Updated: December 10, 2020 10:28:29 am
The Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan) plans to demand the release of several “intellectuals and human rights activists” on Thursday Human Rights Day. (Express file photo of Amit Mehra)
Despite the farmers ‘unions’ decision to maintain their ongoing protest in Delhi against the “apolitical” agricultural laws, the Bhartiya Kisan (Ugrahan) union plans to use this platform to demand the release of several registered defendants under of the Law on the prevention of illegal activities for allegedly having links with Naxals, on Human Rights Day, which will be observed on Thursday.
Images of more than 20 defendants, including Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, reserved under the strict UAPA, will be installed on a stage near the border with Tikri. Many human rights groups are also expected to participate.
“We will celebrate International Human Rights Day in Baba Banda Singh Nagar, near the border with Tikri, to raise our voices for the liberation of intellectuals and human rights activists. The demand for the release of these prisoners has steadily increased throughout the upheaval. The Modi government has a fascist agenda. On the one hand, he is promoting Adani and Ambani and, on the other, he is pushing intellectuals and activities to jail. Around two dozen activists have been booked under UAPA by Bhima Koregaon and instigation of riots in Delhi, ”said Jhanda Singh Jethuke, Senior Vice President of BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan).
“It has been part of our demands from day one to free human rights activists locked up in prisons… The government has said that agricultural unrest is sparked by urban Naxals, Congress and the Khalistanis. Urban Naxal is an excuse to prosecute people. In Punjab, people are between state terrorism and terrorists … Naxalism has helped tribal peoples to claim their rights, ”said NK Jeet, lawyer and coordinator of the BKU (Ugrahan) event.
He further said: “We do not support your ideology. But tribal peoples are fighting in India to save their water, land and forests. Their right to fight must be protected. The government has labeled them as naxales. “
“It is our conscious decision to support these defendants. Khalistani was not part of this farmers’ movement. The Naxal movement was always a movement of farmers throughout India. Releasing these defendants is a BKU demand. We made it part of a memorandum to the government related to agricultural bills, “he added.
When asked why BKU (Ugrahan) is not focusing on cases of alleged human rights violations in Punjab, in which an alleged prosecution was charged on behalf of Khalistan, Jeet said: “We know why we are not talking about such cases. Otherwise, we often talk about human rights violations in Punjab. “
When asked if there are any specific cases of human rights violations in Punjab related to the UAPA or otherwise that BKU is working on, Jeet only said that cases have been recorded against people in Punjab for protesting violating pandemic legislation.
When asked to comment on the matter, the president of another farmers union, which is part of the protests against farm laws, said: “Our focus is only on farm laws. I don’t want to comment on any other event. “
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