Hundreds turn up at Parliament Street, demand action against Sanatan Sanstha

A protest organised by Jan Ekta Jan Adhikar Andolan (people’s unity, people’s right, people’s resistance) on August 30, following the arrests of several civil rights activists around the country, demanded action against Sanatan Sanstha and lynch mob terrorists.

Human rights activist and lawyers Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and writer and Maoist Ideologue P Varavara Rao were arrested following the raid of their homes on Tuesday, under the pretext of having Maoist links and for being involved in the Bhima-Koregaon violence. The homes of many of their relatives were also raided. The activists were placed under house arrest in line with the Supreme Court order, on Wednesday.

The meeting held at Parliament Street, saw the attendance of around 300 people from various age groups, students and people who were earlier associated with the organisation.

This protest meeting was one of a few that were held in Delhi and other parts of India calling for the release of the arrested activists. People were seen holding banners with slogans such as “Stop witch hunting of civil rights activists” and “Release the arrested activists now! withdraw the false cases”.

“Some media channels, who have been selected by Modiji to be more than his master’s voice, are equally responsible for creating this hate environment in this country. And it is absolutely shocking. I don’t think this is a party matter, it is a matter for every civil citizen. And we are appealing to every citizen to come out and protest against these blatantly false cases,” said Brinda Karat, Politburo member of the CPI(M).

“The government has failed on all fronts. It is now trying to divert the attention of people. They have not provided any employment having promised employment to 2 crore people per year. Rather there is unemployment and it is mounting day by day. Demonetisation has played havoc with the economy. They have also been hitting all the records in corruption, especially with the Rafale deal,” said Pran Sharma, Delhi state organising committee secretary of the SUCI(C).

An MA History student from Delhi University, attending the event stated that she was there because she felt that the people around her were constantly trying to suppress information from being passed on. She was told by her fellow classmates that she shouldn’t be posting information about these events on the class group.

Manpreet Kaur Kang, a professor in IP University, said, “We need to speak out now. Things have gone too far. They have done things that are unimaginable, shocking, and sad. It is a shame that we are living in a democratic country and these things are happening to people who are working for the underprivileged, just because they don’t belong to one political establishment they are being targeted. One of the people arrested was working in our university. She was a very good teacher, a great woman and a gender-rights activist. We have known her, she has been teaching law to our students. It’s a shame, an absolute shame. So, we are here in solidarity.”

The Supreme Court has scheduled it’s next hearing on September 6 and the activists have to remain under house arrest till then.