February 22, 2020

This note was received from Manikranth Ch, a second-year student at Hindu College, Delhi University – ed.

“If filling my pen with the tears of Telangana people is treason, then i am prepared for such treason.” ­ – Dr. C Kaseem

Crackdown on intellectuals and rights activists, fake encounters by the police are very usual in the state of Telangana. The current anti-people Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) led government is following the age old textbook rules of previous governments of unbifurcated Andhra Pradesh to suppress the pro-people dissent. The recent crackdown on various people’s organisations in Telangana started in mid-October. Almost everybody were charged under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or the UAPA.

City Police commissioner of Hyderabad in a press conference issued a statement claiming that 23 organisations including Civil Liberties Committee, Telangana Praja Front (Telangana People’s Front), Telangana Vidyarthi Vedika (TVV) , Chaitanya Mahila Sangham ( CMS), Tudum Debba ( Adivasi rights organisation), Kula Nirmulana Porata Samithi (KNPS – organisation working for the annihilation of caste) are frontal organisations of the banned Communist Party of India – Maoist.

All these organisations are vocal against the anti-people policies of the state and central government. It is very evident that these organisations questioned the atrocities on adivasis, dalits, women and oppressed minorities.

Very recently, the Telangana police charged Prof. C Kaseem with UAPA. Dr. Kaseem teaches at the Telugu Department of Osmania University in Hyderabad. He was elected as the General Secretary of Viplava Rachaithala Sangam – VIRASAM (Revolutionary Writers Association) just a week before of his arrest. It is not so surprising that the Osmania University administration suspended him even though the accusations on him were not proven by the court yet.

Dr. C Kaseem was at the forefront during the agitation for Telangana State. He was one among those who aspired for a Prajaswamyika Telangana (Democratic Telangana). People of Telangana always raised their voice against the unjust system and aspired for a just and new democratic society But, in turn, the Brahmanical-Hindutva forces led Telangana government always tries hard to prove that they are more fascist than the Central Government led by Bharatiya Janata Party.

Prof. Kaseem, coming from a Dalit social background challenged Brahminism in the university spaces. He relentlessly fought against casteism and exposed the Hindu Upper Casteism, exclusion faced by students and teachers coming from the Dalit, Adivasi and various other socially and economically marginalised sections of our society in his collection of essays titled ‘Academic Untouchability’.

Prof. Kaseem was charged under various cases prior to this. He was charged with many cases during the agitation for separate state of Telangana. He was unapologetic about his activism. When the new phase of witch-hunt on activists and intellectuals started in Telangana, Dr.Kaseem raised his voice when his fellow comrades charged under false cases. The Hindutva fascist forces in Telangana could not digest Prof. Kaseem working for and among the marginalised sections of this society.

In totality, the crackdown on rights activists and intellectuals is not just limited to Telangana. From Kashmir to Manipur and Kerala to Bastar, all democratic and progressive forces are being monitored and charged with false cases by the Brahmanical Hindutva Fascists led governments.The attempts to crackdown on rights activists, intellectuals and students is just to delegitimize the peoples movements happening all over the country.

The Brahminical Hindutva fascists are constantly trying to crush the protests happening all over the country in regard with CAA-NRC-NPR. At the same time, the opportunists are trying hard to hegemonise the people’s movement in order to cater their dirty vote bank politics. All these elements urge people to be Non-violent when the state sponsored terror is being unleashed on Muslim Minorities and students in various universities. This even when to a stage where physical retaliation by the aggrieved is called as ‘violence’.

It is high time that we need to recognise the stands of these opportunistic, anti-revolutionary elements on the question of Right to self-determination of Kashmir and Manipur, the crackdown unleashed by paramilitary forces on Adivasis to drive away from their land for catering corporates, violence in the name of caste, class, religion and gender.

The ruling class is afraid of the idea which shakes their roots. They are afraid of a society which people like G N Saibaba, S A R Geelani, Varavara Rao, Kaseem and many others envisaged for. They are afraid of People. They are afraid of a new democratic society where there would be no exploitation.

All the undemocratic laws bought by the Hindutva Fascists must be outrightly opposed. It is necessary for all the democratic and progressive forces to unite and fight against the state sponsored violence.

The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.