dr GN Saibaba, a 90% disabled wheelchair-bound Delhi University professor, who continues to be incarcerated despite repeated appeals for parole, suggesting that his condition “is likely to develop similar to the case of Varavara Rao.”
Drawing attention to NIA’s summons of Delhi University professor Hany Babu and Hyderabad based journalist Kranti Tekula to testify before them in Mumbai, CASR accuses NIA of “imploding health crisis” thus going against “the base interests of this agency and its masters in the Ministry of Home Affairs.” It has also accused the government of witch-hunting activists under false charges as the COVID-19 pandemic spreads faster and further into all parts of the country, stating that “the inhuman and over-crowded jails have been transformed into the gallows for those who the State seeks to silence.”
“The use of these draconian laws to incarcerate activists and deny bail despite the spread of COVID-19 within prisons is a blatant violation of the right to life of prisoners,” declares the CASR press statement, accusing the BJP government and NIA of “using the Bhima Koregaon case as a tactic to suppress the voices that collectively oppose Brahmanical Hindutva Fascism.” At the same time, “Hindutva forces accused of attacking Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims and the progressive and democratic sections of our society are shielded and protected.”
On behalf of the supporting organizations, CASR has urged in its statement that “all the progressive and democratic sections of our society must unite and draw upon the broad masses in collectively resisting the fascist forces and opposing state repression.” It has further demanded that Varavara Rao and Dr G N Saibaba must be immediately released and charges against “all anti-CAA, NRC and NPR activists” must be dropped immediately.
Keeping in mind the COVID-19 threat, CASR has also urged the government “to release of all political prisoners lodged in jails all over the country and repeal of all draconian laws including UAPA, PSA, NSA and others.”