Farah Naqvi: Father Stan, UAPA and the Performative Solidarity of Politicians

By Dilip -

“Stan Smith (84) passes away. The system sucks. UAPA. No bail. Little hope of early trial. Others too languish in jail. Lawyers , Academics , Social Activists ….raise their voices for the voiceless. They too are now “voiceless”. The State calls them “ terrorists,” Kapil Sibal, Congress MP, tweeted on July 5, 2021. Sibal got the name wrong. And he forgot to say sorry. For this casual disrespect to a martyr for democracy, even before dust had settled on his grave. He also forgot to say sorry for his own role in giving India the dark gift of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) that finally killed Fr. Stan Swamy. The gift that keeps on giving. 

On June 18, a day after the release of the three student activists, P. Chidambaram, former Home Minister and Congress leader, had similarly tweeted: “Warm welcome to Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita & Asif Iqbal Tanha and more power to you. You are an oasis of hope and inspiration in a desert of apathy and inertia.” And on July 2nd after UAPA cases against Akhil Gogoi were quashed, he again tweeted, “Court quashes ‘bogus case’ filed by NIA against Akhil Gogoi. This is not the only bogus case. Nearly all anti-CAA protest cases are bogus.” 

In between these solidarity tweets, came two articles by senior Congress leaders, one by Manish Tewari (June 26), the other by Kapil Sibal (June 21). The former was the kind of piece that emerges every year from the Congress stable around June 25, to deflect from the annual bad press it gets for the Emergency of 1975. Yes, the Emergency was terrible, he wrote, but things are much worse in the current state of undeclared emergency. One has to agree, until the finger pointing gets unconvincing....

https://thewire.in/rights/father-stan-uapa-and-performative-solidarity-of-politicians

The Judiciary is the Defence of the Innocent. Or so we thought...

WANTED: Immediate Justice in the Bhima-Koregaon Conspiracy. By Cedric Prakash

Govt wants to cage women who speak against it, say Narwal & Kalita as they and Asif Tanha walk free / Delhi HC criticises 'wanton, frivolous use of UAPA by the State' / P.B. Mehta: Has the blackbox of UAPA finally been opened?

Father Stan Swamy: I’d rather suffer, possibly die if things go on as it is

Pinjra Tod activist Natasha Narwal's father dies of Covid day before her bail hearing // That Monday will not come, Judge Sahib

Gujarati Poet Parul Khakkar Blames 'Naked King' for Corpses Floating in the Ganga

Avay Shukla: LEST WE FORGET

Naxalites should lay down their arms and challenge the ruling class to abide by the Constitution

The Supreme Court, Gandhi and the RSS

A whiff of evil

The Broken Middle - on the 30th anniversary of 1984

Bharat Bhushan: It suits the RSS to allow BJP to encourage defections from other parties


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