JOIN USOpposition leaders condemn activist Stan Swamy's arrest, urge people to break silence
Opposition leaders, including Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Wednesday demanded the release of activist Stan Swamy, who has been booked under the UAPA in the Bhima Koregaon case.
The leaders said the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act should be repealed and urged people to break the silence on the efforts to "chip away the rights of the people".
Expressing solidarity with 83-year-old Swamy, the leaders said he is in jail despite suffering from Parkinson's disease and other health problems.
Swamy is among 16 people who have been arrested under the UAPA in the Bhima Koregaon case. Others included academics and activists Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Shoma Sen, Hany Baby, Rona Wilson, Sudha Bharadwaj, Surendra Gadling, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira.
During a digital press conference organised by the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Soren accused the Narendra Modi government of attempting to silence the voices of marginalised communities.
"The NDA government sitting in the Centre today is silencing the voices of those speaking for the Adivasis, Dalits and other marginalised groups. The non-BJP ruled states are being harassed, the various constitutional mechanisms of our country are being weakened today by different groups and organisations for its own political benefit under a hidden agenda," he said in a video message.
"It is forcing us to ponder about where the country is headed. It crossed all limits today when someone like Stan Swamy was arrested. He is someone who has been working in Jharkhand for years, in the remote faraway villages, wandering in the jungles, just so that the Adivasis, Dalits and minority populations here could be reached. This is extremely disappointing," Soren said.
Yechury accused the government of grossly misusing the UAPA. "This law, like the POTA, has to be removed from our statute book. However, this is not the issue of just one law. All these draconian laws are being used to silence all dissent against the government. These arrests are not isolated cases. These are part of an agenda to establish a rabidly theocratic Hindutva Rashtra. This cannot be accepted. We must break this silence," he said.
For evil to succeed, Yechury warned, the good only requires to be silent and it was the time that the people raised their voice.
DMK leader Kanimozhi said it was time to take a decision whether to accept what is happening in silence or say this is enough and fight them together.
"If we accept this, then in a few years we will not see a democratic India that we know. Every law that this government has passed has chipped away the rights of the people. It's time to break the silence," she said.
Congress MP Tharoor said, "this must stop. I appeal to the government to be fair and at least grant him bail. We stand in solidarity with Stan Swamy."