Arrest of activists and intellectuals condemned
‘Arrests are politically motivated’
New Delhi, August 28: Social activists, journalists, film makers, JNU Students Union, publishers and MLA Jignesh Mevani strongly condemned the raids on the homes of social activists and intellectuals who are critical of the government and the ruling party at the centre.
In a statement, they said that the arrests of prominent personalities like Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, Gautam Navlakha, Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Kranthi Tekula and others were nothing but an attempt to strike terror among those who are fighting for the justice for the marginalized. It was also an attempt by the BJP to invent a false enemy and engage in scaremongering to polarize the 2019 Lok Sabha election in its favour. Already, the government and the media houses close to the BJP have been trying to create a false narrative of Maoist conspiracy since June 2018. The government had invented a term ‘urban naxals’ to stifle any criticism of the government. “We have learnt that the Delhi Police, after arresting Sudha Bharadwaj, waited for Republic TV to arrive before taking her to the court. This simply shows that the arrests are incomplete without the accompanying sensationalist media propaganda to demonise activists, human rights activists and intellectuals”, they said.
The raids carried out on the houses of those activists were aimed at creating a spectacle as the writings and views of those intellectuals were already publicly known and well documented. It was a conspiracy to divert the attention from the gravity of the Sanatan Sanstha conspiracy to carry out serial bomb attacks on Eid and Ganesh Chaturthi. The same Sanatan Sanstha was involved in the murder of Gauri Lankesh as per the SIT investigation. The arrests were carried out to shield the murderers of Gauri Lankesh. People like Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha and others who have been arrested are friends of the people who have dedicated their entire lives to the betterment of the society. With the arrest, the BJP was exposing its insecurities and its intolerance to any dissent or criticism of its policies, they said.
The arrests should be seen in continuation with the recent attacks on pro-justice voices like Swami Agnivesh, Umar Khalid and many other student activists from Delhi to Lucknow. A BJP lawmaker from Karnataka even advocated the murder of “intellectuals.” Both the arrests and the physical attacks on justice loving people must be seen in a series of attempts to stifle dissent and deny social justice. So, the government should release all the arrested activists and intellectuals immediately and drop all false and malicious charges against them as those arrests were politically motivated, they said.
JNU Students’ Union former president Mohit Pandey, former vice president Shehla Rashid Shora, journalist and author Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, journalist Neha Dixit, Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani, human rights activist Sanam Sutirth Wazir, documentary filmmaker Nakul Singh Sawhney, journalist and social activist Teesta Setalvad, equal rights activist Harish Iyer, social activist Swami Agnivesh, Shashi Sail of National Alliance of Women and others signed the petition.
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“Bleeding on the road, I begged for help but no one came”: Bengaluru woman recounts husband’s death
Bengaluru: A woman in Bengaluru has shared a painful account of how her husband died after they were repeatedly denied medical help and ignored by passersby during a medical emergency, NDTV reported.
The victim, 34-year-old Venkataramanan, a garage mechanic from Balaji Nagar, developed severe chest pain around 3.30 am. His wife immediately took him on a motorcycle in search of medical help.
"He complained about chest pain, and we went to the first hospital. However, the doctor was not on duty. At the second hospital, we were told he had a stroke and to go to another hospital. When we called for ambulance services, they did not respond properly. Humanity failed, but we did our bit by donating his eye." NDTV quoted his wife as saying.
According to the report, after being turned away twice, the couple met with an accident on the road. CCTV footage later showed the woman, covered in blood, pleading with folded hands as vehicles passed by, but no one stopped to help.
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The wait ended after several minutes when a cab driver stopped and rushed Venkataramanan to a nearby hospital. Doctors there declared him dead on arrival.
As per the report, the family decided to donate Venkataramanan’s eyes, giving sight to others even in death.
Venkataraman's mother, who had lost her last surviving child, had no words to express herself: "I have no words. I do not know what to say. My son is gone."
"The government should understand a health emergency. My daughter is left with two children. Who will look after them?" asked his mother-in-law. His wife, mother, and two children, a five-year-old son and an 18-month-old daughter now survive Venkataramanan.
The incident has once again raised serious questions about emergency healthcare access, ambulance response, and public apathy in the city.
