MUMBAI/PUNE: Prominent civil society activists and academics condemned Tuesday’s arrests, with some terming them abid to derail the unity of Dalits and the Left emerging against the NDA government. The RSS however supported the police action, saying activities of “anti-nationals” needed to be curbed across India.

Writer Arundhati Roy called the arrests “a dangerous sign of a government that fears it is losing its mandate and is falling into panic.”

In a statement she said, “That lawyers, poets, writers, Dalit rights activists and intellectuals are being arrested on ludicrous charges while those who make up lynch mobs and threaten and murder people in broad daylight roam free, tells us very clearly where India is headed.” Roy warned this was an “attempted coup against the Indian constitution and all the freedoms that we cherish” before the 2019 polls.

While lawyer Mihir Desai felt the action was “nothing else but a fascist attack,” activist Javed Anand said, “It clearly seems politically motivated as some kind of attempt to balance the action taken against Sanatan Sanstha, which according to probe agencies is involved in the assassination of rationalists or secular activists.”

Prakash Ambedkar of Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh said, “BJP-RSS are being shown in bad light due to the Karnataka government’s pressure to arrest those involved in rationalists’ murders. Men have been arrested and bombs found along with details of a terror plot. This was tainting the image of RSS and BJP government.”

A bunch of activists including Teesta Setalvad, Harish Iyer and Umar Khalid issued a statement calling the raids “an attempt by the BJP to invent a false enemy and engage in scaremongering in order to polarize the 2019 elections in its favour.”

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties called the action “unprecedented and unheard of in a democracy” and “a concerted attempt to crush human rights interventions and silence voices of dissent.”

Delhi-based Dalit activist Ashok Bharti said the Left and Dalits coming together was a new beginning. “Government can arrest 35 crore Dalits if it wants to crack down on us. The term urban Naxalism is being used to discredit an urban uprising. Voices supporting Dalits are being targeted,” he said.

Political scientist Suhas Palshikar, however, was of the view that this was “a political crackdown against all strong intellectual opposition. Those who question the government have been warned. It is more sinister than finishing one movement.

It is (a move) to finish independent voices, like the Emergency. And it is a test for the middle class and the last opportunity for BJP’s funders to decide what kind of government they want,” he said.

RSS veteran Aniruddha Deshpande said, “RSS has nothing to do with it (action against activists). Police have taken action. Dragging RSS into it is a political move. They (activists) have been exposed, and people know what kind of people are behind the conspiracy (to incite violence). The conspiracy was being hatched long before Bhima-Koregaon (celebrations).

Now they have threatened the life of the PM. There is evidence. They (activists) are trying to find lame excuses. Their conspiracy is an anti-national one. They are anti-nationals. This movement must be curbed.”

