The following statement was issued by the CAMPAIGN AGAINST STATE REPRESSION (CASR) yesterday, 14 December 2023

It has come to light that the police have slapped the draconian UAPA on Neelam Verma, Sagar Sharma, Manoranjan D, Amol Shinde, and Vishal Sharma, the five persons held for releasing gas canisters in both the outside premises and inside the Lok Sabha mid-session on 13th December. The Indian state is treating this incident as a ‘terror attack’ and is charging these five individuals under the draconian anti-terror laws. It’s pertinent to point out that all four individuals committed the act as a form of political protest and exploding harmless coloured gas canisters is part of their protest, not an act “terror.” Sagar Sharma is an e-rickshaw driver and the son of a carpenter, Amol Shinde comes from a family of Dalit landless peasants unable to get a job in the Indian armed forces while Neelam Verma and Manoranjan D are MPhil and Engineering degree holders respectively who are both unemployed, with Neelam even cleared the Haryana Teacher Eligibility Test but still not landing a job. Vishal Sharma has also been roped into this case after he provided shelter to the four individuals and was not even involved in the act. Lalit Ojha, a sixth accused and also an unemployed youth is yet to be brought into police custody but has been charged. The political protest of these individuals against the Indian state and its brahmanical Hindutva fascist nature represents the angst of the working class, the peasantry, the academics and the middle class, all of whom are bearing the brunt of the BJP’s Hindutva-corporate nexus politics. The protest slogans raised by the four were slogans of both patriotism towards the people of India as well as dissent against the dictatorial politics of the ruling class.