STATEMENT REFUTING FALSE ALLEGATIONS ON APSC AND IN SOLIDARITY WITH DR. ANAND TELTUMBDE
Karthik Navayan Battula
We pledge our strong support and solidarity to Prof. Anand Teltumbde who is facing an imminent threat of arrest in connection with the Bhima Koregaon incident on January 1, 2018, an event he has not even attended.
Pune police have presented five fabricated letters to fix him under the plot of ‘Urban Maoist’ and charge him with UAPA but in a very tenuous way. One of the letters written by someone to someone saying that some Anand has taken responsibility of organising Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle which is a blatant lie. APSC was formed by students of IIT Madras without any outside help or guidance on April 14, 2014 with the objectives of:
- initiating debate and discussion within the academic community at IIT Madras on social, economic, political and cultural issues which affect the public at large,
- promoting the thoughts and ideas of Ambedkar, Periyar and other progressive social thinkers and reformers and
- promoting scientific temper and an outlook of science and technology for the people.
During that time Prof. Anand was a professor in the business school at IIT Kharagpur around 1600 km away from IIT Madras campus. Prof. Anand is not even remotely connected with the formation of APSC. APSC is an independent student body recognised by IIT Madras administration, whose registration gets renewed annually. We have been conducting lectures, discussions and demonstrations on social, economic, political, cultural and educational issues of interest to masses and for all our events we have obtained prior approval. All the students, faculty and campus residents who attend our events know that the events are run completely on donations collected from them. We condemn, in strongest possible terms, the police lies against us and other respectable persons including Dr. Anand Teltumbde.
After the Modi government came to power, a severe repression has been unleashed on the student organisations, intellectuals, rationalists and social activists around the country. Those who do not accept the hindutva ideology or the Modi government’s anti-people policies are being threatened or silenced either through the state machineries or otherwise. APSC was the first student group to have faced such an attack which came in the form of its derecognition. The attacks on students by the brahmanical forces have later spread to other institutes such as HCU, JNU, FTII, DU, Punjab university, etc.
After three years of slumber, Delhi police have filed charge sheet against the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University- Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya accusing them of sedition. Similar to the case of Prof. Anand, the charge sheet is filed without any valid evidence. Ex-ABVP members who were office bearers of JNU unit said in a press conference that whatever happened in the campus was a “premeditated attack by the ABVP and the RSS” to shift the focus away from the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula. Now as the general elections are getting closer they are again trying to play the ‘anti-national’ card to distract the public from the failures of this government. These cases will also keep the activists busy and away from mobilizing the people to vote against the government. Prof. Anand, Kanhaiya, Umar and Anirban have said that they will fight the cases legally but when charged with draconian laws like UAPA and sedition, it enables the state to keep them incarcerated for months without bail, where the process itself is the punishment. We appeal to all people who are believers of democracy to rally in support of Prof. Anand Teltumbde and JNU students.
apsc@smail.iitm.ac.in8
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