Retired justices BG Kolse-Patil and PB Sawant, who were the “main organisers and sole funders” of the Elgaar Parishad event in Pune on December 31, 2017, accused the Narendra Modi government of hatching a conspiracy “to silence its critics by arresting activists who have spoken out against the excesses of the state,” reported Scroll.
Retired High Court judge Kolse-Patil told the Scroll, “We have openly been saying this from the beginning. We organised Elgaar Parishad with the simple motive of spreading the message of fighting communal forces.”
He added, “Most of the activists arrested in the case had absolutely nothing to do with the Elgaar Parishad..But yes, we openly tell people we are leftist, and those who have been arrested more or less share our ideology. They are rational thinkers.”
A team of police officials raided the houses of several human rights activists and public intellectuals across the country. Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Varavara Rao were arrested.
The Supreme Court on August 30, ordered the Maharashtra police that the activists be kept under house arrest till September 6.
Justice Kolse-Patil said that the Elgaar Parishad event was not the first of its kind that the duo had organised. “We had organised a similar event in October 2015, at the same venue of Shaniwar Wada in Pune,” said Kolse-Patil. The programme was titled RSS-mukt Bharat, or RSS-free India.
Sawant and Kolse-Patil chose December 31st for the event as lakhs of Dalits were to gather for the celebration of 200th anniversary of an 1818 battle in Bhima Koregaon.
Justice Sawant added, “‘Elgaar’ means loud invitation or loud declaration, and our main theme was to save the Constitution and the nation. The right-wing forces do not accept our present Constitution. They believe neither in democracy, nor socialism nor secularism.”
Justice Kolse-Patil, who retired form the High Court 1990, has been campaigning for the rights of the marginalised for over 28 years. Justice Sawant gave up his position at the Supreme Court in 1995 to work as a social activist.
The duo believes that the Narendra Modi-led BJP government is trying to silence those who speak against the government or are ‘critical of Hindutva groups’.
Sawant told the Scroll, “All those who criticise or oppose the present regime have to be silenced, which can be done by manoeuvring their arrests. All this is being done in preparation for the 2019 election. I do not see any other motive behind this.”
Sawant declared that the current situation in India is that of a “backdoor emergency”. “At least Indira Gandhi declared an Emergency as per the provisions of the law,” Sawant said. “This government cannot do it because they were the strongest critics of the Emergency at that time.”
Sawant added, “What is happening today is worse, because people – particularly minorities and Dalits – are being killed. Hindutva groups are at large, committing any number of grave offences, and yet they are not arrested. This shows the complicity of the state.”
Commenting on why the investigating authorities have not questioned or arrested them both even after publicly claiming to be the organisers of the event, Sawant said, “They have not gone after us because they know it will not sustain their current charge that this event was organised by Maoists.”