AIDWA welcomes the Supreme Court Order that has rendered infructuous the FIRs that were wantonly filed against Prof. Archana Prasad,Prof Nandini Sundar, Sanjay Parate and 3 others under non bailable sections by the Chattisgarh Government in Nov. 2016. The intention of the Chattisgarh police and the BJP to harass and intimidate these scholars and activists by falsely implicating them for murder and incitement to violence in the backward tribal region of Bastar stands thoroughly exposed. The Bench also directed that in case there was any intention of carrying out investigations against these persons in the future, they would have to be given at least 4 weeks’ notice. It added that in such a circumstance they would be given the liberty to approach the Supreme Court. These orders signify a public censure of the Chattisgarh Government, and its tactics of repression and intimidation.
The orders that have been issued by the Supreme Court are a grim reminder that the BJP Government in Chattisgarh has been clamping down on journalists, media persons, intellectuals, or anybody who has been critical of its undemocratic and repressive actions in the tribal region in and around Bastar. It is indeed shocking that the police are able to file the most heinous criminal charges against reputed persons, without any evidence to back them up. AIDWA demands that action be taken against the police officials guilty of this offence. It calls on the BJP Government to stop such blatant repression. We demand that the fundamental rights of the tribals and the poor in that region be safeguarded as also the democratic rights of those who stand by them.
