[Marxistindia] Condemn These Arrests

[news from the cpi(m)]

September 14, 2020

Press Statement

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued  
the following statement:

Condemn These Arrests

The arrest of Umar Khalid under the provisions of the draconian UAPA  
is condemnable. This comes following the detention, under UAPA, of  
Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita (JNU), Ishrat Jahan, a former  
Councillor of the Congress Party, Jamia students Meeran Haider also an  
RJD youth leader, Asif Tanha, Safoora Zagar and Gulfisha Fatima and  
Shifr-ul-Rehman.

Top BJP leaders who made hate speeches and incited violence are  
protected by the Central Government, while young peaceful protesters  
against the CAA are being targeted and arrested citing the utterly  
manufactured version of the country’s Home Ministry and the Delhi  
Police linking anti-CAA protests with communal violence. The Central  
Government must stop the practice of the Special Branch summoning  
anti-CAA activists for questioning and trying to coerce them into  
implicating those targeted by the Home Ministry and the Police.

The use of UAPA is to block the normal processes of justice by which  
they would have been out on bail since, as many of the lower courts  
have mentioned, there is not a shred of evidence against any of them  
for inciting violence. The arrests constitute an assault on the  
constitutional guarantees of the democratic right to dissent.

The CPI(M) has opposed the CAA-NRC-NPR from the beginning both in  
Parliament and outside in multiple protests throughout the country. It  
reiterates its strong opposition. It expresses its solidarity with all  
those facing the repression of the Central Government. It demands the  
release of all those arrested under UAPA in the Delhi communal  
violence case.

Recent developments point to the urgent necessity of an independent  
investigation, under a retired judge, into the causes of the violence  
as against the biased investigation being conducted by the Delhi  
police under Union Home Ministry’s guidance.



For CPI(M) Central Committee Office