PROFILES OF THE ACTIVISTS
SUDHA BHARADWAJ: She is best known for her work in Chhattisgarh, where she has lived for 29 years and fought for the rights of mine workers in Bhilai, as a member of late Shankar Guha Niyogi's Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha. She began working with the Mukti Morcha in 1986, after witnessing the abysmal working conditions of labourers in West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh during her stint as a student in IIT Kanpur. A civil rights activist and lawyer, Bharadwaj has also been fighting against land acquisition, and is currently the general secretary of the Chhattisgarh People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL).
SUSAN ABRAHAM: Abraham, a civil rights lawyer, represented many of those arrested during the June raids by the police in connection with the Elgar Parishad event. The wife of activist Vernon Gonzalves, Abraham was born in Kerala to schoolteacher parents and studied in Zambia. She has been part of protests against demonetisation, fake encounters and for workers and women's rights. She has written extensively against the rigourous sentences given to Delhi University professor G.N. Saibaba, activist Prashant Rahi among others, calling it a “misuse of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act”. Her name can be seen in the credits of a film, Court, in which she guided filmmaker Chaitanya Tamhane through the intricacies of the law.
GAUTAM NAVLAKHA: Navlakha has been associated with People's Union for Democratic Rights and is a Delhibased journalist. He is also an editorial consultant of the Economic and Political Weekly. He, along with Sudha Bharadwaj, demanded repeal of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. They said, the Act, passed to regulate the activities of unlawful organisations, has been used by the government to curb extremist activities as opposed to unlawful activities. Navlakha, a frequent traveller to Kashmir Valley for the last two decades, has also written extensively about alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir.
ANAND TELTUMBDE : An engineer, MBA and former CEO, Teltumbde is also a leading scholar and activist for Dalit rights. He has authored books on people's movement particularly about leftist agitations and Dalit rights struggles. He also has a doctorate in cybernetics from Mumbai University. It is no coincidence that he has often argued that reservation for Dalits has, in fact, stigmatised them and consecrated caste in India's polity.
VARAVARA RAO: Rao has been writing poetry since 1957. Founder member of Virasam (Revolutionary Writers' Association), he was arrested in October 1973 under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA). He was released but arrested on more than one occasions between 1975 and 1986 in different cases, including the 1986 Ramnagar conspiracy case in which he was acquitted in 2003 after 17 years.
ARUN FERREIRA: An activist based in Mumbai, Ferreira was claimed to be the leader of the propaganda and communications wing of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) in 2007. He was acquitted of all charges in 2014. In his book, Colours of the Cage: A Prison Memoir, published the same year, Ferreira, recounted the details of his imprisonment of nearly five years.
VERNON GONZALVES: A blog run by his friends describe Vernon Gonzalves as a “leader of the Altar Boys” and “a strong believer of justice, equality & freedom”. A gold medallist from Mumbai University and a former lecturer at Ruparel College and HR College, Gonzalves, security agencies allege, was an excentral committee member and former secretary of Maharashtra State Rajya Committee of Naxalites. He was charged in around 20 cases and has been acquitted due to lack of evidence, after serving six years in jail.