Breaking: The
@scroll_in
journalist
@ZafarAafaq
is being interrogated by the Madhya Pradesh Police at Delhi’s Lahori Gate Police Station for reporting on MP Police inaction against right-wing Hindutva groups in the state.
Aafaq’s recent story “In Indore, ‘love jihad’
The Indian history is being revised to turn RSS icons into national heroes. How? And what is the larger purpose.
This Monday, join
@suchitrav
as she speaks to
@akash_musafir
about this phenomenon in our Space session
Set your reminder
Breaking News: Human Rights activist
#KhurramParvez
of
@jkccs_
has been arrested and charged under sections 17, 18, 38, and 40 of the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Student activist and scholar
@AfreenFatima136
's parents and sister have been arrested in the middle of the night without any warrant by the Allahabad Police and they are threatening to demolish their house.
Dissent is not a crime.
Political prisoner Altaf Shah passed away. Another custodial death as a result of blatant medical negligence: jail authorities denied proper medical care for his widespread cancer in spite of a court order.
📢Ongoing Violence Alert|
#Uttarakhand
We are deeply concerned about the ongoing situation in Uttarakhand, where news reports describe explicit calls to drive Muslims out of the state.
Activists on the ground are raising alarm over what they say is approaching ethnic cleansing*
Our
@watchthestate
chapter was set up when the first protests against the new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) broke out in India in December 2019.
Student protesters approached The Polis Project asking for support in tracking the growing police violence against citizens.
#KafeelKhan
now in jail for 180 days. His crime: a speech against
#CAA
& Home Minister Amit Shah, who he called ‘mota bhai’. Bail hearing deferred again, 12th time in 5 months.
Join the nationwide letter writing campaign for Dr. Kafeel Khan.
#ReleaseOurDrKafeel
🚨 SOURCES CONFIRM 🚨
Heavy police presence out the residence of
@AfreenFatima136
in Allahabad. Administration is forcing residents to empty the house for demolition.
We stand in solidarity with
Black Americans.
We stand as your allies
and fellow fighters in this struggle.
Together we fight for a new world.
#BlackLivesMatter
#InquilabZindabad
"As a Muslim youth, I am here to express my pain, tell the story of my looted house, send a message of my anger and declare my battle."
-
@SharjeelUsmani
at Elgar Parishad.
Read the full speech:
Since it is Khurram Parvez's voice they want to stifle, it is Khurram Parvez's voice we will amplify.
Over the course of the day, we will keep updating this thread with all the work Khurram has done that frighten the Indian state so.
#ReleaseKhurramParvez
.
THREAD 👇
NO BAIL, NO TRIAL
Shoma Sen was arrested on June 6th, 2018 and has spent 5.7 years in prison without trial. Since her arrest Sen has made multiple bail applications on medical grounds owing to her deteriorating health and increased vulnerability to COVID-19.
#RELEASESHOMASEN
How do state institutions allow, encourage and systemize violence? Our researchers provide you consolidated updates of what is happening in the country.
📢THIS FRIDAY: Join
@watchthestate
for the fortnightly session on state violence in India.
LINK:
“you always told me it takes time. it’s taken my father’s time, my mother’s time. my uncle’s time, my brother’s and my sister’s time. my niece’s and my nephew’s time. how much time do you want, for your progress?” - james baldwin
#blacklivesmatter
"Hindu Rashtra no longer looms as a threat, but is established as an inescapable reality. Living in a permanent state of fear, minorities in India are witnessing a rapid erosion of their fundamental rights."
@suchitrav
and
@kiccovich
write:
Here
@AfreenFatima136
narrates the illegal arrest of her family members, threats, intimidation, and harassment. She speaks of Muslim homes being targeted, bulldozed and destroyed in Allahabad.
Reminder: Journalists are in jail under UAPA, the Kashmir Press Club was forced to shut down and Ajit Doval wants to fight a "fourth generation warfare" within the civil society.
Have a look at *these* Kashmir files.
Thread:
"Kashmir is the most militarized region in the world. For a long time, India has targeted and treated Kashmiri civilians as prisoners of the State."
@suchitrav
and
@kiccovich
write:
A woman's body is no place to fight an ideological battle.
The Polis Project stands in solidarity with Indian Muslim women demanding their constitutional rights.
PROFILES OF DISSENT | Sharjeel Imam is a research scholar at India’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. He was charged with sedition after a two-minute excerpt of his speech was broadcasted by right-wing news channels and shared widely on social media
@Maraa_Blr
Day 60 of the
#KashmirSiege
"Democracy is not just our right to vote. It is also the right to live in dignity. A human dignity that we have denied Kashmiris for over 70 years. We have denied them the dignity of freedom and the dignity of human rights"
#Kashmirsiege
📢IT'S HERE!!!
The first webcomic in The Polis Project x
@sanitarypanels
collaboration is here!
We are about to make sure, you find some humor to mix with your rage every week!
Keep an eye out for these every Wednesday!
PROFILES OF DISSENT | Sharjeel Usmani, twenty-three, is an undergraduate student of Political Science at India’s Aligarh Muslim University. Usmani was among the students who started the protest against the discriminatory CAA in AMU
August 7, 2019. Day 3 of the
#KashmirSiege
.
#India
#art370
To quote Edward Murrow, "No one can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all accomplices."
Pieter Friedrich exposes the systematic efforts of affiliates of the RSS and the BJP to influence the perception of Modi and his hyper-nationalistic agenda through what they call “diaspora diplomacy.”
The recent events at
#Haldawani
call for an urgent reflection on the strategies of dispossession put in place by the Indian government against the Muslim community. We'll discuss this with
@SharjeelUsmani
on Thursday 12 January at 7,40 pm IST.
In the recent hearing on the case of
@SharjeelUsmani
Bombay High Court said that there will be no coercive action against him if he co-operates with investigation. Usmani is an activist who was arrested for his speech at 2021 Elgar Parishad.
#bhimakoregaon
Hindutva masculinity really out here pretending it is looking to empower Muslim women women by... depriving them of education?!
@sanitarypanels
gives her take this week!
"At the core of the RSS’s ideology is the idea that only Hindus hold a birthright to India, and so the country should be a Hindu Rashtra (nation)."
How did Indian politics became a politics of hate?
@FriedrichPieter
explores:
Last night at about 11 pm Allahabad police stuck a demolition notice on the house of Javed Mohammad. The back dated notice was served in the name of Javed Mohammadd, even though the house not only belongs to his wife -
Mapping patterns of violence against journalists in India: Visualizing events between 2019–2021” This project is part of
@watchthestate
’s ongoing documentation of violence against journalists and limitations to press freedom in India.
CHECK IT OUT:
All the ingredients for conditioning a democratic alibi that existed in Nazi Germany and Rwanda exist in India today.
By
@suchitrav
Attack against
@UmarKhalidJNU
just proves how common place hate has become
“The RSS can survive without the BJP but the BJP cannot exist without the RSS. This inextricably links the BJP to the RSS’s Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) agenda."
@FriedrichPieter
called the RSS, "cultural malware". Recent events suggest he was right.
As revising Indian history to turn RSS icons like Savarkar into national heroes, becomes commonplace in India,
@suchitrav
sits down with
@akash_musafir
to understand where the push is coming from, why and what is at risk.
JOIN US AT 8.30 PM IST:
without mentioning the details, circular number or order number of any of these.
The family is totally unaware of any such proceedings.
The fact that the notice was not even delivered in the name of the actual property holder makes its authenticity highly dubious -
Proceedings before a court might uncover the many factual inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the notice, highlighting the fact that this is nothing more than a vindictive operation designed to punish a questioning voice.
Dr Teltumbde walks out of prison.
Supreme Court dismissed the special leave petition filed by India’s National Intelligence agency challenging the bail granted to Prof. Teltumbde by the Bombay High Court
but in fact the land it stands on is her ancestral property, with Javed Mohammad having no legal stake in it.
The notice also mentioned service of a prior notice on 10 May, a hearing on 24 May and orders passed on 25 May -
An institution is a reflection of its team and so we are very thrilled to introduce you to Sharjeel Usmani
@SharjeelUsmani
Sharjeel is a researcher with The Polis Project and we are excited to have him on board! Join us in welcoming him! 📢📣🙌🏽✊🏽
Journalist
@ZafarAafaq
of
@scroll_in
has been released after being interrogated for more than three hours by the Madhya Pradesh Police in Delhi's Lahori Gate police station. Zafar recently did a story on love jihad, the Bajrang Dal and the MP police.
As
@narendramodi
tries to hug every world leader he could find at
#COP26
, Hidme Markam completes 8 months in prison for protesting environmental violations on Adivasi lands in India.
Read about her:
"Founded in September 1925 — two months after Adolf Hitler published Mein Kampf — the RSS’s first chief, KB Hedgewar, said its goal was to create a “Hindustan of Hindus,” which he compared to a “Germany of Germans.”"
@FriedrichPieter
writes:
"According to the women, ‘rape’ is not an adequate word to describe what was done to them. It was not rape��it was war” - Essar Batool, Ifrah Butt, Samreena Mushtaq, Munaza Rashid, and Natasha Rather
The Delhi Police has sent a notice to
@moliticsindia
, an online media, for covering a Hindu priest’s genocidal speech against Muslims and Christians during a Hindu Parliament at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
Who no international backlash to BJP?
In this piece,
@FriedrichPieter
exposes the systematic efforts of affiliates of the RSS to influence the perception of Modi and his hyper-nationalistic agenda through what they call “diaspora diplomacy.”
It has been over 30 days now since the Indian government brought life to a standstill in Kashmir. Its residents are being forced to live circumscribed lives under severe movement restrictions
Here's a timeline of what Kashmir has been through in a month
The following is the transcription of the speech that
@SharjeelUsmani
gave at the 2021 Elgar Parishad. Usmani discusses what it means for a Muslim youth to be a citizen of India in a time of rampant majoritarianism and structural violence.
as even basic proceedings would have uncovered this fact.
Further, the notice was dated 10 June but pasted only late at night on 11 June, a Saturday, even though police has continuously been present at the house since 10 June.
In the last 2 weeks, up to 10 towns — Purola, Uttarkashi, Mori, Naugaon, Barkot, Chinyalisaur, Dunda, Damta, Netwar and Sankri — have seen strikes/hate rallies calling for Muslims to be denied shops, for extra “verification”, or simply for them to be expelled.
In an open letter to UN Secretary General and the UN Security Council, a group of Kashmir scholars has sought ‘immediate intervention in the unacceptable political situation precipitated by the illegal and malafide amendments made by India'
*Ethnic cleansing is “a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas."
“This government didn’t want any anti-corruption law, or any law which encourages whistleblowers to blow the whistle on government corruption.” -
@pbhushan1
speaks to
@parvaizbukhari
for the
@polis_podcast
War, No War
Listen to the entire podcast here
🚨🚨 TODAY! 🚨🚨
Two decades after the Gujarat Pogrom,
@suchitrav
will sit down with
@ZahirJ
to reflect on the violence at the time, and where India stands today after electing the perpetrators to power.
Make sure to tune in:
Urgent Update Regarding the NIA Raids on HRDs in Kashmir:
This morning the National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted a raid on Praveena Ahanger's house, and subsequently on the office of Association of Disappeared Persons (APDP) in Hyderpora in Srinagar.
Father Stan Swamy has now tested positive for COVID in state custody.
Your reminder that he is
- an 84 year old man
- affected by Parkinson's disease
- denied medical bail
- denied access to the coronavirus vaccine
- embroiled in a case concocted by the state.
Father Stan Swamy, who suffers from Parkinson, is being denied medical bail even as his condition worsens in state custody.
Archive | The battle to protect Adivasis’ right to the land: A profile of Father Stan Swamy
In this essay,
@FriedrichPieter
exposes the systematic efforts of affiliates of the RSS and the BJP to influence the perception of Modi and his hyper-nationalistic agenda through what they call “diaspora diplomacy.”
📢In this conversation,
@suchitrav
talks about the incarceration and persecution of
#JulianAssange
with
@Stella_Assange
. The conversation was originally held as a Twitter Space session and has been edited for length and clarity.
In this essay,
@FriedrichPieter
exposes the systematic efforts of affiliates of the RSS and the BJP to influence the perception of Modi and his hyper-nationalistic agenda through what they call “diaspora diplomacy.”
Read here:
PODCAST | Drawing a geopolitical perspective that is rooted in the colonial history of the Indian Subcontinent,
@mjdawar
recounts the challenges, motivations and hopes of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement with its wide and inter-generational mobilization.
Delhi Police has long been in cahoots with right-wing political forces.
Read our report "Manufacturing Evidence: How the Police is framing and arresting constitutional rights defenders in India" to learn about its role in the Delhi violence last year.
PROFILES OF DISSENT | Sharjeel Usmani, twenty-three, is an undergraduate student of Political Science at India’s Aligarh Muslim University. Usmani was among the students who started the protest against the discriminatory CAA in AMU
In this video,
@project_polis
reconstructs the events leading up to the arrest of the
#BhimaKoregaon
#politicalprisoners
& the ongoing surveillance of dissident voices, the tampering of evidence, & the irregularities that accompanied the investigation.
Pieter Friedrich exposes the systematic efforts of affiliates of the RSS and the BJP to influence the perception of Modi and his hyper-nationalistic agenda through what they call “diaspora diplomacy.”
TOMORROW:
@suchitrav
will be in conversation with
@anarrain
about his book, "India's Undeclared Emergency".
If you haven't managed to grab a hold of the book, no worries!
An excerpt from it drops on our website tomorrow. Stay tuned!
SET YOUR REMINDER:
*These coercive practices used to remove the civilian population must be seen as part of a continuum of violence where the goal is the destruction of the targeted group.
Wonder why there is radio silence from the global community as civil rights rapidly deteriorate in India?
@FriedrichPieter
looks at the systematic efforts of the RSS to influence the perception of Modi and his agenda through “diaspora diplomacy.”
The recent backlash to Indian state's Islamophobia should have happened a while back.
So why didn't it?
@FriedrichPieter
explores Hindutva international diplomacy here:
📢 TOMORROW!
@suchitrav
sits down with
@ZahirJ
to reflect on the horrors of the Gujarat Pogrom, and where does Indian society now stand, having elected the perpetrators to power.
SET YOUR REMINDER:
The Polis Project stands in solidarity with the farmers protest. We are committed to people's resistance and struggle against oppression and state violence.
Inquilab Zindabad!
Wonder why human rights violations in India get little to no international attention?
In this essay
@FriedrichPieter
exposes the systematic efforts of affiliates of the RSS to influence the perception of Modi through what they call “diaspora diplomacy.”
Scroll journalist Zafar Aafaq is being interrogated by the Madhya Pradesh Police at Delhi’s Lahori Gate Police Station after reporting on MP Police inaction against Hindutva vigilantes in the state.
Denial of medical treatment is part of a larger pattern of abuse directed toward dissenters & political prisoners in India
Join Prof Manish Sethi,
@SajidbinSayed
, President of Campus Front of India, and journalist
@shaheenjournal
,
@MaktoobMedia
Dear readers, we just recorded our highest single day traffic and views on our site. 🙏🏽 This week our traffic grew five fold.
Keep reading, and listening, and do take good care of your self.
The paramilitary and police marched across villages of Maliparbat, Odisha, on Jan 5. The police and para-military made announcements about the public hearing for the proposed Maliparbat bauxite mine in the Korapaut district (in clear violation of the Odisha High Court order).
"As a Muslim youth, I am here to express my pain, tell the story of my looted house, send a message of my anger and declare my battle."
Now is a time as good as any to revisit
@SharjeelUsmani
's speech as Elgar Parishad.