"if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen
the side of the oppressor." - Desmond Tutu.

IAPI holds emergency meeting, condemns the arrests of five political activists in India Featured

The members of Indians Abroad for Pluralist India have unanimously condemned the arrests of five political activists in India.

In all, ten resolutions were passed at the emergency meeting of the IAPI in Delta on Tuesday evening, August 28.

One of the resolutions condemned the arrests of political activists and raids on the houses of others across India.

Those arrested include revolutionary poet Varavara Rao, Human Rights lawyer Sudha Bhardawaj, besides authors and activists Gautam Navlakha and Arun Ferreira.  Ferreira was arrested and imprisoned in the past too.

The Indian police have arrested these individuals on malicious charges. They are being accused of having links with Maoist insurgents and for being involved in a plot to assassinate Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

IAPI believes that they have been framed to suppress the voice of dissent as they have always stood for the oppressed and marginalized. IAPI has decided to hold a protest rally in Surrey on Friday, August 31.

The IAPI also condemned the recent attack on student activist Umar Khalid in Delhi by supporters of the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party.

Another resolution condemned the opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi’s statement absolving his party from the charge of being involved in 1984 anti-Sikh massacre.

Though IAPI condemned the attack on a visiting Akali leader, Manjit Singh GK, in California by the Sikh separatists, and threats being made to Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu by the Hindu fanatics, it clarified that they do not agree with the bourgeois politics of the two leaders and will continue to oppose their policies that are only good for the elite.

The IAPI also remembered the victims of Kandhmal violence on its tenth anniversary. The Hindu extremists murdered scores of Christians in Orissa in August, 2008. Many of the victims of this violence have migrated to other states, while the perpetrators of the massacre remain unpunished. IAPI demanded the prosecution of those involved.

A resolution was also passed to show solidarity with the people of Kerala who continue to grapple with the crisis caused by massive floods, and to condemn the central government for meting out step-motherly treatment to the state and not doing enough to help those affected.

Other resolutions included condemnation of the declaration of a Jewish state by the Israeli government, and online racist threats being made against South Asian candidates running for city election in Vancouver.  IAPI also welcomed the United Nation’s indictment of Army officers in Myanmar for their involvement in genocide of Rohingya Muslims.

Rate this item
(0 votes)
Super User

Gurpreet Singh

Cofounder and Director of Radical Desi

https://twitter.com/desi_radical?lang=en

Leave a comment

Make sure you enter all the required information, indicated by an asterisk (*). HTML code is not allowed.