Nawanshahr:- In a press statement issued here today, the conveners of the Anti-Operation Green Hunt Democratic Front Punjab, Dr. Parminder Singh, Professor A.K. Maleri, Buta Singh Mahmudpur and Yashpal Chandigarh, have strongly condemned the raid conducted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on the house of physiotherapist Naresh. Naresh is an ex-student activist from Haryana, who has been associated with Chhatra Ekta Manch and is currently working as a physiotherapist.
The leaders said that in the past years, a “Lucknow Conspiracy Case” has been fabricated on the lines of the Bhima-Koregaon Conspiracy Case and this narrative has been propagated that the Maoist movement is being revived in North India. On this pretext, raids are being carried out at the homes of various personalities who raise their voice for people’s rights and organise people.
For the past several months, this fake case has been used to target several student activists—most of whom have been at the forefront of democratic movements, campus rights and people’s struggles. Several students’ homes have been raided in UP, Haryana, Delhi and other areas, summons are being sent to them for questioning and there are reports of their personal devices – mobiles, laptops, pen drives etc. – being seized. The raid on Naresh’s house is part of this larger oppressive pattern.
Without transparency and without giving any clear reason, such actions by the agency create fear of the government among the people and are a direct attack on their fundamental rights to organise, express disagreement with the policies of the government and participate in the democratic process. This is actually a conspiracy to silence democratic voices by intimidating them so that no one dares to raise their voice against the anti-people policies of the BJP.
This is being done under the political agenda of the ruling BJP to silence all those who oppose and expose the divisive communal ideology and corporate-friendly economic policies of the RSS-BJP. They demanded that the harassment of Naresh and all the students and activists being targeted under the so-called “Lucknow Conspiracy Case” should stop.
The investigating agencies should stop being tools of the government and creating fear and terror. If there is any allegation against a person, then instead of conducting arbitrary raids against him, he should be investigated under constitutional rights and legal procedures; the National Investigation Agency for repression and government terror should be dissolved.