TSP - Prisoners Voice Platform for International Day Solidarity and Struggle 26th september

 Dear comrades,

We hope you are all doing well! Enclosed you will find the statement on the situation of political prisoners that was written for the 13th September. Sadly we weren't able to forward it earlier, but of course the information remains relevant and urgent!

On this note we also want to inform you about the international action day in solidarity with India on the 26th September. You will find the call for action that was forwarded to us below.

In solidarity,
TSP

September 13^th is Political Prisoners day in India, in memory of Jatin Das, a revolutionary and freedom fighter in the anti-colonial struggle against British rule in India, who was martyred after a 63 day hunger in a British jail on 13^th September, 1929. On this day of great significance for political prisoners in India, we on behalf of the International Solidarity for Political Prisoners, express our solidarity for them and demand the immediate release of all political prisoners in India and demand an end to the repression by the fascist regime led by Narendra Modi of the BJP, which has resulted in thousands of political activists, writers, intellectuals, poets, artists, journalists, lawyers, students and members of mass organizations being imprisoned under political cases.

India, which claims to be the largest democracy in the world, has seen some of the highest level of state repression against people, especially people belonging to indigenous communities, the Adivasis, the lower castes, the Dalits, and from minority communities, mainly Muslims. Millions of Adivasis have been struggling to resist the onslaught of national and multinational mining corporations on their land, forests, water and dignity. Dalits and minorities, especially Muslims, have been targeted by the fascist, Hindu majoritarian policies of the BJP government. The government has tried to annihilate the longstanding revolutionary armed struggle led by the Communist Party of India (Maoist) by the military “Operation Kagar”, which has led to hundreds of militants, the majority of them belonging to Adivasi communities, being killed by security forces and many being imprisoned. Draconian anti-terrorist laws such as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), and other repressive laws such as the National Security Act (NSA) have been used to imprison hundreds of people who have expressed dissent or opposition against the policies of the regime. The situation is such that India has one of the largest number of people accused under anti-terror laws imprisoned in the world. Most of these are undertrial prisoners who have been imprisoned for many years, and for many the trials have not yet even begun after six or seven years. The situation faced by these prisoners in jail are horrible, with many suffering from serious health problems without proper treatment and some like Fr. Stan Swamy even dying in jail, not being allowed to meet with family and friends for prolonged times and often being placed in solitary confinement for long periods. Some of the prisoners who have been released on bail also suffer from serious health issues as a result of repressive conditions in jails and many are suffering severely restrictive bail conditions.

Therefore, on this day we remember and express solidarity with all political prisoners in India… with Surendra Gadling, the people’s lawyer who is imprisoned under the Bhima Koregaon case for the last eight years, with Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, activists who have been falsely accused and imprisoned for the last six years, with Suneeta Pottam and Raghu Midiyami, young Adivasi activists imprisoned for resisting the militarization of Adivasi areas, with Vishal Singh, the documentary film maker, Ajay Kumar, the lawyer and Priyanshu Kashyap, the Adivasi scholar and others imprisoned under the fabricated Lucknow conspiracy case, with Satyam Varma and Akriti Choudhury, organizers imprisoned for supporting workers’ struggles for justice, with our women comrades Kalpana Maity, Thakurmani Hembram, Bellala Padma and Sirisha who are suffering in jail for more than ten years and many others whom we cannot name here, but salute with our internationalist greetings and solidarity.

We consider political prisoners all over the world, from the political prisoners suffering in the prisons of Modi in India, to the Palestinian prisoners suffering in the hellish prisons of Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir in Israel, to the Turkish and Kurdish prisoners in the prisons of Erdogan in Turkey, to political prisoners in Germany, France, UK, USA, in various countries of Latin America to be tied together by the same struggle against imperialism and fascism in various forms. We salute all of them on this day and vow to always hold high their memories as we continue our struggles for the release of all political prisoners.