Raids on activists: Modi sarkar would have arrested Gandhi too, says Ramachandra Guha

Author and historian Ramachandra Guha has lashed out at the government over the arrest of several activists across the country.

On Tuesday, Maharashtra police raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them for suspected Maoist links, sparking a chorus of outraged protests from human rights defenders.

The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the violence between Dalits and the upper caste Peshwas at Koregaon-Bhima village near Pune after an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on December 31 last year. 

After simultaneous searches at the residences, prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Farreira in Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad, and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha in New Delhi were arrested.

"As a biographer of Gandhi, I have no doubt that if the Mahatma was alive today, he would don his lawyer's robes and defend Sudha Bharadwaj in court; that is assuming the Modi Sarkar hadn't yet detained and arrested him too," said Guha in a tweet.

Speaking to news Channel, Guha said that he knew some of those arrested and he knew that they 'never themselves preached or practiced violence'.  

"Fascist fangs are now openly bared," tweeted lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

"It is a clear declaration of emergency. They are going after anyone who has spoken against the government on rights issues. They are against any dissent," Bhushan said.

Speaking to PTI, award-winning author Arundhati Roy said the arrests are a dangerous sign of a government that fears it is losing its mandate and is falling into panic. "That lawyers, poets, writers, Dalit rights activists and intellectuals are being arrested on ludicrous charges ... tells us very clearly where India is headed." 

(With agency inputs)