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PRESS RELEASE
We are releasing a statement in support of Harsh Mander today, June 15, 2020 endorsed by over 170 academicians, activists, artists and intellectuals from across India. From 3pm 16 intellectuals, activists will do facebook lives from their respective facebook profiles/pages in solidarity with Harsh Mander. The list is given at the end of the statement.
STATEMENT
In Solidarity With Harsh Mander
We, the undersigned, condemn the manner in which the Delhi Police has mentioned the name of Harsh Mander and other activists, to concoct a ‘chronology’ and create a false narrative about the Delhi riots, in the chargesheet filed by them on FIR No.- 65/2020 of 26/02/2020.
Harsh Mander is a well known Human Rights Defender, a writer and a social activist. Harsh Mander was a civil servant who resigned from his job in the wake of Gujarat violence in 2002 and came forward to work tirelessly to build bridges of love in our society.
He went on to start initiatives for the under-privileged, and religious minorities among others. He founded Aman Biradari and Karavan-E-Mohabbat. Both initiatives have contributed immensely to the betterment of Indian society.
His current efforts to help the migrant workers, who had to tragically flee our cities in the wake of Corona lockdown, are commendable.
In the wake of the Delhi violence (Feb. 2020), Harsh Mander had filed a petition before the Honorable Supreme Court, related to registering of FIRs against political leaders whose inflammatory speeches triggered the violence resulting in over 50 deaths.
Instead of allowing the court to consider the petition, the Solicitor General of India derailed it, and gave a twist to the episode by arguing that Mr. Mander had in fact been contemptuous of the Honorable Supreme Court, and incited violence in a speech he gave at the Jamia Millia Islamia University on December 16th 2020. That speech, given publically, and video recorded, in fact spoke of love and constitutional rights.
The chargesheet now filed by the police continues this false narrative. Under the head – Brief Facts of the Case – Chronology Of Events Leading To Riots In North-East, Delhi (Point 17. Para 4) it says : ”Mr. Harsh Mander, who visited the site on 16/12/19 and instigated the protestors to not have faith in the Supreme Court and to fight their battle on road to get justice. He, however, used a façade of peace in a part of his speech”.
There cannot be anything more ridiculous than saying Harsh Mander used a “façade of peace.” He has devoted his entire life to the cause of peace and harmony in society.
The core part of his speech called for shunning violence and adopting Gandhian means of non violence in the agitation.
This is what he had said:
“What will be the future of this country – you all are the youth – what sort of country do you want to leave for your kids – where will this decision happen? One, it will happen on the streets, we have come out on the streets, but even beyond the streets, there is another place where this decision will take place. Which is the place in which this fight will eventually be decided? That is in our hearts, in my heart, in your heart, we have to give a response – if they want to fill our hearts with hate, if we respond with hate, hatred will become deeper”.
“If someone is attempting to bring darkness to the country, and we also do the same in order to fight, then the darkness will only become more severe. If there is darkness, then the only way that can be fought is by lighting a lamp. And if there is a huge storm, we will light a lamp against the darkness. The only answer we have to their hate is love. They will resort to violence, they will instigate us to indulge in violence but we will never carry out any violence. You must understand that it is their plan to instigate you towards violence so that when we commit 2% violence, they respond with 100%. We have learnt from Gandhi ji how to respond to violence and injustice. We will fight with non-violence. Anyone who instigates you toward violence or hatred, they are not your friends.”
Surely this speech can go down in history as an elaboration of Gandhian principles in contemporary times. To use this speech to present Harsh Mander as someone instigating violence is utterly deplorable.
It is a deliberate and motivated attempt to implicate an outstanding peace loving , Gandhi follower, an activist par excellence ,who is walking the path of non violence. This is an attempt to target him, perhaps pull him into the police dragnet of false cases, and silence powerful and effective citizen’s voices against hate, divisiveness and for unity and compassion.
We strongly condemn the motivated, compromised investigation and vilification of a person with commitment to a just society, and demand that this is stopped forthwith.
Endorsed by:
- Abha Bhaiya, OBR India coordinator
- Abhijit Sen , Former Member of Planning Commission of India
- Abuzar Choudhary, Social Activist
- Achin Vanaik, Retd. Professor of International Relation, DU
- Aditya Mukherjee, historian, JNU
- Admiral L Ramdas
- Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat
- Air Vice Marshal (retd) Kapil Kak
- Ajaya Kumar Singh, Bhubaneswar
- Anand Chakravarti, Academician, Delhi
- Anand Grover, Advocate
- Anand majgavkar, social activist, Gujarat
- Anjali Hegde, IT professional, Delhi
- Annie Raja, National Secretary, NFIW
- Anu Chenoy, Professor JNU
- Aparna Sen, filmmaker, actress, Kolkata
- Apoorvanand , academician, writer, Delhi
- Aruna Roy, MKSS, Rajasthan
- Arundhati Dhuru, NAPM
- Asha Mishra, social activist
- Ashok Choudhary, AIUFWP
- Ashok Kumar Pandey, poet, writer, Delhi
- Asok Barman, former President of AIFUCTO.
- Atul Sood, Economist, Professor JNU, Delhi
- Rajendra Prasad, Hyderabad
- Badri Raina, author, Delhi
- Balvir Arora, former Rector of JNU and Prof of Political Science
- Biraj Patnaik, Amnesty Internayional’s South Aisa, Director
- Brinda Karat, Polit Bureau Member, CPM
- Brinelle D’souza, Academic and Activist, Mumbai
- Chaman Lal Retd. Professor, JNU and author
- Chayanika Shah, Queer Feminist, Mumbai
- Deepak Kabir , social-cultural activist ,Lucknow
- Dev Desai, social activist, Gujarat
- Dhirendra Panda, Convener, Civil Society Forum on Human Rights, Bhubaneswar
- Dipa Sinha, social activist, Delhi
- Dr Harshvardhan Hedge, orthopedic surgeon, Delhi
- Dr Syeda Hameed, former member, Planning Commission, writer, Delhi
- Dr. R. Mahalakshmi, Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU
- Dr. V.Krishna Ananth, Historian and Journalist
- Dr.Hafiz Ahmed, Guwahati , Assam
- Faisal Khan, Khudai Khidmatgar
- Farah Naqvi, writer & activist, Delhi.
- Fr Cedric Prakash, Human Rights Activist, Gujarat
- Francis Parmar, Anand, Gujarat
- N. Devy, People’s Linguistic Survey of India
- Gauhar Raza, retired scientist, filmmaker, poet, Delhi
- Geeta Kapur, art historian and critic, Delhi
- Geeta Seshu, Co-editor, Free Speech Collective
- George Mathew, social scientist, Delhi
- Githa Hariharan, writer, New Delhi
- Gloria Burrett, Psychotherapist
- Gulammohammed Sheikh, artist, Vadodara
- Hasina khan , activist and researcher, Mumbai
- Himanshu, social activist, Delhi
- Inamul Hasan , Khudai Khidmtgar
- Indira jaising, Lawyers Collective, Delhi
- Indu Prakash Singh, President, Forum against Corruption & Threats (FACT)
- Ira Bhaskar, professor, JNU
- Irfan Engineer, social activist, CSSS, Mumbai
- Jagmati Sangwan, Bheem Awardy, sportswoman, Social Activist, Rohtak
- Janaki Nair, Retd Professor, JNU
- Javed Anis, Bhopal, Social activist & freelance journalist
- Jayati Ghosh, economist, Prof JNU
- Jean Dreze, economist,
- Jignesh Mevani, Gujarat
- Joe Athialy, social activist, Delhi
- John Dayal, journalist, Delhi
- M. Shrimali, former Professor of History, University of Delhi
- Satchidanandan, poet, Kerala
- Kalpana Kannabiran, Council for Social Development, Hyderabad
- Kamal Chenoy, academician, professor JNU
- Kamla Bhasin, feminist activist, Delhi
- Kannan Gopinathan, former civil servant, social activist
- Kavita Srivastava, PUCL, Jaipur
- Kedar Misra, writer, journalist, Bhubaneswar
- Kiran Shaheen, social activist, Delhi
- KP Sasi , filmmaker, Kerala
- Kripal Singh Mandloi , Khudai Khidmtgar
- Kumkum Roy, historian, Delhi
- Lalita Ramdas, peace activist, writer
- Lara Jesani, Advocate, Mumbai
- Lata Singh, JNU
- Laxmi Murthy, Co-Editor, Free Speech Collective
- Leena Dabiru, social activist, Delhi
- LS Hardenia, writer, journalist, Bhopal
- Madan Gopal Singh, academician, musician, Delhi
- Madhuresh Kumar, NAPM
- Mahesh Pandya, Gujarat Social Watch
- Mallika Sarabhai, dancer, artist, Ahmedabad
- Manisha Sethi, Associate Professor, NALSAR
- Manjula Pradeep, Human Rights defender, Gujarat
- Manoranjan Mohanty, Retired Professor of Political Science, University of Delhi
- Mansi Shah, Gujarat
- Mansi Sharma, social activist, Delhi
- Martin Macwan, social activist, Gujarat
- Medha Patkar, Narmada Bachao Andolan
- Meha Khanduri, Human Rights Activist
- Mohd Azam, businessman, Hyderabad
- Mridula Mukherjee, historian, Delhi
- Nandini Sundar, professor DU
- Nandita Das, actor, filmmaker, Mumbai
- Nandita Narain, professor DU
- Naseeruddin Shah, actor, Mumbai
- Navjot, artist, Mumbai
- Nayantara Sahgal, writer, Dehradun
- Neeladri Bhattacharya, historian
- Neera Burra, Sociologist
- Neera Chandhoke, former professor of political science, Delhi University.
- Nikhil Dey, MKSS, Rajasthan
- Nilima Sheikh, artist, Vadodara
- Nivedita Menon, feminist writer and a professor of political thought at JNU
- Pamela Philipose, journalist, Delhi
- Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, journalist
- Prabir Purkayastha, editor of Newsclick.in.
- Pradip Krishen – Writer, New Delhi
- Prafulla Samantara, environmental activist, Bhubaneswar
- Pramod Yadava, former President of JNUTA
- Pravinsinh Jadeja, JDU, Gujarat
- Prof Irfan Habib, historiam, Aligarh
- Prof. Ankur Sarin, IIM Ahmedabad
- Prof. Arun Kumar, economist, retired professor, JNU
- Prof. Hemant Shah, economist, Gujarat
- Prof. Monirul Hussain, Assam
- Prof. Navdeep Mathur, IIM, Ahmedabad
- Prof. Prabhat Patnaik, JNU
- Prof. Raghavan Rangarajan , Ahmedabad
- Prof. Rohit Shukla, academician and economist, Gujarat
- Prof. Shah Alam Khan, Professor, AIIMS, New Delhi
- Prof. Shireen Moosvi, Aligarh
- Prof. Utsa Patnaik, JNU
- Prof. Zoya Hasan, former Dean of the School of Social Sciences (SSS), JNU
- Rajmohan Gandhi, academician, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi
- Rakhi Sehgal, New Delhi
- Ram Puniyani, writer, social activist, Mumbai
- Ramachandra Guha, historian
- Ratna Pathak Shah, Actress, Mumbai
- Rohit Prajapati, social activist, Vadodara
- Romila Thapar, Historian, Professor Emeritus, JNU, New Delhi.
- Ruchira Gupta, journalist, activist
- Sadanand Menon – arts editor, teacher of cultural journalism, Chennai
- Sadhna Arya, DU, Delhi
- Sahba Farooqui, social activist, Delhi
- Saheli, women organisation
- Sandeep Pandey, Socialist Party (India)
- Seema Kurup, Bhopal
- Shabana Azmi, Actress, Mumbai
- Shabnam Hashmi, social activist, Delhi
- Shankar Singh, MKSS, Rajasthan
- Shanta Gokhale, writer, theatre critic
- Shantha Sinha, Former Chairperson NCPCR
- Sohail Hashmi, Writer Film maker, Delhi
- Sucheta Mahajan, Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU
- Sukumar Muralidharan, journalist, Gurgaon
- Sundar Burra (retired civil servant)
- Surajit Mazumdar, professor, JNU
- Sushant Singh, actor, Mumbai
- Uma Chakravarti, feminist historian , writer, Delhi
- Upasana Behar, social activist, Bhopal
- Urmimala Sarkar, Prof JNU
- Uttam Parmar, Kim, Gujarat
- Vibhuti Patel, former Head of Department of Economics at SNDT Women’s Univ
- Vidya Bhushan Rawat, social activist, Delhi
- Vikas Narain Rai, Retd. IPS Officer
- Vivan Sundaram, contemporary artist, Delhi
- Wilfred Dcosta, Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF), New Delhi
- Yogendra Yadav, Swaraj India
- Yogesh Diwan, social activist, Bhopal
The following will do facebook lives at 3pm in Solidarity with Harsh Mander at 3pm
- Aditya Mukherjee – https://www.facebook.com/aditya.mukherjee.1029
- Deepak Kabir – https://www.facebook.com/deepak.kabir
- Fr Cedric Prakash – https://www.facebook.com/cedric.prakash
- Gauhar Raza – https://www.facebook.com/GauharRaza2020/
- Hemant Shah – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008214734262
- Javed Anis – https://www.facebook.com/javed.anis
- Jignesh Mevani – https://www.facebook.com/jigneshmevaniofficial/
- John Dayal – https://www.facebook.com/whattgeh
- KP Sasi – https://www.facebook.com/kpsasi36
- Mallika Sarabhai – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=664236366
- Mridula Mukherjee – https://www.facebook.com/aditya.mukherjee.1029
- Prafulla Samantara – https://www.facebook.com/prafulla.samantara
- Ram Puniyani – https://www.facebook.com/rampuniyani1945/
- Shabnam Hashmi – https://www.facebook.com/shabnamhashmi
- Syeda Hameed – https://www.facebook.com/anhadspaces
- Uttam Parmar – https://www.facebook.com/uttambhai.parmar.14
Released By ANHAD
Mob: 9811807558[:]
