[WSMDiscuss] Fwd: Dr. ANAND TELTUMBDE’S ARREST ON AMBEDKAR JAYANTI : A NATIONAL SHAME

Tue Apr 14 16:09:55 CEST 2020

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Dalits in movement…, India in movement…, Justice in movement…

[Today, April 14, is ‘Ambedkar Jayanti’, the birth day of Dr B R Ambedkar, who was “an Indian jurist <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurist>, economist <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economist>, politician <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politician> and social reformer <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Reformer> who inspired the Dalit Buddhist movement <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit_Buddhist_movement> and campaigned against social discrimination <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination> towards the untouchables <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untouchability> (Dalits <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit>). He was independent India's first law and justice minister <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Law_and_Justice_(India)>, [and] the major architect of the Constitution of India <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_India>.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._R._Ambedkar <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._R._Ambedkar>).  In a huge irony, it is on this day, the 129th anniversary of Dr Ambedkar’s birth, that one of the outstanding public intellectuals who has written widely on the conditions and struggles of Dalits, and who – I understand – is himself a Dalit, Dr Anand Teltumbde, has, along with another outstanding public intellectual Gautam Navlakha, been ordered by the judges of the Supreme Court of India to surrender to the jail authorities after dismissing their appeal.  By this time of writing they will have done so.  Here is a statement by a range of Dalit leaders in India.

[Below, see also Open Letters from Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha :

Dr Anand Teltumbde’s Arrest on Ambedkar Jayanti : A National Shame

            In solidarity,

            JS

fwd

> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: "vidhya" <workvidhyawork at gmail.com>
> Subject: [pmarc] Dr. ANAND TELTUMBDE’S ARREST ON AMBEDKAR JAYANTI: A NATIONAL SHAME
> Date: April 13, 2020 at 8:35:55 PM EDT
> To: "Dalits Media Watch" <PMARC at dgroups.org>
> Reply-To: "Dalits Media Watch" <PMARC at dgroups.org>

Dr. ANAND TELTUMBDE’S ARREST ON AMBEDKAR JAYANTI: A NATIONAL SHAME

Jai Bhim! 

Coinciding with the upcoming Ambedkar Jayanti, Dr. Anand Teltumbde, one of India’s foremost public intellectuals and the strongest legatee of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s tradition of struggling for a truly democratic India, will be complying with the Supreme Court’s order to surrender to the jail authorities. He will be surrendering on the 14th April 2020, between 12 noon - 2 pm at the Sessions Court in Mumbai. This is both tragic and shameful for all Dalits, Adivasis, OBC, and minorities on many counts for all of India. 

It marks a day

- on which this country will celebrate the 129th birth anniversary of one of its greatest minds and hearts, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and on which the mighty nationalist machinery seeks to crush the spirit that kept the flame of democracy alive in our midst;

- when even very repressive regimes around the world are releasing  political prisoners in the face of the Corona virus, great minds like Dr. Teltumbde are incarcerated;

- when we allow the Constitutional rights of such a person like Dr. Teltumbde to be sidelined;

- when the arrest of Dr. Teltumbde will be an obnoxious warning of the casteist Manuvadi regime to Dalit, Adivasi, OBC and minority intellectuals not to raise their voices of protest.

This arrest reveals India’s deeply entrenched casteism for a ‘crime’ Dr. Teltumbde has not committed and for which no proof has been produced.

We, the undersigned, call upon the Dalit, Adivasi, OBC, and minority leadership to stand up and seek justice in the finest of traditions that Babasaheb has bequeathed to us. As Dr. Teltumbde writes in his latest book The Republic of Caste, “The wrath of the wretched scares the world.“ It becomes our duty to come together at this hour and demand that the Indian authorities allow Dr. Teltumbde to live and write, to be a free spirit that enlivens our democratic selves, and remain the beacon that he is for educating, organizing, and agitating for a better India and a better world.

Let’s unite in the name of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Jai Bhim!

Signatories:

Dr. THOL THIRUMAVALAVAN, MP
Founder-President, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi

D. RAJA, MP (Rajya Sabha)
General Secretary, Communist Party of India

JIGNESH MEVANI, Independent MLA
Vadgam (Gujarat)

Dr. UDIT RAJ, Ex-MP
Indian National Congress

PRAKASH AMBEDKAR, Ex-MP
Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi

D. RAVIKUMAR, MP
General Secretary, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi

VINAY RATAN SINGH
National President, Bhim Army Bharat Ekta Mission

NAUSAD SOLANKI, MLA, Gujarat
Indian National Congress

Prof. Dr. SUJATHA SUREPALLY
Convenor, Bahujan Resistance Forum, Telangana

Dr. RAJKUMAR CHABBEWAL, MLA (Hoshiyarpur, Punjab)
Indian National Congress

Anand Teltumbde, April 2020 – ‘Jai Bhim, Lal Salaam ! Anand Teltumbde to the people of India’, on Kafila, April 14 2020 at https://kafila.online/2020/04/14/jai-bhim-lal-salam-anand-teltumbde-writes-to-the-people-of-india/ <https://kafila.online/2020/04/14/jai-bhim-lal-salam-anand-teltumbde-writes-to-the-people-of-india/>
Gautam Navlakha, April 2020 – ‘Jai Bhim, Lal Salaam ! Gautam Navlakha to the people of India’, on Kafila, April 14 2020 at https://kafila.online/2020/04/14/jai-bhim-lal-salaam-gautam-navlakha-to-the-people-of-india/ <https://kafila.online/2020/04/14/jai-bhim-lal-salaam-gautam-navlakha-to-the-people-of-india/>
____________________________

Jai Sen

Independent researcher, editor; Senior Fellow at the School of International Development and Globalisation Studies at the University of Ottawa

jai.sen at cacim.net <mailto:jai.sen at cacim.net>
Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded and unsurrendered Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900) 

CURRENT / RECENT publications :

Jai Sen, ed, 2018a – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/>
Jai Sen, ed, 2018b – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ? (Indian edition). New Delhi : AuthorsUpfront, in collaboration with OpenWord and PM Press.  Hard copy available at MOM1AmazonIN <https://www.amazon.in/dp/9387280101/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522884070&sr=8-2&keywords=movements+of+movements+jai+sen>, MOM1Flipkart <https://www.flipkart.com/the-movements-of-movements/p/itmf3zg7h79ecpgj?pid=9789387280106&lid=LSTBOK9789387280106NBA1CH&marketplace=FLIPKART&srno=s_1_1&otracker=search&fm=SEARCH&iid=ff35b702-e6a8-4423-b014-16c84f6f0092.9789387280106.SEARCH&ppt=Search%20Page>, and MOM1AUpFront <http://www.authorsupfront.com/movements.htm>
Jai Sen, ed, 2017 – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?.  New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press.  Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/>
SUBSCRIBE TO World Social Movement Discuss, an open, unmoderated, and self-organising forum on social and political movement at any level (local, national, regional, and global).  To subscribe, simply send an empty email to wsm-discuss-subscribe at lists.openspaceforum.net <mailto:wsm-discuss-subscribe at lists.openspaceforum.net>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.openspaceforum.net/pipermail/wsm-discuss/attachments/20200414/318c1306/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: DalitLeaders_Press Release.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 103917 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.openspaceforum.net/pipermail/wsm-discuss/attachments/20200414/318c1306/attachment.pdf>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.openspaceforum.net/pipermail/wsm-discuss/attachments/20200414/318c1306/attachment-0001.htm>