FEDCUTA Press Release: August 30, 2018

The FEDCUTA takes note of and condemns the series of raids on and arrests of prominent university teachers,public intellectuals,and civil right activists since yesterday the 28th August 2018. These seem to be an outcome of a shrill,anti democratic and a deliberate misleading political campaign unfortunately aided by a section of media to target individuals and opinions which are not in conformity with the ideological views of the ruling dispensation. This latest move comes with its own conspiracy theories which include a plot to engineer the recent Bhima-Koregaon violence in Maharashtra,plots against the state and a plot to assassinate the Prime Minister Hon. Mr. Narendra Modi.

This spinning of the conspiracy theories is a mere ruse to launch a shameless witch hunt. The following questions posed to Prof. K. Satyanarayana, the Head of the Cultural Studies department and the Dean of School of Inter-Disciplinary Studies at EFL University, Hyderabad and reported in the media exposes the anti-democratic and anti-intellectual ideological character of that witch-hunt:

‘Why are you reading Mao?’
‘Why are you reading Marx?’
‘Why are you having the songs of Gaddar?
‘Why are you keeping the photos of Ambedkar and Phule instead of gods and goddesses?’
‘Why do you want to become an intellectual, why can’t you be happy with the money you are getting?’

The individuals concerned Mr. Gautam Navlakha,Ms. Sudha Bhardwaj, Mr. Varavara Rao, Arun Fereira, Mr. Vernon Gonsalves and others have dedicated their lives towards upholding the rights of marginalised communities, groups and individuals in the course of their work. In a society which has extremely brutalised the marginalised over the years, their work has brought to focus the misery to which the marginalised are subjected to and the need for their upliftment. In no case they have adopted the path of violence and in fact some  of them have been champions of bringing the violent groups such as the Maoists away from violence and making them a part of the mainstream Indian society.In the process they have often engaged with the realm of ideas and ideologies of the marginalised and oppressed and groups like the Maoists to show them the pathways away from violence. Indeed this has meant as the eminent thinker Herbert Marcuse pointed out (in a similar context) an engagement with a closed universe of discourse of violence and its petrified structure towards moving it to open and non-violent directions.

The FEDCUTA wishes the Prime Minister a healthy and long life and demands that such witch hunts be immediately stopped and the detained and arrested activists, teachers and public intellectuals be immediately released. The FEDCUTA also appeals to all the democratic forces in the country to rally around for the release of the arrested and detained and to combat the atmosphere of fear and uncertainty facing the country in the wake of these arrests.

         Rajib Ray                                                                                                           Sonajharia Minz