South Asia Citizens Web

We, feminists in India, strongly condemn the murder of George Floyd, an African-American, by a white officer of the Minneapolis Police Department, and express our deep solidarity with the people’s resistance against police violence presently raging in the US and many other parts of the world.

With the surrenders of Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha on April 14, 2020 in Mumbai and Delhi respectively, the NIA, the investigative agency, has ensured the arrest of all 11 prominent human rights activists in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case under the draconian UAPA. The recent rejection of the bail applications of Varavara Rao, Anand Teltumbde, Shoma Sen and Sudha Bharadwaj, and the sudden transfer of Gautam Navlakha by the NIA, raise significant questions about the rights of political prisoners amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The institution of state-wise High Powered Committees with the mandate to ensure safety of prisoners and their recommendation to exclude temporary bail for those who are held under UAPA, and other serious laws and penal provisions, adds to these concerns.

May 30, 2020​: The Women’s Action Forum (WAF) condemns the assault on Uzma Khan and her sister which became public knowledge when videos of the incident were wrongfully shared and spread over social media. Since then, as has now become the norm, based on presumptions, public discourse has descended into moral policing, character assassination and slut-shaming, rather than condemnation of the assault and sexualized harassment and threats. Justifications for what motivated this, marital, class or political privilege do not excuse criminal assault. Concerning also are calls for zina charges to be filed.

... The abrupt and unplanned lockdown with just four hours notice has imposed further inhuman miseries on the vast majority of our people. The plight of the migrants who continue to be tormented, anguished and keep losing lives through hunger, exhaustion and accidents is unbearable. The lockdown has neither strengthened our capacities to combat the pandemic nor has it provided any required relief to the people to survive in these conditions. ...

Badnam Basti’s fate is as chequered as its history. The 1971 Hindi film considered as India’s first movie depicting a homosexual relationship and thought to be lost, has emerged after 49 years of hiding in an archive in Berlin. It is one year short of celebrating half a century of obscurity.