All the leaders of Popular Front of India and Social Democratic Party of India who have been unjustly arrested by the NIA be released unconditionally and immediately, demanded prominent religious leaders and human rights defenders in the country.
“The raids and arrests are ill motivated and an attempt to silence the dissenting voices against fascism,” read a joint statement by people include Dr. Suresh Khairnar, convenor of All India Secular Forum, Syed Sarwar Chisthy, Gaddi Nashin Khadim of Dargah Ajmer Sharrif , and Rajratna Ambedkar, president of the Buddhist Society of India.
Read the full text of statement here:
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a joint raid at the offices of Popular Front of India and residences of its leaders across the country have arrested more than 100 top leaders of Popular Front and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).
The raids and arrests are ill motivated and an attempt to silence the dissenting voices against fascism. The RSS driven regime at the centre has succeeded in silencing most of the mainstream opposition parties through the chathurupaaya Saama, Daama, Bheda, Dhanda. The RSS is pretty convinced that neither the Popular Front nor the SDPI could be brought into line with the first three approaches, and hence they are now resorting to the fourth approach of Dhanda. The latest raids and arrests are part of this strategy.
Both Popular Front and SDPI are organisations that work legally in the country, and they are not proscribed organisations. Apart from the continual allegations of the fascist regime that these two organisations are involved in anti-national activities with foreign funding, it has not succeeded in proving any of these allegations to date. It is the uncompromising stand of these organisations against the extreme right-wing fascism that makes these organisations a thorn in the flush of the Sangh Parivar.
The Sangh Parivar regime is afraid of any dissenting voice. And so, they are trying to intimidate such groups from mobilising people and stifle their voice against fascism. Many raids held in the past several years at the offices of these organisations and the residences of the leaders have proved to be futile, as the regime has failed to find out any incriminating evidences against the organisations or its leaders in the raids.
The country is in the grip of an undeclared emergency under the tyrannical regime. The warning of the global experts on genocide that India is on the verge of an imminent Muslim genocide is live in the atmosphere. The regime is endorsing this warning by targetting the most active anti-RSS orgnisations in the country and trying to curtail their activities. In this context, it has become the duty of every Indian citizen who loves the country and wants the country to maintain its characteristic of unity in diversity to oppose and defeat the extreme right-wing Hindutva fascism.
As part of this endeavour of resisting the fascist excesses, we the undersigned demand that all the leaders of Popular Front of India and Social Democratic Party of India who have been unjustly arrested by the NIA be released unconditionally and immediately.
