The government is of the opinion that people are gullible enough to believe that social activists are conspiring to create violence. Civil right activists who are working relentlessly for the rights of the oppressed people like Muslims, Christians and Dalits are being called ‘urban Maoists’ in a state-sponsored drive to create hatred and violence against them.

We are increasingly getting sucked into a dangerous situation from which it would be difficult to escape. Anand Teltumbde has been forced to call for public support against his imminent arrest.

It is shameful for any liberal society that a well-known writer and teacher should be forced into such a position, and he himself has to cry out for public support to protect his independence. Alarm bells went off a few days ago when the Supreme Court turned down Teltumbde’s plea that the FIR against him by the Maharashtra Police be quashed.

Earlier, the police had raided his house in his absence and claimed that he was a key person in the ‘urban Maoist’ plot to incite violence against Dalits at Bhima-Koregaon last year.

The police would like us, and the court of law, to believe that writers and teachers like Teltumbde are inciting violence against Dalits. The government wants to sell the ‘urban Maoist’ conspiracy theory to the public. It would also like us to believe that Teltumbde is a part of a larger conspiracy to kill the prime minister.

Also read: ‘Bizarre, Concocted Theories’: The Many Holes in the Case Against Anand Teltumbde

Some of the comments of the court indicate that it is seriously considering the theory being fabricated by the police. This is a matter of grave concern.

The Supreme Court, while rejecting Teltumbde’s plea, said that the scope of the investigation is getting wider and therefore it does not see just reason to reject the FIR. It gave him four weeks to seek bail from a lower court.

A lot has been written about the investigation of the violence in Bhima-Koregaon which has been turned upside down. Those who were initially charged with inciting the violence are now roaming free. What is more, local courts have granted them permission to hold public meetings, and in an exceptional act of generosity, it has allowed them not to be present in the court hearings.

Dalits had accused Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote of conspiring to create violence. Both are closely associated with the Sangh parivar. According to a Mumbai Mirror report, both had a hand in inciting violence. Instead of investigating their role, the police raided the houses of civil right activists across the country.

Also read: Why Are So Many ‘Urban Maoists’ Surfacing All of a Sudden?

The police have also claimed that they have recovered material on a conspiracy to kill the prime minister from the computer of one of the accused. The police would like us to believe that the conspirators would have been careless enough to leave a letter of this kind unprotected. Writing for The Wire, Prem Shanker Jha completely demolished this claim, saying it is in conformity with the police’s routine habit of fabricating proofs.

Moreover, on a matter as serious as a plot to assassinate the prime minister of the country, the Maharashtra Police has been left to do the investigation alone – instead of involving bigger and better equipped national investigative agencies.

Is this conspiracy theory not reminiscent of earlier farfetched ones about the plots to kill Modi when he was the chief minister of Gujarat, which then led to the killings of Muslims in encounters on which Justice Bedi’s report is available?

The move to arrest a writer and intellectual of the stature of Anand Teltumbde is proof of the growing arrogance of those in power. Are we thought to be so gullible to believe that people like Teltumbde, Sudha Bharadwaj, Stan Swamy, Shoma Sen are conspiring to create violence? These are individuals who are working day in and day out for justice and for the rights of our oppressed fellow citizens.

By calling them ‘urban Maoists’, are those in power not inciting unjust violence in an attempt to increase their hold on the country?

That Teltumbde has to speak out for himself is a matter of shame for all of us. For him to be freed in order to write and express himself, it should not be necessary to list his achievements as an intellectual, the number of books that he has written, the long years he has worked in the corporate world, the innumerable occasions on which he has been invited to speak in universities around the world.

He is among the fearless eminent public intellectuals of this country. Above all, an outstanding Dalit intellectual.

It should be sufficient to say that the constitution has given Teltumbde the right to carry on his work and that he should not be deprived of this right on the basis of fabricated falsehood.

This is the moment of truth for all educated people of India, for our universities, research organisations, journals and newspapers. It is also a crucial test for political parties. Will they take a stand and speak up for Teltumbde Or will they allow his voice to drown? For all of us, does democracy merely mean fighting and winning elections devoid of any notion of justice? It is time to prove we are a living society, not a heap of dead flesh.

Apoorvanand teaches at Delhi University.

Translated from the Hindi original by Madhu Bhaduri. You can read the Hindi version here.